UEFA Champions League Season Overview 2025-26

The 2025-26 UEFA Champions League season will begin on September 16 and end on May 30, 2026, when the league final will take place. This season’s final will be played at the Puskas Arena in Budapest, Hungary, which has a capacity of 67,000 spectators. Paris Saint-Germain will defend their title after defeating Inter Milan in last season’s final.

This will be the first time in the history of the UEFA Champions League that one country will have six clubs in the league. A total of six English Premier League teams will play in the tournament. Five teams earned their places by finishing in the top five last season, while London’s Tottenham Hotspur qualified as the UEFA Europa League winners.

All clubs from England that will play in the UEFA Champions League are: Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool, Manchester City, and Newcastle United.

A total of 82 teams are involved in the 2025-26 UEFA Champions League season. Most of them participated in the league qualifiers, and 36 will ultimately play in the main tournament. Last year’s change in the league format means that teams competing in the UEFA Champions League will not play in another European tournament this year.

At the end of the regular season, teams that do not qualify for the playoffs or play-ins will be eliminated from the tournament and will not join the UEFA Europa League as before. The UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and UEFA Conference League have become closed tournaments.

UEFA Champions League Predictions are already a hot topic, with fans and analysts debating which clubs will rise in the new format. At the same time, football bookmakers have released early odds, placing defending champions PSG, Real Madrid, Manchester City, and Bayern Munich among the favorites, while debutants like Bodo/Glimt and Kairat are tipped as dark horses capable of springing surprises.

On August 28, 2026, the UEFA Champions League draw ceremony took place, in which 36 clubs were divided into four pots of nine teams each. The pots were determined based on the UEFA club coefficient. Four teams will be playing in the UEFA Champions League for the first time: Bodo/Glimt, Kairat, Pafos, and Union Saint-Gilloise.

Kairat Kazakhstan will be the easternmost club in UEFA Champions League history, while Bodo/Glimt will be the northernmost. This will be the first time since the 2007-08 season that a club from Norway has played in the UEFA Champions League. At the same time, it will be the first season since 2005-06 when no Ukrainian team will play in the league.

Teams from 16 countries will participate in the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League:

During the draw ceremony, the teams learned about their upcoming matches. Since last season, the league no longer has a group stage, in which teams played each other twice.

As in previous years, teams will play eight games in the regular season – four at home and four away. Each team will play all eight teams once.

Although the teams will only play against eight other clubs, all 36 teams will compete in a single tournament table. At the end of the eighth stage, the teams that occupy the top eight places will immediately advance to the round of 16. The season will be over for the teams that occupy places 25–36.

The teams ranked 9th to 24th will play in the play-ins. The teams will meet in two matches, one at home and one away. The teams that win the play-ins will join the teams ranked 1st to 8th in the regular season.

The first round will take place from September 16 to 18, and the eighth round will be played on January 28. The play-ins will begin in a few weeks.

Full UEFA Champions League schedule for 2025-26:

Since teams will only play each other once during the regular season, we will have the opportunity to see many top-level matches. The schedules are arranged so that each team has both stronger and weaker opponents, but some teams still manage to get an easier schedule than others. Here are a few games to watch out for this season:

• Juventus vs. Borussia – September 16 (Stage 1).
• Bayern vs. Chelsea – September 17 (Stage 1).
• Liverpool vs. Atletico Madrid – September 17 (Stage 1).
• Newcastle United vs. FC Barcelona – September 18 (Stage 1).
• FC Barcelona vs. PSG – October 1 (Stage 2).
• Arsenal vs. Atlético Madrid – October 21 (Stage 3).
• Bayer vs. PSG – October 21 (Stage 3).
• Real Madrid vs. Juventus – October 22 (Stage 3).
• Liverpool vs. Real Madrid – November 4 (Stage 4).
• PSG vs. Bayern – November 4 (Stage 4).
• Manchester City vs. Borussia – November 5 (Stage 4).
• Chelsea vs. FC Barcelona – November 25 (Stage 5).
• Arsenal vs. Bayern – November 26 (Stage 5).
• Atletico Madrid vs. Inter Milan – November 26 (Stage 5).
• Inter Milan vs. Liverpool – December 9 (Stage 6).
• Real Madrid vs. Manchester City – December 10 (Stage 6).
• Inter Milan vs. Arsenal – January 20 (Stage 7).
• PSG vs. Newcastle United – January 28 (Stage 8).
• Napoli vs. Chelsea – January 28 (Stage 8).

The 2025–26 UEFA Champions League marks a historic season, featuring a revamped league format, the debut of four new clubs, and an unprecedented six English teams competing. With no fallback into other European tournaments, every match carries higher stakes than ever.

The road to the Budapest final on May 30, 2026, promises thrilling encounters—from heavyweight clashes like PSG vs. Bayern and Liverpool vs. Real Madrid to milestone moments for debutants like Kairat and Bodo/Glimt. This season redefines European club football with a tighter, more competitive race where only the strongest will survive.