The UEFA Champions League is considered the most prestigious club football competition in the world, where legends are made and dreams become reality.
In the new age of UEFA's top competition, the format has changed slightly to usher in a new "league phase" era.
The 2024/25 competition was the first of the new format, and it received extremely high praise for generating high stakes, constant thrills, and weekly drama. Thus, ahead of the 2025/26 tournament, there is heightened excitement over what memorable moments the new campaign will bring.
For those who are new to the competition or just need a refresher on the proceedings and regulations, The Sporting News details how the league-phase draw works as well as how the rest of the competition will progress.
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How does the UEFA Champions League draw work? Format, rules for league phase
The league-phase draw for the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League will take place on Thursday, August 28. The ceremony will commence at 6 p.m. local time (12 p.m. ET) a the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.
The 36 teams are made up of 27 clubs who qualified directly via league position, last year's Champions League winner (in this case Paris Saint-Germain), last year's Europa League winner (in this case Tottenham), and seven teams from the qualifying rounds. Those 36 teams are split into four pots based on UEFA coefficient, with nine teams in each pot.
Each team will be drawn into eight league-phase fixtures, two against teams in each pot, one home and one away. No team can be drawn in league-phase matches against clubs from the same country, and no team can play fixtures against more than two teams from the same nation.
The draw will be largely automated. Teams will be manually drawn from the pots, largely as a formality, and then their league-phase opponents will be selected by UEFA's computer software, which has the restrictions built in. As the draw progresses, the possible opponents will be narrowed down as teams are given fixtures.
How to watch the Champions League draw
| Region | TV | Streaming |
| USA | — | Paramount+ |
| Canada | — | — |
| UK | TNT Sports | discovery+ |
| Australia | — | Stan Sport |
| India | — | — |
How does the Champions League knockout-playoff draw work?
Once the league-phase matchups are set, the games will be played from Matchday One through Eight, with all 36 teams structured into a single table. At the end, the top eight teams will advance directly to the Round of 16, while the next 16 teams are left to duel it out in the knockout-playoff round.
The teams finishing 9th-16th in the league phase will be seeded in this draw, while those finishing 17th-24th will be unseeded. The matchups are largely predetermined by the league-phase finishing position, pitting the teams near the top of the qualifying positions against those near the bottom, and so on. To leave a little drama to the draw, there is still some uncertainty.
The matchups are restricted as follows:
| Seeded pairs | Unseeded pairs | |
| 9th & 10th place | vs. | 23rd & 24th place |
| 11th & 12th place | vs. | 21st & 22nd place |
| 13th & 14th place | vs. | 19th & 20th place |
| 15th & 16th place | vs. | 17th & 18th place |
Thus, the draw works as follows: the unseeded pairs displayed in the table above are placed in their own pot and drawn one and then the other. Then, once all the unseeded teams have been drawn and allocated to positions on the overall bracket, their corresponding seeded pairs will be placed in pots and drawn, allocated to corresponding positions on the bracket to create the matchups.
How does the Champions League Round of 16 draw work?
Once the knockout-playoff round is complete and the final 16 contenders remain in the Champions League, the bracket is then cemented for the remainder of the competition.
The Round of 16 draw is quite simple given the predetermined nature for much of the bracket.
To give incentive for teams to finish as high as possible in the table, those finishing at the top of the eight byes are handed the easiest possible draw — in theory. Presuming each higher seed wins its knockout-playoff match, the Round of 16 byes are then sorted by pairs and organised against the lowest qualifier.
Thus, the matchups are restricted as follows:
| Seeded pairs | Unseeded pairs | |
| 1st & 2nd place | vs. | 15/16 vs. 17/18 |
| 3rd & 4th place | vs. | 13/14 vs. 19/20 |
| 5th & 6th place | vs. | 11/12 vs. 21/22 |
| 7th & 8th place | vs. | 9/10 vs. 23/24 |
Of note: the draw is NOT re-seeded in the case of knockout-playoff upsets. Thus, it's possible that the 1st- or 2nd-place finisher could find themselves playing a higher-finishing team than those below them, but that's just the luck of the draw. It's considered a wash since their opponent is still a lower finisher than they could have theoretically faced had the favoured team won.
How do the Champions League quarterfinal, semifinal draws work?
In the current Champions League format, there are no dedicated quarterfinal or semifinal draws taking place after the previous rounds conclude.
Instead, once the Round of 16 draw is complete and the matchups are set, UEFA immediately goes about setting the rest of the potential meetings for the remainder of the bracket.
To do this, four bowls are prepared for the quarterfinals, each with two balls to represent potential Round of 16 winner. These are pulled to create the quarterfinal games, generating potential matchups.
This process is then repeated for the semifinals, with two bowls with two balls each.
There is no draw for the final. Instead, the team emerging from the "silver" side of the bracket is automatically considered the "home" team for the final, while the team from the "blue" side of the bracket is automatically considered the "away" team.