The draw for the newly expanded 36-team UEFA Champions League league phase takes place today at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, officially kicking off the European club football calendar.
Following the dramatic conclusion of the final playoff rounds—which saw notable qualifications from sides including Bodø/Glimt, LASK, Fenerbahçe, and AEK Athens—all 36 qualified clubs have been seeded into four distinct competitive pots based on their cumulative five-year UEFA coefficient rankings.
Under the competition’s single-table league format, the manual draw process is replaced by automated software to handle the complex fixture routing. Each club will be drawn to face eight distinct opponents (four played at home, four away), taking on two teams from each of the four designated pots.
To maintain competitive integrity, UEFA draw regulations state that no team can be paired against opponents from their own national association during the initial league stage, while an updated restriction prevents sides from hosting the exact same opponent in three consecutive European campaigns.