Explainer · evergreen
How the Champions League works, from entry to the final
In one line: The whole journey in one piece: who gets in, the eight-game league phase, the playoffs, and why the final is one match on one night.
The UEFA Champions League is European club football's championship, and since 2024-25 it runs on a format that even regular watchers are still learning. Here is the whole journey, stage by stage.
Who gets in
Thirty-six clubs qualify each season. Most places are earned through league positions in the previous season's domestic campaigns — the strongest countries send several clubs, smaller leagues send their champions through qualifying rounds that start in high summer. The title holders qualify automatically, and UEFA publishes the exact access list every season, because slot allocation shifts with coefficient rankings and rule changes. That is why qualification night matters across the whole continent: a league position in May can be worth a Champions League summer.
The league phase: eight games, one table
Instead of the old eight groups of four, all 36 clubs now sit in one league table. Each club plays eight matches — eight different opponents, two drawn from each of four seeding pots, four home games and four away. It runs from September to late January, and every result moves you up or down one shared table, which is why a goal in the 94th minute in January can swing four clubs at once.
What the table buys
Finish in the top eight and you go straight to the round of 16. Finish 9th to 24th and you earn a two-legged knockout playoff in February against another side from that band — win it and you join the top eight in the round of 16. Finish 25th or lower and you are out of Europe entirely: under the new format there is no safety net dropping you into the Europa League, which the old third-place group stage offered. From the round of 16 on, it is the classic two-legged ties, seeded so that higher league-phase finishers avoid each other until later rounds, ending in a one-off final at a venue chosen years in advance — late May or early June, one night, no second chance.
Why this format exists
UEFA's stated aims were more guaranteed big-club meetings and a fairer route past the group stage; the trade, contested loudly, is four more matches on player calendars and a longer elite season. Our old-versus-new comparison walks through exactly what changed and why people argue about it. For the law of the game itself rather than the competition, see the offside rule explained.
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