The 2026/27 UEFA Champions League league phase draw will take place today, Thursday, August 27, with 36 clubs set to discover their opponents for the first stage of the competition.
The draw will be held at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco from 18:00 CET, with the ceremony determining the eight opponents each club will face in the expanded league phase. The draw will be streamed live on UEFA.com and UEFA.tv.
The 36 teams have been divided into four pots of nine according to their UEFA club coefficient rankings at the start of the season, with the reigning Champions League holders occupying the top position in Pot 1. Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Manchester City, Arsenal, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid make up the first pot.
Each club will be drawn against two teams from each pot, giving every side four home matches and four away fixtures.
In principle, clubs from the same association cannot meet in the league phase, while no team can face more than two clubs from another association. UEFA can adjust the conditions where necessary to avoid deadlock in the draw.
The draw will combine physical and digital elements. A ball will be manually selected to determine the team being processed, after which UEFA’s automated software will identify eight valid opponents and allocate home and away fixtures while respecting the competition’s restrictions. The entire process will be reviewed by an independent external auditor.
The league phase will produce 144 matches across eight matchdays, beginning from September 8-10, 2026. The remaining matchdays are scheduled for October 13-14, October 20-21, November 3-4, November 24-25, December 8-9, January 19-20, 2027, and January 27, 2027.
Pot 2 contains Borussia Dortmund, Roma, Sporting CP, Aston Villa, Porto, Manchester United, Club Brugge, Real Betis and PSV Eindhoven, while Pot 3 has Feyenoord, Lille, Bodø/Glimt, Napoli, RB Leipzig, Villarreal, Fenerbahçe, Shakhtar Donetsk and Galatasaray.
The fourth pot features Slavia Prague, Slovan Bratislava, Stuttgart, AEK Athens, LASK, Como, Lens, Viking and Sabah. The composition creates the possibility of several high-profile encounters, although the exact pairings will only become known as the draw progresses.
Matches will be played at 18:45 and 21:00 CET, while UEFA will determine which fixtures are played on each matchday. The governing body will also seek to ensure that clubs do not have more than two consecutive home or away matches and that each team has one home and one away fixture across both the opening and final two matchdays, subject to possible adjustments.
Star-Studded Pots Promise Major Early Clashes
The full Champions League fixture list, including dates and kick-off times, will be announced no later than Saturday, August 29.
The league phase will determine the teams advancing to the knockout rounds. The top eight finishers qualify directly for the round of 16, while teams finishing ninth to 24th enter the knockout phase play-offs. Clubs finishing 25th or lower will be eliminated from the competition.
The Champions League final is scheduled for June 5, 2027, at the Estadio Metropolitano in Madrid.
Europa League and Conference League Draws
The UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League league phase draws will follow on Friday, August 28, with both ceremonies scheduled to begin from 13:00 CET in Monaco.
The Europa League draw will also feature 36 clubs, with each team set to face eight opponents, while the Conference League will have 36 teams playing six league-phase matches each.
The Europa League league phase begins on September 16, while the Conference League gets underway on October 15.
With the three draws taking place across Thursday and Friday, the European club competition landscape for the 2026/27 season will be largely established by the end of the week.
READ ALSO: AISS Director Backs Asamoah Boateng For NPP Chairmanship
