[BBC] The final seven places in this season's Champions League league phase will be confirmed next week. A total of 36 teams will compete in the league phase. Of those, 29 sides have already sealed their places. They consist of the best-placed finishers across Europe's top-ranked leagues from the 2025-26 season. The best-placed teams from the lower-ranked European nations entered qualifying rounds. Qualifying consists of four rounds, with the last of those four rounds taking place across this week and next week. Five of the seven remaining places are between teams in the champions path, consisting of sides who won their respective league title from lower-ranked nations. The other two places will came from the league path which is contested by teams who did not win their league titles last season, but did still earn a place to reach the qualifying rounds. A total of five English clubs qualified. Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Liverpool qualified for finishing in the Premier League's top five, while Aston Villa earned their spot for winning last season's Europa League. Spain also have five teams in the league phase. They will be represented by Barcelona, Real Madrid, Villarreal, Atletico Madrid and Real Betis. Traditionally, England is awarded four places in the Champions League. But strong performances in Uefa club competitions last season mean that both they and Spain were given one of two Elite Performance Spots (EPS), resulting in Liverpool and Real Betis qualifying. Italy and Germany have four representatives each. Inter Milan, Napoli, Roma and Como will be joined by Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, and VFB Stuttgart. France have three direct qualification spots. Lens and Lille qualified by finishing in second and third respectively. Paris St-Germain won the Ligue 1 title. However, because they won last season's Champions League, they took the place of defending champions. Sporting, who finished second in Liga Portugal last season, were awarded direct qualification as a result. Because Aston Villa both finished in the Premier League's top five and won the Europa League, their league spot was surrendered and awarded to Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk. The other teams to have already qualified are PSV Eindhoven, Feyenoord, Porto, Club Brugge, Slavia Prague and Galatasaray. How many spots are given to each nation? Paris St-Germain are the current title-holders of the Champions League [Getty Images] Two places for this season's Champions League league phase go to the winners of last season's Champions League and Europa League. Following that, to determine how many places each nation gets, Uefa uses its association rankings from the five-year period ending two seasons prior to that campaign. For example, for the 2026-27 season, places are used based on Uefa rankings 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 path. From France, which ranks fifth, the top three teams in Ligue 1 directly qualify. Fourth place will also earn a spot in the third qualifying round of the competition. The Netherlands is ranked sixth and is awarded spots for the top two Eredivisie sides, as well as third place entering the third qualifying round. Portugal, Belgium, Czech Republic and Turkey, ranked seventh to 10th in order, are given two places each. The league winners from all four countries get a spot 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 are given 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 get a place in the play-off qualifying round, effectively the fourth and final round of qualifying. All four countries also get a second place in the second qualifying round. Poland, ranked 15th, will have its top two clubs enter in the second qualifying round. All other nations only get one team each, all of which will enter in either of the first two rounds of qualifying. Through qualifying, seven spots in the league phase are available. Teams are split into the 'champions path' and the 'league path'. Champions path clubs, who are league winners from nations outside the top 10 during the qualifying period, will compete for five spots. The other two spots go to league path clubs, a separate qualifying route for clubs from nations given multiple qualifying spots without winning their domestic league. The EPS spots for thisseason went to teams from England and Spain. The winners of this season's Champions League - Paris St-Germain - have already qualified for next season's competition because of performances in their domestic league. Uefa has awarded the spot set aside for the holders to the league winner that has yet to directly qualify for the Champions League with the highest club coefficient ranking over a five-year period ending this season. This spot was won by Shakhtar. Like in the Champions League, this season's Europa League winners Villa had already qualified for thisseason's competition prior to beating Freiburg in the final. Because of England's EPS and Villa not finishing outside of the top five, England only got five qualification places instead of six. As they finished in the top four, they surrender their Europa League title-winner spot to the best-ranked team in Uefa's club coefficient rankings to only reach the qualifying rounds. In that scenario, Portuguese side Sporting will move up from the league path of the third qualifying round to the league phase. Full list of teams in the 2026-27 Champions League
Arsenal (Premier League) Manchester City (Premier League) Manchester United (Premier League) Aston Villa (Premier League) Liverpool (Premier League EPS) Inter Milan (Serie A) Napoli (Serie A) Roma (Serie A) Como (Serie A) Barcelona (La Liga) Real Madrid (La Liga) Villarreal (La Liga) Atletico Madrid (La Liga) Real Betis (La Liga EPS) Bayern Munich (Bundesliga) Borussia Dortmund (Bundesliga) RB Leipzig (Bundesliga) Stuttgart (Bundesliga) Paris St-Germain (Ligue 1) Lens (Ligue 1) Lille (Ligue 1) PSV Eindhoven (Eredivisie) Feyenoord (Eredivisie) Porto (Liga Portugal) Club Brugge (Belgian Pro League) Slavia Prague (Czech First League) Galatasaray (Super Lig) Shakhtar Donetsk (Champions League title-holder replacement) Sporting (Europa League title-holder replacement) Winner of Levski Sofia vs AEK Athens (Champions Path qualifying) Winner of Celtic vs LASK (Champions Path qualifying) Winner of Dinamo Zagreb vs Viking (Champions Path qualifying) Winner of Slovan Bratislava vs Celje (Champions Path qualifying) Winner of Hapoel Be'er Sheva vs Sabah (Champions Path qualifying) Winner of Fenerbahce vs Lyon (League Path qualifying) Winner of NEC Nijmegen vs Bodo/Glimt (League Path qualifying)
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