When is the Champions League draw and who is in each pot?

The league phase draw for the 2026-27 Champions League campaign takes place on Thursday, 27 August at 17:00 BST in Monaco.

A total of 36 teams will enter that stage of the competition and while 29 teams qualified at the end of last season, the remaining seven places are decided by qualifiers that will conclude next week.

In the league phase, each team will face eight different teams once, with four home matches and four away matches.

For the draw, the 36 teams will be placed into four pots with one being the highest-ranked and four being the lowest. The pot placements are based on the club's Uefa club coefficient ranking from the five-season period ending at the conclusion of 2025-26.

Each team will face two teams from each of the four pots and cannot face a team from the same country as themselves.

The teams who finish in the top eight will qualify for the Champions League's round of 16. Those between ninth and 24th will enter the play-off knockout round. The 12 teams ranked between 25th and 36th will exit the competition when the league phase is concluded.

While the final seven spots in the league phase of the 2026-27 Champions League are yet to be decided, the other 29 teams are confirmed. The majority of those 29 already know which pot they will be in.

The nine teams in each of the first two pots are confirmed.

Premier League clubs Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal all feature in pot one alongside back-to-back Champions League winners Paris St-Germain, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.

Aston Villa and Manchester United both return to the Champions League this season after not featuring last term. They are in pot two with Borussia Dortmund, Roma, Sporting, Porto, Club Brugge, Real Betis and PSV Eindhoven.

With the remaining places up for grabs split across pots three and four, some teams do still have uncertainty as to which pot they could end up in.

Feyenoord, Lille, Napoli, RB Leipzig, Villarreal, Shakhtar Donetsk and Galatasaray are all guaranteed to enter the draw in pot three.

The winners of the play-off knockout round match between Fenerbahce and Lyon are also guaranteed to enter pot three.

VfB Stuttgart, Como and Lens are all guaranteed to enter in pot four. The winners of the qualifying ties between Levski Sofia and AEK Athens, Slovan Bratislava and Celje, and Hapoel Be'er Sheva and Sabah, will follow them into that pot.

The final four spots are contested between the ties involving NEC Nijmegen and Bodo/Glimt, Dinamo Zagreb and Viking, Celtic and LASK, as well as Slavia Prague.

Bodo/Glimt will take the one spot remaining in pot three, should they beat NEC Nijmegen. If that happens, Slavia Prague and the winners of the other two qualifying ties will all enter the draw in pot four.

If NEC Nijmegen win, Dinamo Zagreb would have the next best club coefficient rating. For them to enter pot three, they need Bodo/Glimt to lose and for themselves to get past Viking.

While Celtic and Slavia Prague are level on their five-year and last season's club coefficient ratings, Celtic scored more ratings points than Slavia Prague in the 2024-25 term. If Celtic beat LASK and Bodo/Glimt and Dinamo Zagreb both lose, they will take the final pot three spot.

If Bodo/Glimt, Dinamo Zagreb and Celtic all lose, the final pot four place will go to Slavia Prague.

Pot 1

• Paris St-Germain (France)
• Bayern Munich (Germany)
• Real Madrid (Spain)
• Liverpool (England)
• Inter Milan (Italy)
• Manchester City (England)
• Arsenal (England)
• Barcelona (Spain)
• Atletico Madrid (Spain)

Pot 2

• Borussia Dortmund (Germany)
• Roma (Italy)
• Sporting (Portugal)
• Aston Villa (England)
• Porto (Portugal)
• Manchester United (England)
• Club Brugge (Belgium)
• Real Betis (Spain)
• PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands)

Pot 3

• Feyenoord (Netherlands)
• Lille (France)
• Napoli (Italy)
• RB Leipzig (Germany)
• Villarreal (Spain)
• Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine)
• Galatasaray (Turkey)
• Winner of Fenerbahce (Turkey) vs Lyon (France)

Pot 3 or 4

• Winner of NEC Nijmegen (Netherlands) vs Bodo/Glimt (Norway)
• Winner of Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) vs Viking (Norway)
• Winner of Celtic (Scotland) vs LASK (Austria)
• Slavia Prague (Czech Republic)

Pot 4

• Winner of Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) vs Celje (Slovenia)
• VfB Stuttgart (Germany)
• Winner of Levski Sofia (Bulgaria) vs AEK Athens (Greece)
• Como (Italy)
• Lens (France)
• Winner of Hapoel Be'er Sheva (Israel) vs Sabah (Azerbaijan)

This article is the latest from BBC Sport's Ask Me Anything team.

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