When is the Champions League 2026-27 draw? Date, time, how to watch, how it works

Five Premier League clubs discover their opponents for the 2026-27 Champions League league phase this week, as the lengthy draw ceremony process takes place on Thursday.

Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Aston Villa are all involved, while Chelsea missed out on European football entirely this season.

Paris Saint-Germain go into the draw as back-to-back champions after beating Arsenal on penalties in the Budapest final in May, and they will begin the defence of their crown as the top seed in Pot 1.

Here, Sports Mole rounds up everything you need to know about the upcoming Champions League league-phase draw, including the date, time, how to watch and how it works.

When and where is the Champions League 2026-27 draw?

The Champions League league-phase draw takes place on Thursday, August 27, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, starting at 5pm UK time.

However, the balls will not be removed from the pots for a good while after the ceremony begins, as UEFA chiefs will inevitably spend a large chunk of time introducing legends, explaining the process and previewing the competition.

How does the Champions League 2026-27 draw work?

Each club plays two opponents from each of the four pots, including their own, with one home fixture and one away fixture against every pot.

All eight opponents for a given club must be different, and the software that determines the fixtures also applies country protection rules.

A club cannot be drawn against another team from its own association, and it cannot face more than two clubs from any single other association.

That means Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal cannot meet each other in the league phase, for example, and Barcelona could not face all of them in the league phase either.

Once the eight league phase matches conclude, the top eight sides advance directly to the round of 16.

The clubs finishing ninth to 24th enter a two-legged playoff round for the remaining places in the last 16, while the bottom 12 are eliminated.

How to watch the Champions League 2026-27 draw in the UK

Viewers in the UK can watch the 2026-27 Champions League league-phase draw on TNT Sports and HBO Max.

The ceremony is also expected to be shown live on the UEFA website, Uefa.tv, the UEFA app and the governing body's YouTube channel.

Champions League 2026-27 draw pots in full

Champions League 2026-27: draw pots

Pot 1 and Pot 2 confirmed. Pot 3 and Pot 4 show clubs already locked in, with four places still to be split ahead of the August 27 league phase draw in Monaco. Premier League clubs highlighted.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Bayern Munich	Borussia Dortmund	Feyenoord	Stuttgart
Real Madrid	AS Roma	Lille	Como
Paris Saint-Germain	Sporting CP	Napoli	Lens
Liverpool	Aston Villa	RB Leipzig	Winner: Slovan Bratislava v Celje
Inter Milan	FC Porto	Villarreal	Winner: Levski Sofia v AEK Athens
Manchester City	Manchester United	Shakhtar Donetsk	Winner: Hapoel Be'er Sheva v Sabah
Arsenal	Club Brugge	Galatasaray	To be confirmed
Barcelona	Real Betis	Winner: Fenerbahce v Lyon	To be confirmed
Atletico Madrid	PSV Eindhoven	To be confirmed	To be confirmed

Play-off tie (second leg August 25-26)	Possible pot
Winner: NEC Nijmegen v Bodo/Glimt	Pot 3 or Pot 4
Winner: Dinamo Zagreb v Viking	Pot 3 or Pot 4
Winner: Celtic v LASK	Pot 3 or Pot 4
Slavia Prague	Pot 3 or Pot 4

"To be confirmed" cells and the second table cover the same four clubs: one completes Pot 3, the other three complete Pot 4, based on final coefficient ranking once the play-off round finishes. Table subject to change until pots are confirmed on August 27.

Nine clubs are confirmed in each of Pot 1 and Pot 2, while several places in Pots 3 and 4 remain provisional pending the playoff second legs on August 25 and 26.

Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City are rubbing shoulders with their fellow big boys in Pot 1, which also features Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan and reigning champions PSG.

Meanwhile, Aston Villa and Man United have been seeded in Pot 2, where the likes of Borussia Dortmund and Roma also lie, but Pot 3 - comprising Napoli, RB Leipzig and Villarreal - is not shy of heavyweights either.

Twenty-nine teams have already been confirmed for the league phase, with seven still to be decided from the qualifying rounds - five from the champions path and two from the league path.

If Celtic finish the job against LASK Linz, whom they beat 3-0 in the first leg of their playoff tie, the Scottish Premiership winners could go into either Pot 3 or 4.