The 2025-26 season of Champions League will mark the second in a new format for the competition. Gone are the familiar eight groups; instead, 36 clubs are ranked in a single table and face fixtures against opponents twice – home and away. The reimagined league phase has been created to strengthen the link between the competition’s league and knockout phases, provide more sporting incentive for teams to achieve top-four finishes and improve match-day experience.
The knockout stages of the competition, from the round of 16 onwards, remain very similar to the previous structure. Three points are awarded for a win and one point for a draw, and the teams that score more goals over two legs – known as aggregate goals – advance to the next round.
Champions League was founded in 1955-56 as the European Champion Clubs’ Cup, and it grew into the most prestigious club competition in Europe. The first edition of the tournament had a field of sixteen champion clubs from different national club leagues, with each team competing through four rounds of knockout play to win the championship.
In 2024-25, UEFA changed the competition’s format for the league phase, abandoning the group stage and introducing the single-table, Swiss system-like structure that exists to this day. The top eight teams from the league table progress directly to the round of 16, while clubs finishing between 9th and 24th must negotiate a two-legged play-off to reach the last 16. UEFA has also altered the draw for the round of 16 in order to make it more competitive. Currently, teams are randomly drawn together, but from the 2026-27 season onwards, the drawing will take into account the clubs’ UEFA coefficient rankings.