UEFA Champions League 2026-27: League Phase Draw Live Coverage
Quick summary
The Guardian provides live coverage of the UEFA Champions League 2026-27 league phase draw, where the 36 participating clubs learn their eight opponents for the new-format group stage.
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Attributed to original sourceDraw starts at 5pm BST (6pm CET)
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Hello all and welcome to live coverage of the league phase draw for this season’s Champions League. The 36 teams – 36! – will discover their various opponents, home and away and there are sure to be some mouthwatering ties thrown up.
It’ll be the third edition of the Champions League in the One Big Group format, which seemed unwieldy and bloated at first but has been … OK? The final matchday has brought a good amount of drama for the teams scrambling for 24th, which is something. Though the importance of finishing in the top eight is somewhat undercut by the fact that Paris Saint-Germain have won both tournaments since the advent of this format having finished 15th and 11th in the league phase.
Uefa is preparing to make a criminal complaint against Gianni Infantino for alleged “criminal mismanagement” in connection with his failed Fifa Forward Enterprise plan and has applied for the release of documents related to its conception.
In an explosive escalation of the war engulfing football’s governing bodies, Uefa has made separate applications in the United States for information, including from Fifa .
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What happened
The UEFA Champions League 2026-27 league phase draw takes place, determining the matchups for the competition's expanded 36-team format. Each club will be drawn against eight different opponents — two from each of the four seeding pots — across the league phase, with the top eight advancing directly to the round of 16 and teams finishing 9th-24th entering a playoff round. The draw shapes the entire trajectory of the competition, creating blockbusters and laying out favorable paths for top clubs while exposing others to brutal early tests. This live blog tracks every pairing as it is revealed.
Chance analysis
The Champions League league phase draw is the moment where the season's narrative takes shape. Eight opponents per club, drawn from four seeding pots, means elite teams can still land in a brutal bracket while dark horses benefit from a gentle path. The seeded pot structure rewards strong domestic finishes but leaves room for dramatic mismatches that will define the run to the knockout rounds. Every club in Europe now knows its route — or its obstacle course — to the knockout phase.
The draw sets the competitive landscape for every Champions League club, determining fixture difficulty and potential paths to the knockout rounds.