According to the preliminary scheme for the 2026-2027 season, 243 teams will be admitted to UEFA club tournaments, with 84 teams starting in the Champions League, 46 in the Europa League, and 113 in the Conference League.
Medianews.az reports that 3 places are allocated to the winners of the previous season, and 2 places are reserved for the UEFA members who accumulated the most coefficients in that season.
England, Italy, Spain, Germany, and France are expected to be represented by 7 teams each; the Netherlands by 6; Portugal, Belgium, Czech Republic, Turkey, Norway, Greece, Austria, Scotland, and Poland by 5 teams each.
Northern Macedonia, Belarus, Andorra, Gibraltar, and San Marino have 3 places each, and Liechtenstein has 1 place.
The quota for 34 UEFA members, including Azerbaijan, is 4 teams. However, Russia on this list may be excluded from the competitions.
There are four qualifying rounds in all three tournaments. Teams eliminated in the first qualifying round of the Champions League will move to the Conference League, and those eliminated in the subsequent rounds will move to the Europa League; teams eliminated in the Europa League qualifiers will move down to the Conference League.
It is expected that the Azerbaijani champion will start the Champions League from the first qualifying round, the national cup winner will start the Europa League from the first qualifying round, the bronze medalist will start the Conference League from the first qualifying round, and the silver medalist will begin from the second qualifying round.
According to the regulations, the top 8 teams in the 36-team league stages will advance to the round of 16, while teams ranked 9th to 24th will advance to the round of 32.
UEFA club rankings are based on coefficients earned over the last five seasons of the tournaments. A win in the qualifying rounds earns 1 point, a draw half a point; in the subsequent rounds, a win awards 2 points, and a draw 1 point. Bonus points are also awarded from the league stage to the final. The accumulated points are divided by the number of clubs from the country qualified for the continental tournaments, and the coefficient is calculated with an accuracy of one-thousandth.
Toğrul Əli,
Medianews.az
