Champions League Draw Set Without Hapoel Be'er Sheva, Featuring Europe's Top Clubs

The 2026-27 UEFA Champions League group stage draw will take place on August 26, 2026, at 18:55 local time, broadcast live on Sport 5. So far, 32 of the 36 participating teams have secured their spots, with the remaining four qualifiers to be decided in upcoming playoff matches involving AEK Athens, Levski Sofia, Celje, Slovan Bratislava, Lyon, Fenerbahce, Viking, and Dinamo Zagreb.

This will be the third consecutive season featuring 36 teams divided into four seeding pots. Each team will play twice against clubs from the same pot, once at home and once away, with the rule that teams from the same country will not face each other if avoidable. The top eight teams after the group stage will advance directly to the round of 16, while teams ranked 9 to 24 will enter a knockout playoff to join them. Teams ranked 25 to 36 will be eliminated.

The group stage begins on September 8, 2026, with matches spread over three consecutive days, and concludes on January 27, 2027. The first pot includes Europe's elite clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Manchester City, Arsenal, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid. The second pot features Borussia Dortmund, Roma, Sporting Lisbon, Aston Villa, Porto, Manchester United, Club Brugge, Real Betis, and PSV Eindhoven. The third pot is not finalized but includes Feyenoord, Lille, Napoli, Leipzig, Villarreal, Shakhtar Donetsk, Bodø/Glimt, and Galatasaray. The fourth pot includes Sabah (making their debut), Slavia Prague, Stuttgart, Como, Lens, and LASK Linz.

The knockout stages will follow with playoffs in February 2027, round of 16 in March, quarterfinals in April, semifinals in late April and early May, and the final scheduled for June 5, 2027, at the Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid. Notably, Israeli club Hapoel Be'er Sheva did not qualify for this season's competition.