RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Champions League: draw, opponents, format, fixtures
Participants
The final seven of the total 36 participants will be confirmed late on Wednesday evening after the end of the second-leg playoff matches. They will be divided into four pots of nine clubs each based on their UEFA coefficient. At the end of the 2025/26 season, Borussia Dortmund were 11th in the rankings with 100.750 points, topped by Bayern Munich, and will therefore be placed in pot two.
Draw
Placement in the four different pots has no direct impact on whether a club will face what are commonly referred to as “easy” or “difficult” opponents. A computer will draw two clubs from each of the four pots as opponents for each of the 36 participants in the league phase. Matches between two teams from the same association are not possible. This means BVB cannot face Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig or VfB Stuttgart in the league phase.
Format
As in the previous two seasons, each club will play four home matches and four away matches. The results will go into one combined table featuring all 36 participants. The top eight teams will qualify directly for the round of 16, while the teams placed ninth to 24th will compete in a playoff format for the remaining eight spots in the last 16.
Dates
The league phase, consisting of eight matchdays, begins on 8 September 2026 and ends on 27 January 2027. The playoffs will be played from mid-February 2027.
The UEFA Champions League schedule, including match dates and kick-off times, will be announced by Saturday, 29 August at the latest. UEFA has announced that it will publish a corresponding notice on its social media channels shortly before the schedule is released.
Tickets
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