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The 2025/26 UEFA Champions League calendar is set, with qualifying due to start in July and the final again taking place in late May. The road to Budapest will follow the same format as last season’s revamped competition, with 36 teams competing in an initial league phase.

29 teams secured direct entry into the league by virtue of their performances last season. That includes five Spanish clubs with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Athletic Club and Villarreal representing LaLiga in the 2025/26 competition.

They’ll face strong competition from a record six English clubs, as well as the likes of defending champions PSG, Inter Milan and Bayern Munich.

2025/26 UEFA Champions League dates

8th July 2025 – Champions League qualifying starts

Champions League qualifying starts before the end of the Club World Cup and before many elite teams have even started their pre-season preparations. The champions from 28 of Europe’s lesser leagues will take part in the first qualifying round which kicks off on Tuesday 8th July, before concluding with the second legs the following week.

The winners of those ties will need to make it through two more rounds, just to make the play-off round in August.

19th-27th August 2025 – Play-off round

There’ll be seven big two-legged UCL fixtures in August which will determine the final seven places in the league phase. Five of those places will go to domestic champions from the 2024/25 season, with Celtic, Bodo/Glimt, Basel and Sturm Graz among the teams who will feature in the “champions path” at this stage, along with six other clubs who progress through the previous qualifying rounds.

The other two places will go to those who progress through the “league path” of qualifying which features clubs in some of the other stronger leagues that didn’t win their domestic titles. The likes of Nice, Benfica, Club Brugge, Feyenoord, Rangers, RB Salzburg and Fenerbahce will be hoping to advance in this section.

28th August 2025 – League phase draw in Monaco

The day after the conclusion of the play-offs, representatives from all the clubs will gather at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco for the league phase draw. As was the case last year, this will feature the use of a computer rather than the old method of teams being drawn from a hat or bowl.

All 36 teams will be given eight different opponents, with four home fixtures and four away games. The teams will be divided into four pots for the draw and they’ll face two clubs from each pot, including the one they are in.

There’s therefore little advantage or disadvantage to being placed in a higher or lower pot, but we do already know which ones the five Spanish clubs will go into. By virtue of their high UEFA coefficients, Real Madrid and Barcelona will go in pot one, while Atletico Madrid and Villarrreal will be in pot two. Athletic Club are in pot four on their return to Europe’s elite-level competition.

16th-18th September 2025 – League phase begins

The league phase will kick off the following month, with the first matchday staggered over three days between Tuesday 16th and Thursday 18th September.

Clubs will play six matches in total before the end of the year, but there is now only a brief pause before the Champions League returns in the new year, with the league phase featuring eight fixtures as opposed to the six for each team in the old group format.

After the opening matchday, all fixtures will take place on either Tuesday or Wednesday nights. Most games are expected to kick off at 21:00 CET (20:00 in the UK, Ireland and Portugal), although some matches will start earlier, most likely at 18:45 CET.

28th January 2026 – League phase final matchday

The final matchday is unique in that all 18 fixtures take place at the same time, expected to be 21:00 CET on Wednesday 28th January 2026. This is crunch-time for the clubs involved as their final position in the league phase will have a big impact on what comes next.

All clubs will be targeting the top eight which means direct passage into the round-of-16 and a home second leg, with the clubs that finish in the highest positions in theory getting a more favourable draw, although it doesn’t necessarily work out that way – last season’s league phase winners Liverpool were drawn against eventual champions PSG in the round-of-16!

The teams that finish between 9th and 24th in the league phase will go into the play-off round, while the bottom 12 teams will be eliminated from Europe altogether.

30th January 2026 – Knockout phase play-offs draw

Two days on from the league phase, we’ll get the draw for the knockout phase play-offs featuring 16 UEFA Champions League teams. Those sides will already know which two teams they could be paired with according to the predetermined bracket (for example the teams that finish in 9th and 10th in the league will face the teams that finish 23rd and 24th in the knockout phase play-offs).

A draw takes place to finalise that, and the clubs that finish higher in the league phase will have home advantage in the second leg.

17th-25th February 2026 – Knockout phase play-offs

The knockout phase play-offs will take place across two legs in February. There is no country protection any more in the Champions League knockout rounds, so it’s possible we could have two teams from the same nation meet at this point.

The potential for a heavyweight clash also remains, with Real Madrid taking on Manchester City at this point last season. The newly-appointed Xabi Alonso will be hoping that Real Madrid’s Champions League schedule does not include a play-off in February this season though.

27th February 2026 – Knockout phase draw

We’ll have 16 teams left after the play-off round, and they’ll go into the Champions League draw on Friday 27th February which will determine not only the round-of-16 fixtures, but the entire bracket for the remainder of the competition.

Again, clubs will already know who the two teams that they might face in the next round before the draw, but they’ll be able to plot their potential UCL schedule for the remainder of the season after it has taken place.

10th-18th March 2026 – Round-of-16

From this point on, UEFA Champions League fixtures will follow a more familiar path as the competition follows the same structure as it has done for many years, with teams needing to win three two-legged knockout ties in order to reach the final.

Barcelona’s Champions League schedule saw them paired with Benfica at this stage last season, while we had a Madrid derby between Atleti and Real which went to penalties.

Villarreal and Athletic Club will also be hoping to still be in the competition at this phase, with Los Leones hoping to make the knockout stage for the first time in the Champions League era.

7th-15th April 2026 – Quarter-finals

There are some key Champions League dates in April, with both legs of the quarter-finals and the first legs of the semi-finals taking place this month. There will be no additional draw before this stage given the predetermined nature of the bracket, so teams will immediately know their opponents following the conclusion of the previous round.

The knockout phase draw in late February will also sort out which teams play at home first and second at this stage.

28th April – 6th May 2026 – Semi-finals

The 2025/26 men’s Champions League schedule sees the two legs of the semi-finals take place in successive weeks as we get closer to knowing the identity of the European champions for the 2025/26 season.

Barcelona met Inter Milan in an all-time classic semi last season, and Hansi Flick’s side will be among the favourites to be involved in the last four again this term. Villarreal were also semi-finalists the last time they played in the Champions League in the 2021/22 season, while Atletico last made the last four in 2016/17.

30th May 2026 – Champions League final in Budapest

The 2025/26 Champions League season concludes in Budapest at the 67,000-capacity Puskas Arena on Saturday 30th May 2026.

PSG hammered Inter 5-0 in the most one-sided final in European Cup history last season, and the Parisians will be hoping that their first title opens the floodgates in terms of more European success.

Liverpool, Arsenal and Man City will lead a very strong Premier League challenge in the 2025/26 Champions League though, and with 31% of clubs in the league phase coming from England or Spain, there are many teams who harbour realistic hopes of making it all the way to Budapest for the biggest game on the European football calendar.

Tickets for the big game will be sold via UEFA or through the two finalists, although club allocations tend to be relatively low. You will also me able to buy resale 2026 Champions League final tickets on Helloticketsalthough any purchases via third-party sites are made at your own risk.