Overview
- UEFA confirmed the 36-team league-phase field after the final playoff ties completed Wednesday, with winners filling the seven remaining places and the full list published ahead of the draw.
- The league-phase draw will take place at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on Thursday and will combine a physical selection with automated software that enforces country restrictions and assigns each club its four home and four away fixtures.
- Under the expanded single-table format every club plays eight matches against eight different opponents, the top eight advance directly to the round of 16, teams placed 9th–24th enter two-legged knockout play-offs, and teams 25th–36th are eliminated from European competition.
- The finalised field includes several debutants and notable qualifiers such as Sabah — the first Azerbaijani club to reach the league phase — LASK and Viking, and playoff upsets like Fenerbahçe eliminating Lyon.
- Because many clubs qualified late, UEFA and broadcasters face a compressed timetable for confirming exact fixtures and kick-off times with match dates running from Sept. 8 to Jan. 27 and the competition concluding with the June 5, 2027 final at Madrid’s Estadio Metropolitano.