The format of the UEFA Champions League for the 2026-2027 season has been partially updated.
Medianews.az reports that out of the 82 teams admitted to the tournament, 29 teams qualify directly for the league stage: 5 from England, 4 each from Italy, Spain, and Germany, 3 from France, 2 from the Netherlands, and 1 each from Portugal, Belgium, Czech Republic, and Turkey.
Based on the coefficient table of the 2025-2026 season, Spain or Germany will have the opportunity to send one more representative to the league stage.
The winner of the 2025-2026 Europa League will also start in the league stage, but if that team qualifies through their domestic league results, the format will be updated once again.
There are four qualifying rounds in the tournament.
Champions from Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Ireland, Moldova, Iceland, Bosnia, Armenia, Latvia, Kosovo, Finland, Kazakhstan, Faroe Islands, Malta, Northern Ireland, Lithuania, Estonia, Albania, Montenegro, Luxembourg, Wales, Georgia, North Macedonia, Belarus, Andorra, Gibraltar, San Marino begin the tournament from the first round.
In the second round, champions of Poland, Denmark, Switzerland, Israel, Cyprus, Sweden, Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine join the champions path, while runners-up from Turkey, Norway, Greece, Austria, Scotland, and Poland join the league path.
In the third round’s league path, the fourth-placed team from the French league, the bronze medalist from the Netherlands, and silver medalists from Portugal, Belgium, and the Czech Republic are invited.
Champions from Norway, Greece, Austria, and Scotland feature in the fourth round of the champions path.
Teams eliminated in the first round will move to the Conference League, while those eliminated in subsequent rounds will move to the Europa League.
In the 36-team league stage, the top 8 teams will qualify for the round of 16, and teams finishing 9th to 24th will qualify for the round of 32.
Since 1955, when the tournament was held and called the European Champion Clubs' Cup until 1992, "Real" has won 15 titles, "Milan" 7, "Bayern" and "Liverpool" 6, "Barcelona" 5, "Ajax" 4, "Inter" (Italy) and "Manchester United" 3, "Benfica", "Nottingham Forest", "Juventus", "Porto", and "Chelsea" 2, and "Celtic", "Feyenoord", "Aston Villa", "Hamburg", "Steaua", PSV, "Red Star Belgrade", "Marseille", "Borussia" (Dortmund), "Manchester City" and PSG have 1 title each.