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Football Today

26 August 2026

Football Today

26 August 2026

Premier League clubs are only days away from discovering the opponents they will meet in the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League.

England will have nine representatives across UEFA’s three club competitions, with Crystal Palace among them after booking a Europa League berth by winning the Europa Conference League.

Here is a closer look at the draw schedule for each tournament and when Premier League sides will learn who they could be up against.

The league-phase draw for the 2026/27 Champions League is set to be held on Thursday in Monaco.

So far, 32 of the 36 teams due to take part in Europe’s elite competition have already qualified, while the remaining four places will be settled through the qualifying rounds.

The full draw cannot be completed until the second legs of the final qualifying-round ties are finished on Wednesday evening.

Each club will play two teams from each of the four pots. That means four home matches and four away matches, with a computer system assigning the fixtures during the draw.

The seeding pots are determined by UEFA’s club coefficient rankings, which are based on performances in European competitions over a five-year period.

Premier League champions Arsenal are in Pot 1 alongside Liverpool and Manchester City, while Manchester United and Aston Villa are both placed in Pot 2 as they return to Europe’s top-tier competition.

The Champions League will continue with its now-familiar league-phase system for a third straight season.

The top eight sides in the table will qualify directly for the round of 16, while the teams placed from ninth to 24th will go into a two-legged knockout play-off.

Any side finishing 25th or below will be knocked out of the tournament.

The winners of those play-offs will then meet one of the top-eight teams in the round of 16, shaping the path towards the quarter-finals.

These are the pots for the 2026/27 Champions League;

Paris Saint-Germain

Bayern Munich

Real Madrid

Liverpool

Inter Milan

Manchester City

Arsenal

Barcelona

Atletico Madrid

Aston Villa

Manchester United

Borussia Dortmund

AS Roma

Sporting CP

Porto

Club Brugge

PSV Eindhoven

Real Betis

Feyenoord

Lille

Napoli

RB Leipzig

Villarreal

Shakhtar Donetsk

Galatasaray

Bodo/Glimt

LASK Linz

Sabah

Slavia Prague

Stuttgart

Como

Lens

Winner of Fenerbahce vs Lyon

Winner of Dinamo Zagreb vs Viking

Winner of Slovan Bratislava vs Celje

Winner of Levski Sofia vs AEK Athens

The other four Premier League clubs are due to feature in UEFA’s lower-tier competitions, although Brighton & Hove Albion still have to seal their place in the Europa Conference League.

Bournemouth, Sunderland and Palace will all take part in a landmark Europa League campaign for their clubs and will find out their opponents once the qualifying stage concludes on Thursday.

The draw for the 2026/27 Europa League has been fixed for Friday at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, starting at 12.00 pm (GMT).

The three English clubs will get their first indication of the teams they will face as they prepare for their first appearances in the revamped Europa League format.

All three have currently been placed in Pot 3, although the final composition of the pots will only be confirmed after the qualifying-round fixtures are completed.

That means Premier League fans must wait until those ties are over before the complete list of participating clubs and the final pot allocations are known.

The draw format will mirror that of the Champions League. Each team will be assigned two opponents from each of the four pots and will play eight league-phase matches overall.

Clubs will play one home game and one away game against teams from each pot. UEFA’s draw system will also ensure that clubs cannot be paired with another side from the same country during the league phase.

As a result, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Sunderland cannot meet each other before the knockout rounds.

At present, the pots for the 2026/27 Europa League are as follows;

Bayer Leverkusen

Juventus

AC Milan

AZ Alkmaar

Olympiacos

Real Sociedad

Marseilles

Union Saint-Gilloise

Sparta Prague

Rennes

Sturm Graz

Crystal Palace

Sunderland

Bournemouth

Celta Vigo

TSG Hoffenheim

Torreense

The Europa Conference League draw will take place straight after the Europa League draw, and Brighton will be hoping to have confirmed their place in UEFA’s third-tier competition by then.

The Seagulls were held to a 0-0 draw in the first leg of their qualifying tie against Tromso.

Even so, they will aim to build on their 4-0 opening Premier League win over Aston Villa when they host the Norwegian side at the Amex Stadium for the return leg.