Overview

• The draw starts at 5pm BST at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, with live coverage on TNT Sports in the UK and global streaming via UEFA’s website and YouTube.
• Thirty-six teams will each play eight games, four home and four away, with the top eight advancing to the last 16 and positions 9–24 entering play-offs; the bottom 12 are eliminated from Europe.
• UEFA has seeded the field into four pots, featuring top seeds such as Paris Saint‑Germain, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Inter, Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona.
• The procedure combines manual ball draws with software that assigns two opponents from each pot, enforces no same‑association matchups and limits each club to facing no more than two teams from any one country.
• League‑phase matchdays run from 16–18 September through 28 January, with play‑offs in February and the final set for 30 May 2026 at Budapest’s Puskás Aréna.