Champions League 2026-27: League Phase Draw Set for August 27 in Monaco

The calendar waits for no one: in just a few days, 36 clubs will learn the road they must travel if they hope to lift the next Champions League trophy. The draw for the 2026-27 league phase takes place on Thursday, August 27 at midday Eastern time (10:00 a.m. in Mexico City) at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, where the fate of every club for the coming months will be settled, pot by pot.

The backdrop is anything but ordinary. Paris Saint-Germain arrives as the reigning champion with an eye on a third consecutive title, a feat that feels almost unthinkable in the modern game. Standing in their way is a pack of hungry contenders, with Arsenal, Barcelona and Bayern Munich among those looking to dethrone them.

Of the 36 qualified sides, 29 are already confirmed. The list includes five English clubs (Aston Villa, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool), four Italian sides (Inter, Napoli, Roma and newcomer Como), five Spanish clubs (Barcelona, Real Madrid, Villarreal, Atletico Madrid and Real Betis) and four German sides (Bayern, Dortmund, RB Leipzig and Stuttgart). France adds three (PSG, Lens and Lille), while the remaining spots go to PSV, Feyenoord, Porto, Sporting, Club Brugge, Slavia Prague, Galatasaray and Shakhtar Donetsk. The final seven spots will be decided in the qualifying rounds that wrap up this Wednesday.

How the puzzle comes together

Teams are split into four pots based on their UEFA coefficient over the last five seasons. PSG, as the defending champion, earned an automatic spot in Pot 1 regardless of coefficient. Once the pots are set, the draw pulls out, one by one, each team's opponents: two from each pot, for a total of eight matches per club (four at home and four away). One rule never changes: no team can face another club from its own country, so Arsenal, for instance, will not cross paths with Manchester City or Liverpool in this phase.

Once the eight matches are played, every team lands in a single combined table. That's where everything gets decided: teams finishing in positions 25 through 36 are eliminated outright in January; those in 9th through 24th compete in a playoff round in February for a spot in the round of 16; and the top eight advance directly to the round of 16 in March.

No one should take the pots lightly. The new format has already claimed some big names: RB Leipzig, Napoli, Ajax and Villarreal were eliminated ahead of schedule, and clubs like Manchester City, Inter and Juventus were forced to sweat through the knockout playoff simply because of where they landed in the standings. In Pot 3, Napoli and Villarreal are not to be underestimated, while in Pot 4, Como arrives eager to spring a surprise in its European debut.

The draw will be available on UEFA's free live stream. Once the fixture list is set, Matchday 1 kicks off between September 8 and 10, with the league phase running through January 27. From there comes the playoff round (February 16-17 and 23-24), the round of 16 (March 9-10 and 16-17), the quarterfinals (April 6-7 and 13-14), the semifinals (April 27-28 and May 4-5) and the final, set for June 5 in Madrid.