When is the Champions League 2026/27 draw? Start time, FREE stream and pots as Arsenal and Man Utd learn fate

EUROPE’S footballing elite will attempt to dethrone back-to-back supremos PSG as the Champions League gears up for its next electrifying instalment. Last season’s final saw the Parisian powerhouse sneak past Arsenal after an agonising penalty shoot-out in Budapest crushed the Gunners’ bid to bag North London’s first Champions League crown. Europe’s finest will find out their league phase fate Credit: Getty Can anyone break PSG’s Champions League chokehold? Credit: AFP Luis Enrique and his glittering array of attacking talent are strongly tipped to extend their continental dominance and secure a three-peat, having also thumped Inter Milan 5-0 in the 2024/25 curtain-closer. Hot on their heels will be vengeful Premier League champions Arsenal, alongside German giants Bayern Munich and a Barcelona side bursting with eight top talents from Spain’s World Cup-winning squad. Sign up for the Arsenal newsletter Thank you! Five Premier League sides will do battle with Europe’s big boys, with Manchester City, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Liverpool all in the draw for the league phase along with Mikel Arteta‘s runners-up. A staggering six English clubs reached the last 16 in a record-breaking 2025/26 competition, but the initial euphoria quickly fell flat after four failed to progress further and Liverpool were outclassed by PSG in the quarter-finals. The fight for the most coveted prize in European club football will kick off with a league phase once more, and SunSport has all the crucial details for the draw. When is the Champions League draw? The draw for the league phase of the 2026/27 Champions League will take place on Thursday, August 27. Proceedings are scheduled to begin at 5pm BST. Uefa’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, will host the event. How to watch the Champions League draw FREE The Champions League draw will be broadcast live and will be available to watch FREE on Uefa.com, Uefa.tv and the Uefa app. TNT Sports 1 will also air the draw on regular TV, and subscribers will be able to stream it via HBO Max. Alternatively, you can follow all the ties as they get confirmed on the night through SunSport’s live blog of the draw. How does the Champions League league phase draw work? Europe’s premier club competition will once again follow a Swiss System, commencing with a 36-team league phase in which each side plays eight times, evenly split between matches at home and on the road. Most read in Sport SUN VEGAS WELCOME OFFER: GET UP TO £100 BONUS Three Premier League teams have earned a spot in the top pot Credit: AFP The continent’s top 36 teams are seeded into four pots containing nine similarly-matched teams, as determined by their five-year Uefa club coefficient. Beginning with the top pot, a ball will be physically drawn before the automated software randomly draws two opponents from each pot, in an attempt to ensure every club faces an equally balanced set of rivals. As stipulated by Uefa’s country protection rule, sides in the same league cannot play each other, and clubs cannot play more than two opponents from any one country. The top eight teams in the final league standings automatically qualify for the last 16, while those who finish ninth to 24th are whittled down by two-legged play-off ties. Champions League draw pots Pot 1: Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Manchester City, Arsenal, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid Pot 2: Borussia Dortmund, Roma, Sporting CP, Aston Villa, Porto, Manchester United, Club Brugge, Real Betis, PSV Eindhoven Pot 3: Feyenoord, Lille, Napoli, RB Leipzig, Villarreal, Shakhtar Donetsk, Galatasaray, Fenerbahce vs Lyon Pot 4: Como, Lens Teams still fighting for qualification Pot 3 or 4 Winner of NEC Nijmegen (Netherlands) vs Bodo/Glimt (Norway) Winner of Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) vs Viking (Norway) Winner of Celtic (Scotland) vs LASK (Austria) Pot 4 Winner of Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia) vs Celje (Slovenia) VfB Stuttgart (Germany) Winner of Levski Sofia (Bulgaria) vs AEK Athens (Greece) Como (Italy) Lens (France) Winner of Hapoel Be’er Sheva (Israel) vs Sabah (Azerbaijan) When does the league phase start? Matchday 1: Sep. 8-10 2026 Matchday 2: Oct. 13-14 2026 Matchday 3: Oct. 20-21 2026 Matchday 4: Nov. 3-4 2026 Matchday 5: Nov. 24-25 2026 Matchday 6: Dec. 8-9 2026 Matchday 7: Jan. 19-20 2027 Matchday 8: Jan. 27 2027 Comment now