The draw for the UEFA Champions League 2026-27 league phase is set to take place, and fans across the world are eager to find out which clubs will face one another in the competition's revamped format.

When does the draw take place?

The exact date of the league phase draw has been confirmed for the upcoming 2026-27 season of the UEFA Champions League. This is one of the most anticipated events on the European football calendar, as it determines the opening slate of fixtures for every club involved.

How the league phase works

The UEFA Champions League now operates under a league phase format, replacing the traditional group stage. Under this system, all participating clubs are placed into a single large table rather than being divided into separate groups of four.

Each club is drawn to play a set number of matches against different opponents — a mixture of sides from each of the seeding pots. The results from all those fixtures feed into one unified standings table, and clubs must finish high enough to progress to the knockout rounds.

The top eight clubs in the league phase standings advance directly to the round of 16. Teams finishing between 9th and 24th enter a two-legged knockout playoff round, with the winners joining those top eight clubs in the round of 16. Any club finishing 25th or below is eliminated from European competition entirely.

The seeding pots explained

Clubs are divided into seeding pots based on their UEFA club coefficient rankings. The pot a club is placed in determines the quality of opposition it is drawn against across its league phase fixtures — ensuring a spread of tougher and more manageable opponents for every team.

Why this format matters

The restructured league phase was introduced to increase the number of meaningful matches and reduce the number of dead-rubber games that had become a feature of the old group stage. With more clubs involved — 36 in total — and every point counting in a shared table, the stakes remain high from the first matchday to the last.

For African football fans tracking stars like Mohamed Salah, Achraf Hakimi, and Victor Osimhen, the draw will clarify which heavyweight European clubs their favourite players will meet across the competition's opening stretch.