Champions League: Which teams have qualified for the 2026-27 tournament?

The first two places in next season’s Champions League’s league stage go to the winners of this season’s Champions League and Europa League.

After that, to determine how many places each nation gets, Uefa uses their association rankings from the five-year period ending two seasons before that campaign.

For example, for the 2026-27 season places are used based on Uefa’s ranking between the 2020-21 and 2024-25 seasons.

With England, Italy, Spain and Germany ranked first to fourth respectively, the top four teams in their leagues qualify straight to the league stage.

Fifth-placed France sees the top three teams in Ligue 1 qualify directly. Fourth place will also earn a place in the third qualifying round of the competition.

The Netherlands occupy the sixth position and are awarded for the top two Eredivisie teams, as well as the third place entering the third qualifying round.

Portugal, Belgium, Czech Republic and Turkey, ranked seventh to 10th in order, get two spots each. The league winners from all four countries get a place in the league phase. The league runners-up in Portugal, Belgium and Czech Republic all get a place in the third qualifying round, while Turkey gets an extra team in the second qualifying round.

Norway, Greece, Austria and Scotland are the nations ranked 11th to 14th. The winners of each league all get a place in the play-off round, effectively the fourth and final round of qualifying round. All four countries also get a second place in the second qualifying round.

Poland, who are ranked 15th, will see their top two clubs enter the second qualifying round. All other nations get just one team each, all of which will enter either of the first two rounds of qualification.

There are seven places available in the qualifier. Teams are divided into the ‘champion path’ and the ‘league path’.

Champions League clubs, league winners from nations outside the top 10 during the qualifying period, will compete for one of five places.

The other two places go to league track clubs, a separate qualifying path for clubs from nations that have gained multiple qualifying spots without winning their domestic league.

The other VPA spot is yet to be decided, but only Germany, Spain and Portugal can mathematically qualify for it.

Although not officially guaranteed, there is a likely scenario in which the winners of this season’s Champions League have already qualified for next season’s competition through their domestic competition.

In that case, Uefa will re-award that place to the league winner who has not yet directly qualified for the Champions League with the highest club coefficient ranking over a five-year period ending this season.

Olympiakos are the top club in the race for the title holder’s replacement, but are five points shy of Greek Super League leaders AEK Athens.

Second on the list are Rangers, meaning if they win the Scottish Premier League and Olympiakos fail to overturn their current deficit in their domestic league, Rangers will qualify straight into next season’s league stage.