Champions League League Phase: How the 36-Team Format Works
“36 teams” and “league phase” – these words come up whenever the current Champions League is mentioned. Even so, the format itself is still often confused with the old group stage. We explain how the system introduced from the 2024/25 season works. Why are there no more “groups”? How do the pots work in the draw? What does each place in the final table mean? The format is stable throughout the current cycle of the competition, so this knowledge does not go out of date from one season to the next. If you are looking for an explanation of the odds, see the article Champions League odds, and for how to bet, the guide how to bet on the Champions League. You will find a general guide in the article Champions League betting. Updated: November 2026.
League-phase fixtures 2026/27 – the next matchdays
Matchdays 5 and 6 of the Champions League league phase will be played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, according to the UEFA calendar:
| Matchday | Match days |
|---|---|
| Matchday 5 | Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 November 2026 |
| Matchday 6 | Tuesday 8 and Wednesday 9 December 2026 |
The league phase is closed by two matchdays in January: the seventh on 19 and 20 January, the eighth on 27 January 2027. Clubs in places 9–24 then play in the play-off round (16–17 and 23–24 February 2027). UEFA reserves the right to change the dates.
This season no Polish club plays in the Champions League league phase: Lech Poznań and Jagiellonia Białystok compete in the Europa League (in Polish). You will find the current table and results on the UEFA website, and we discuss odds and markets for Champions League matches in the article Champions League betting.
Sources: UEFA.com, 2026/27 Champions League calendar and list of league-phase fixtures (accessed 27 October 2026).
The end of the group stage — why UEFA changed the format
UEFA abandoned the classic group stage from the 2024/25 season. The old format was 32 clubs in eight groups of four teams. Now there is one shared table of 36 clubs. In the old format each team played only the three opponents in its own closed group. Some matches therefore lost their sporting significance long before the last matchday, when qualification or elimination had already been decided. The new format gives 8 matches instead of 6, against opponents from the whole field of 36 clubs, not just three other teams. More matches keep their meaning in the table until the last matchday.
36 clubs, one table — how it works
Instead of eight separate mini-tables of four teams, there is one shared ranking of 36 clubs. It works exactly like a domestic league, except that each team faces only 8 of the 35 possible opponents, not all of them. Position is decided by points: 3 for a win, 1 for a draw. If points are level, goal difference and other ranking criteria decide, just as in an ordinary league table. There is no division into groups at any stage of the league phase.
A shared table also means that comparing the results of clubs that never meet each other has a direct bearing on their positions. That was not the case in the old group system: a club from an “easy” group and a club from a “hard” group were not directly compared until the knockout phase.
The pot system and the draw
All 36 clubs are divided into four pots of nine teams, set according to the UEFA club ranking. Pot one holds the teams with the highest coefficient, pot four the lowest – usually newcomers or representatives of lower-ranked leagues. Each club draws two opponents from each of the four pots. It plays one match against each pair at home and the other away. Four pots × two opponents make 8 league-phase matches per team.
The draw has additional restrictions. In the league phase a club cannot face opponents from its own country and can face at most two from any one other country. The split of home and away matches is balanced: exactly 4 home matches and 4 away, so that no team has a clearly harder calendar in terms of logistics. The pot allocations and the pairs of opponents change every season with the current club ranking. The pot mechanism itself is fixed.
8 matches instead of 6 — what it changes for the bettor
For a bettor it means, above all, more data points, but also more unknown opponents. In the old group format two or three matchdays were enough to form a reasonable picture of the whole group: four teams, six matches, quickly repeating encounters. In the current format a club can face opponents from eight different countries over eight matchdays. The average fan knows far less about them than about domestic rivals. The value of pre-match research therefore grows: the opponent’s form in its domestic league, and not only its brand or reputation in Europe. We have gathered practical tips on this in the guide how to bet on the Champions League.
What decides the order when points are level
When points are level, the order is decided by a cascade of additional criteria set by UEFA, as in any league table. First comes goal difference and the number of goals scored in league-phase matches. If all the following criteria are also identical, the UEFA club ranking decides as the final criterion. The more teams finish the league phase with the same number of points close to the 8th or 24th place cut-off, the more these additional criteria matter, rather than the win-loss record alone.
The limit on clubs from the same country — what it is for
The league-phase draw ensures that a club cannot face opponents from its own country and can face at most two from any one other country. The aim is twofold. First, it produces more clashes between clubs from different leagues, rather than a rerun of domestic derbies under another banner. Second, the media and commercial value of the most attractive pairings is spread across more television markets. After the league phase this restriction no longer applies. In the play-off round and the knockout phase, two clubs from the same country can already meet.
What happened to the away goals rule
Fans who remember the older Champions League format may still look for the away goals rule in two-legged ties. However, UEFA abolished it in all club competitions back in 2021, long before the current format reform. Since then a two-legged tie has been decided solely by the aggregate score of both matches. If it is level after two matches there is extra time, and if that does not settle it, penalties decide who goes through. The same rule applies in the play-off round and in every round of the knockout phase.
