Arsenal's path through this season's Champions League could be influenced by a little-known UEFA regulation as the club prepares for the draw for the 2026/27 league phase, with the rule effectively ruling out a repeat trip to the San Siro to face Inter Milan.
Mikel Arteta's team enter the new campaign among the favourites to lift the trophy after reaching the semi-finals last season, when they came close to a place in the final. As in the previous two editions, the competition's 36 participating clubs will be drawn to face two opponents from each of four seeding pots, ensuring a spread of fixtures across the continent.
Because Manchester City and Liverpool also sit in Pot 1 alongside Arsenal, UEFA's rules preventing clubs from the same association meeting at this stage mean the Gunners cannot be paired with either English side. However, there is an additional complication specifically affecting a potential meeting with Inter, one of the nine clubs already locked in as top seeds for the draw.
Under UEFA's regulations, a fixture between the same two teams cannot be repeated with the same home team for three consecutive seasons. The rule states that if two clubs who met in the league phase during 2024/25 are drawn against each other again in 2025/26 with the same team hosting, then that identical home fixture cannot occur for a third straight year in 2026/27.
Arsenal have travelled to the San Siro to face Inter in each of the last two Champions League campaigns, including a victory there last season. As a result, should the draw pair the two clubs together again, Arsenal would be guaranteed to host Inter at the Emirates rather than travel to Milan for a third consecutive year.
This means that if Arsenal are to draw a fixture against Inter as their away match from Pot 1, it will not be possible — the tie could only be arranged as a home game for the Gunners. Consequently, Arsenal's realistic options for an away fixture against a Pot 1 side are limited to Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcelona or Atletico Madrid.
The format, introduced for the 2024/25 season following UEFA's overhaul of the Champions League into a single 36-team league phase, was designed partly to prevent fixtures becoming repetitive by forcing variation in home and away scheduling over time. While clubs can still meet in consecutive seasons, the venue must alternate to avoid the same matchup with identical home advantage occurring three years running.
For Arsenal, this quirk of the regulations adds an extra layer of intrigue to what is already shaping up to be a closely watched draw, given the club's continued ambitions to go further than their semi-final finish of last term. Facing Inter for a third year running would have offered a notable subplot given the two away trips to Milan already completed, but the regulation ensures any renewed meeting would take place in north London rather than at the San Siro.
Arsenal's other Pot 1 possibilities alongside Inter — PSG, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid — represent a mix of recent Champions League winners and perennial contenders, underlining the difficulty of the challenge facing Arteta's side as they aim to go one step further than last season's semi-final exit.
Based on reporting from Standard Football.