Liverpool will be barred from hosting Real Madrid at Anfield in the upcoming Champions League league phase, the result of a fresh regulation introduced by UEFA ahead of Thursday's draw for the 2026-27 competition.
Both clubs are set to feature in pot one when the 36-team league phase draw takes place in Monaco, alongside fellow European heavyweights Inter Milan and Arsenal. All four sides rank among UEFA's nine top-rated clubs competing in this season's tournament, but a newly enforced rule will restrict certain repeat fixtures involving them.
Since the competition switched to its current 36-team league phase format in 2024-25, each club plays eight matches against eight different opponents, two from each of the four pots, with one home and one away fixture per pot. Under the new stipulation, however, a team cannot host an opponent for a third consecutive season if that same fixture, with the same host, occurred in both of the previous two campaigns.
Only two pairings currently meet that threshold heading into Thursday's draw: Liverpool against Real Madrid, and Inter Milan against Arsenal.
Real Madrid have travelled to Anfield in each of the last two league phase campaigns, and Liverpool won both encounters. In 2024-25, goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo secured a 2-0 win, while Mac Allister was again on the scoresheet last season as the Reds edged the Spanish giants 1-0. Because that exact fixture, with Liverpool as hosts, has now happened twice in succession, the two sides cannot repeat it with Liverpool at home again this year. Andoni Iraola's team could still be paired against Real Madrid in the draw, but only if the fixture is reversed, with Liverpool travelling to the Bernabeu instead.
A similar situation applies to Inter Milan and Arsenal. The Gunners have played their last two league phase meetings with Inter in Milan, losing 1-0 two seasons ago before turning the tables with a 3-1 win last term en route to their first Champions League final appearance in two decades. As with the Liverpool-Real Madrid case, UEFA's rule prevents Inter from hosting Arsenal again in the same fixture format for a third straight year.
The change stems from paragraph 16.03 of last season's Champions League regulations, which grants UEFA's administration the authority to adjust draw conditions to avoid repetitive scenarios or address specific constraints set by the organization's Executive Committee. The Club Competitions Committee has now formally applied an added condition for the 2026-27 draw: no individual fixture between the same two clubs can be replicated with the same home team for three consecutive seasons within the competition.
As the regulations explain, if two teams that met in the 2024-25 league phase were drawn against each other again in 2025-26 with the same club hosting, they cannot be paired in that identical home-and-away configuration when the 2026-27 draw is conducted. UEFA has confirmed it will apply this safeguard specifically to prevent Liverpool and Inter Milan from hosting Real Madrid and Arsenal respectively, should those pairings be drawn again.
Importantly, the rule does not stop clubs from facing each other three years running altogether, it merely prevents the identical venue arrangement from persisting. Thursday's draw will confirm the full list of opponents and venues for all 36 participating clubs in next season's league phase.
Based on reporting from BBC Sport and The Independent.