How the league phase affects the whole club season’s calendar
The eight matchdays of the league phase are spread over several months of autumn and winter, in the middle of a full domestic league calendar. Clubs playing in Europe regularly have two matches a week instead of one during this period. This translates directly into squad rotation and how managers manage players’ workloads. Bettors should take this into account for every match, not only for those with seemingly decided stakes. How to factor it in when betting is described in the guide how to bet on the Champions League.
What comes after the league phase — places 1–8, 9–24, 25–36
The final league-phase table divides the 36 clubs into three groups with entirely different futures:
- Places 1–8 – straight through to the round of 16, with no additional round.
- Places 9–24 – an additional play-off round: a two-legged tie among sixteen teams, from which the remaining 8 round-of-16 participants emerge.
- Places 25–36 – the end of participation in the competition at this stage of the season.
This distinction has a direct bearing on long-term bets. A club in the top eight skips the round that, for teams in places 9–24, can be the most unpredictable in the whole competition: a two-legged tie between teams of similar level, without the comfort of direct qualification. We explain how such two-legged ties are priced in the article Champions League odds. How much UEFA actually pays for progress at each stage is described in the article money in the European cups.
Where the number of clubs from a given country comes from
The number of clubs from a given country in the European cups, and the qualifying round at which they start, depend on UEFA’s 5-year national association coefficient ranking. It is the sum of five seasonal coefficients (the club points of a country divided by the number of its clubs) from the last five seasons. The higher a country’s position in this ranking, the more places UEFA grants it and the later its clubs start. The lowest-ranked associations start in the qualifiers in early July. The strongest leagues enter the competition only at the league phase, without any qualifiers. The national ranking itself is recalculated every season, so a country’s number of places and starting round can change from year to year.
Old format versus new — the key differences
| Format element | Old format (until 2023/24) | Current format (from 2024/25) |
|---|---|---|
| Number of clubs | 32 | 36 |
| Structure of the group / league phase | 8 groups of 4 clubs | one shared table of 36 clubs |
| Number of matches in the group / league phase | 6 (3 each at home and away, only opponents from its own group) | 8 (2 against teams from each of the 4 pots, different opponents) |
| Qualification from the group / league phase | top 2 from each group → round of 16 directly | top 8 in the table → round of 16 directly; 9th–24th place → play-off round |
| Intermediate round before the round of 16 | none | play-off round (places 9–24, two-legged tie) |
| Elimination after the group / league phase | 3rd and 4th place in the group ends the European season at this stage | 25th–36th place in the table ends participation in the competition |
The new format increased the number of clubs and matches. It also introduced an entirely new stage of the competition: the play-off round, which simply did not exist in the old group system. In one sense the two systems work alike – the lowest-ranked teams end their run in the competition at the group or league phase. Only the cut-off has changed: formerly 3rd–4th place in the group, today 25th–36th place in the table.
Why it is still confusing for many fans and bettors
The most common misunderstanding is still talking about a “group” in the context of the current format. Formally there have been no groups since the 2024/25 season – there is one shared table. The second common mix-up is assuming that every club plays every other. In reality each team faces only eight of the other 35 participants, so two chosen clubs do not necessarily meet each other in a given season. The third pitfall is treating league-table position as the only indicator of form. A club with a harder draw, that is, with more opponents from higher pots, may have a worse position than its real sporting level suggests.
Frequently asked questions
How does the current league phase differ from the old group format?
In the old format 32 clubs played in eight groups of four teams. The top two from each advanced, and each team played 6 matches only against opponents from its own group. The current format, from the 2024/25 season, is one shared table of 36 clubs. Each club plays 8 matches against eight different opponents drawn from four pots. Further progress is decided by position in the single shared table, not by place in a small group.
How many teams go straight through to the round of 16?
Eight. Clubs in places 1–8 of the final league-phase table go straight to the round of 16, skipping the play-off round.
What happens to the clubs in places 9–24?
They play an additional play-off round: a two-legged tie, that is, one home and one away match, among the same field of 16 teams. It produces the remaining 8 round-of-16 participants, who join the 8 clubs that qualified directly from the top of the table.
What happens to the clubs in places 25–36?
Their participation in the competition ends at the league phase. They do not play on in the Champions League that season.
What are pots and how does the league-phase draw work?
All 36 clubs are divided into four pots of nine teams, according to the UEFA club ranking. Each club draws two opponents from each pot, including its own: one match at home and one away against each pair. In total that gives 8 league-phase matches. The system also ensures that a club does not meet opponents from its own country or more than two from any one other country, and does not play too many home or away matches in a row.
Do the rules also apply to the Europa League and the Conference League?
Yes. Both competitions underwent an analogous reform to the single-table format of 36 clubs. The thresholds are the same (1–8, 9–24, 25–36); what differs is the number of matches: 8 in the Europa League, 6 in the Conference League. You will find a full financial and format comparison of the three UEFA cups in the article Champions League, Europa League, Conference League – differences.