Champions League Format Explained: League Phase, Play-offs

The Champions League format since 2024/25 is a single league phase of 36 clubs. Each plays eight matches, four at home and four away, and the top eight go straight to the round of 16. Clubs placed ninth to 24th play two-legged play-offs, and everyone below that is out.

That is the short version. Below, each rule comes with a match situation and a note on where it changed from the old groups. For the wider picture of how competitions are built, see our guide to how football leagues are built.

What is the Champions League format?

Until 2023/24, 32 clubs were split into eight groups of four, a structure used from 2003. The top two in each group advanced. From 2024/25 the groups were replaced by one table of 36 clubs, with three points for a win and one for a draw, as in any league.

Picture a club that wins at home on matchday one and loses away on matchday two. Its table position shifts with every result, but it will play only eight games in total, against eight different opponents.

UEFA has presented the change as a move towards open competition, and media coverage at the time linked the reform to the threat of a breakaway Super League. UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin has described the system as built on "qualification based on sporting merit".

How do the eight opponents get drawn?

Clubs are placed in four seeding pots based on UEFA coefficients, with the holder in pot one. Each club is drawn against two opponents from every pot, which gives the eight fixtures. Two clubs in the same pot will not necessarily face the same eight opponents.

In principle, no club meets a team from its own domestic league, and no club faces more than two teams from one association, though UEFA can adjust these constraints when needed. Once the draw is made, the fixture list is fixed.

Some pundits compare this to a Swiss model. The label only goes so far, because in a true Swiss system pairings respond to results, whereas here they do not.

Which clubs qualify directly for the round of 16?

The top eight in the final league-phase table skip the play-offs and go straight into the round of 16. For a club in that group, the gain is avoiding the two-legged play-off.

Round-of-16 pairings are partly determined by league-phase rankings, so finishing higher also affects who a club may face. From that round onwards the knockout structure is unchanged, ending in a final at a neutral venue chosen by UEFA.

The 2026/27 league phase again features 36 clubs in a single table ranked 1 to 36, with 24 reaching the knockouts.

What is the knockout play-off round?

Clubs placed ninth to 24th play a two-legged knockout play-off. Those in ninth to 16th are seeded and face a club from 17th to 24th, with the return leg at home for the seeded club in principle. A club that finished tenth, for example, has the advantage of the second leg in front of its own crowd.

The eight winners join the top eight in the round of 16. Exact 2026/27 play-off dates were not confirmed in the sources checked for this article.

How do teams qualify for the league phase?

Domestic league positions still do most of the work, but the move to 36 clubs created four extra places. One goes to the third-placed club in the league ranked fifth on the access list. One goes to a domestic champion through the Champions path, which was extended from four to five clubs. Two are European Performance Spots for associations with the best collective club performance the previous season.

The clubs allocated to each 2026/27 spot were not confirmed in the sources checked, so check the official UEFA pages for the current list. Our guide to the wider rules of football covers the game itself.

Are clubs knocked out of the league phase sent to the Europa League?

No. Clubs placed 25th or lower are eliminated from the Champions League, and they do not drop into the Europa League or the Conference League. That makes the bottom of the table a hard cut, with 12 clubs leaving at once.

Tiebreaker rules for the final table were not confirmed in the sources checked and are not covered here. For a separate rules question, see how the offside law works.