According to UEFA's initial plan with 55 members, 84 teams will be allowed to participate in the 2026-2027 season of the Champions League.
The regulation envisages that 80 spots will be obtained based on the results of national championships.
Medianews.az reports that England, Italy, Spain, Germany, and France will have 4 teams each in the tournament; the Netherlands 3; Portugal, Belgium, Czech Republic, Turkey, Norway, Greece, Austria, Scotland, and Poland 2; and the remaining countries (except Liechtenstein, where the national championship is not held), including Azerbaijan, will be represented by 1 team each. However, Russia, which has been under sanctions since 2022, may again be excluded from the season.
Two places in the competition will be given to the teams that win the Champions League and Europa League in the 2025-2026 season.
Another 2 spots will be awarded to UEFA members who accumulate the highest coefficients in the 2025-2026 season. UEFA's club ranking is based on coefficients earned in the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League. In the qualification rounds, a win equals 1 point, a draw half a point; in later rounds, a win equals 2 points, a draw 1 point. Starting from the league phase until the final, there are bonus points as well. The total points are divided by the number of clubs from the country that have qualified for continental tournaments, and the coefficient is calculated with an accuracy of one-thousandth.
In the coefficient table for the 2025-2026 season, England (22.291 coefficient) and Germany (17.571) lead. Spain has 17.406, Italy 17.357, and Portugal 16.600 coefficients.
There are four qualification rounds in the Champions League. Teams eliminated in the first round will move to the Conference League, while those eliminated in the subsequent rounds will move to the Europa League.
The Azerbaijani champion is expected to start the tournament from the first round.
In the league phase with 36 teams, the top 8 will advance to the round of 16, while teams placed 9th to 24th will proceed to the round of 32.
The Champions League, held since 1955 and named the European Champion Clubs' Cup until 1992, has seen "Real" win 15 titles, "Milan" 7, "Bayern" and "Liverpool" 6 each, "Barcelona" 5, "Ajax" 4, "Inter" (Italy) and "Manchester United" 3, "Benfica," "Nottingham Forest," "Juventus," "Porto," and "Chelsea" 2, and "Celtic," "Feyenoord," "Aston Villa," "Hamburg," "Steaua," PSV, "Red Star Belgrade," "Marseille," "Borussia" (Dortmund), "Manchester City," and PSG 1 title each.