The draw for the league phase of the 2026-27 Champions League will take place in Monaco on Thursday, 27 August, starting at 17:00 BST, with the majority of the 36-team field now confirmed ahead of a handful of qualifying ties still to be settled.
Of the 36 clubs due to feature in the competition's league phase, 29 secured their places through domestic performances last season, while the remaining seven berths will be determined by qualifying matches wrapping up in the coming days.
As in previous editions of the reformatted competition, each of the 36 sides will play eight matches in the league phase - four at home and four away - facing two opponents drawn from each of four seeding pots. No club can be paired against a rival from its own country. The pots are constructed according to UEFA's club coefficient rankings, calculated over the five seasons culminating in 2025-26.
Once the league phase concludes, the top eight finishers will progress directly to the round of 16. Sides finishing between ninth and 24th will drop into a knockout play-off round, while those placed 25th to 36th will be eliminated from the competition entirely.
Pots one and two are already finalised. Pot one features three Premier League representatives - Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal - alongside recent European heavyweights Paris St-Germain, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, with PSG and Bayern having won the last two editions of the trophy.
England's presence continues into pot two, where Aston Villa and Manchester United make their return to the Champions League having missed out last season. They are joined in that pot by Borussia Dortmund, Roma, Sporting, Porto, Club Brugge, Real Betis and PSV Eindhoven.
Pot three is largely set as well, with Feyenoord, Lille, Napoli, RB Leipzig, Villarreal, Shakhtar Donetsk and Galatasaray all guaranteed places. The winner of the play-off tie between Fenerbahce and Lyon will also join that group.
Meanwhile, Stuttgart, Como and Lens have already secured spots in pot four, to be joined by the victors of three qualifying ties: Levski Sofia versus AEK Athens, Slovan Bratislava versus Celje, and Hapoel Be'er Sheva versus Sabah.
The final four places in the draw hinge on a set of qualifying matches still to be completed, involving NEC Nijmegen against Bodo/Glimt, Dinamo Zagreb against Viking, and Celtic against LASK, with Slavia Prague also in contention.
Should Bodo/Glimt overcome NEC Nijmegen, the Norwegian side would claim the last remaining pot three berth, pushing Slavia Prague and the winners of the other two ties into pot four. However, if NEC Nijmegen advance instead, Dinamo Zagreb - who hold the next-best coefficient - could take the pot three slot, but only if they defeat Viking and Bodo/Glimt lose their tie.
Celtic's path to pot three depends on beating LASK while both Bodo/Glimt and Dinamo Zagreb fall short. Despite being level with Slavia Prague on both their five-year and 2024-25 coefficient figures, Celtic hold the edge having accumulated more ratings points last season. Should all three of Bodo/Glimt, Dinamo Zagreb and Celtic lose their respective qualifiers, the final pot four place would instead go to Slavia Prague.
With so much still to be decided in qualifying, the composition of pots three and four may not be finalised until just days before clubs discover their league phase opponents in Monaco.
Based on reporting from BBC Sport.