UEFA Champions League Will Keep ‘Summer of Soccer’ Rolling

The “Summer of Soccer” isn’t over just yet. American fans who might still be experiencing withdrawal symptoms after the end of the World Cup in mid-July won’t have to wait long to watch many of the players who starred across North America a few months ago, from Kylian Mbappe to Rodri to Harry Kane.

That’s because the 2026-2027 UEFA Champions League, European club football’s premier continental tournament, starts September 8. Last week, the match schedule was unveiled in Monaco, with 36 teams from across Europe bidding to get their hands on the trophy next June in Madrid.

This season marks the third campaign in which the main tournament will get underway with a league phase of 36 teams, which have all qualified via their respective European leagues or emerging via a play-off route.

Here is everything you need to know about the 2026-2027 UEFA Champions League:

Club Pots and League Phase Format

The 36 clubs competing in this season’s Champions League represent 16 leagues across UEFA member states in Europe, ranging from the English Premier League and Spain’s La Liga to the Azerbaijan Premier League and the Norwegian Eliteserien. While the highest-ranked leagues (according to their recent performances in European competitions) secure a number of direct qualifications to the Champions League, clubs in other leagues must compete in qualifying rounds starting in JUne to secure their coveted spots in the lucrative league phase.

Before the draw, the 36 teams were split into four pots of nine teams, with each team playing two others from each pot across eight matches. The teams in the lowest-numbered pots (e.g. Pot One) are those that have performed best in their respective domestic leagues or reached the latter stages of the Champions League in recent seasons. As a result Pot One is loaded with some of the world’s most recognizable clubs. Meanwhile, those teams in Pots Three or Four will have either qualified through the play-offs or finished lower in their domestic leagues.

Teams are not able to play rival teams from the same country in the league phase (for instance, Real Madrid won’t face Barcelona), though they could meet in the latter stage knockouts.

The pots were as follows:

Pot One: Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Manchester City, Arsenal, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid

Pot Two: Borussia Dortmund, Roma, Sporting, Aston Villa, Porto, Manchester United, Club Brugge, Real Betis, PSV Eindhoven

Pot Three: Feyenoord, Lille, Bodo/Glimt, Napoli, Leipzig, Villarreal, Fenerbahce, Shakhtar Donetsk, Galatasaray

Pot Four: Slavia Prague, Slovan Bratislava, Stuttgart, AEK Athens, LASK Linz, Como, Lens, Viking, Sabah

The teams that win the most points in their eight matches and finish in the top eight of the league phase will progress automatically to the Round-of-16. The teams finishing in ninth to 24th place will compete in two-leg, knockout phase play-offs (with another draw taking place after the conclusion of the league phase), and those finishing from 25th to 36th place will be eliminated from the Champions League and all other European competitions for the rest of the season.

The league phase will be played between September 2026 and January 2027. The final matchday on January 27, 2027, will see all 18 matches taking place simultaneously at 9:00 pm CET.

The match schedule can be found in full at this link.

Newcomers

Four teams will make their debuts in the UEFA Champions League league stage this season.

Como, managed by former Barcelona and Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fabregas, will make its first appearance in the Champions League after a third-place finish in Italy’s Serie A last season. The club qualified automatically for the competition, but had to make urgent renovations to its home venue, Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, over the summer to comply with UEFA’s minimum standards for seating capacity and broadcasting purposes. Those renovations are now complete, and Como’s first home game is against RB Leipzig on September 10.

Sabah, from the Azerbaijan Premier League, was only founded in 2017, but that did not stop it from winning its first domestic league title and the Azerbaijan Cup last season. The club emerged from the Champions League Qualifying Play-Offs, eventually defeating Israel’s Hapoel Be’er Sheva in extra time.

LASK Linz secured a maiden Austrian Bundesliga title in 2025-2026, but its journey to the Champions League was remarkable. The team recovered from a 3-0 first-leg play-off defeat against Scotland’s Celtic and trailed 1-0 at halftime of the second leg before roaring back to score five times — the last coming in extra time for a 5-1 final — and advancing via a 5-4 aggregate score.

Viking (Stavanger) will be the second Norwegian club in this season’s UEFA Champions League, joining Bodo/Glimt after beating Dinamo Zagreb 5-3 on aggregate in the play-offs.

Paris Saint-Germain Aims for Third Consecutive Title

Reigning Ligue 1 champion Paris Saint-Germain will go into this year’s competition favored to win a third consecutive UEFA Champions League title. Having never won European club football’s highest prize before 2025, the Parisians beat Inter Milan in Munich, Germany, two seasons ago, and Arsenal in Budapest, Hungary, last season.

Managed by Luis Enrique, PSG will face Slovan Bratislava, Barcelona, Roma, and Galatasaray at home in Paris, and travel to Manchester City, Villarreal, Aston Villa, and Como in this year’s league phase.

Arsenal, last season’s beaten finalist, should be a contender again and will face Lille, Borussia Dortmund, Real Madrid, and Sabah at home, and travel to Napoli, Bayern Munich, Slavia Prague, and Real Betis.

Other teams expected to make a run include: Bayern Munich (hosting Bodo/Glimt, Arsenal, Slavia Prague, and Real Betis, and visiting Viking, Atletico Madrid, Lille, and Manchester United); Barcelona (hosting Feyenoord, Aston Villa, Manchester City, and Como, and visiting Galatasaray, PSG, Sabah, and Sporting); and Real Madrid, now managed for a second time by Jose Mourinho (hosting Inter Milan, Leipzig, PSV Eindhoven, and LASK Linz, and heading to Roma, AEK Athens, Arsenal, and Shakhtar Donetsk).

Real Madrid has won more UEFA Champions League/European Cup trophies than any other team with 15, followed by AC Milan (seven), Liverpool, and Bayern Munich (six each).

Champions League Final

The final of the 2026-2027 UEFA Champions League will be held at the Estadio Metropolitano in Madrid — the home venue of Atletico Madrid — on June 5, 2027.

It will be the second time that the venue has hosted the final (following the 2019 edition, when Liverpool defeated Tottenham Hotspur) and the sixth time that the city has hosted. Estadio Bernabéu, home of Real Madrid, staged the finals in 1957, 1969, 1980, and 2010.

Meanwhile, Shakhar Donetsk of the Ukrainian Premier League will play its home games at London’s Stamford Bridge (the home of Chelsea FC), after being forced to relocate due to the ongoing war with Russia.

How to Watch the Action

All UEFA Champions League games will stream in the United States on Paramount+ (English) and ViX (Spanish), with select games being broadcast on TV via CBS/CBS Sports Network or Univision Deportes (TUDN).

Paramount+ also offers a seven-day free trial for those seeking to subscribe to the streaming service to watch the tournament live.

In the UK, TNT Sports (owned by Warner Bros) and Amazon Prime have the rights for the UEFA Champions League, while Paramount will take over from TNT Sports starting next season.

For American fans interested in keeping up with some of the best players from the U.S. Men’s National Team, three stalwarts from that team will be taking part in the competition: Sergiño Dest, Ricardo Pepi (both of whom play for PSV Eindhoven of the top Dutch league, Eredivisie) and Alex Freeman (Villarreal, of Spain’s La Liga). Rosters for all clubs could change during the tournament because of the winter transfer market, which closes on February 1, 2027.