2024–25 UEFA Champions League

The 2024–25 UEFA Champions League is the 70th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 33rd season since it was rebranded from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. This will be the first season under a new format, where in the league phase each team plays eight games against different opponents, but all 36 teams are ranked in a joint group.

The final will be played on 31 May 2025 at Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany. The winners of the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League will automatically qualify for the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League league phase, the 2025 FIFA Intercontinental Cup, the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup, and earn the right to play against the winners of the 2024–25 UEFA Europa League in the 2025 UEFA Super Cup.

Real Madrid are the defending champions, having won their record-extending 15th title last season.

Association team allocation
A total of 81 teams from 53 of the 55 UEFA member associations are set to participate in the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League (the exceptions being Liechtenstein which does not organise a domestic league and Russia which is currently suspended). The association ranking based on the UEFA association coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:
 * Associations 1–5 each have four teams.
 * Association 6 has three teams.
 * Associations 7–15 each have two teams.
 * Associations 16–55 (except Liechtenstein and Russia) each have one team.
 * The winners of the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League and 2023–24 UEFA Europa League are each given an additional entry if they do not qualify for the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league.
 * The two associations who obtain the most coefficient points in the 2023–24 season will each have one European Performance Spot into the league phase. The winners of the UEFA Champions League and Europa League cannot fill the European Performance Spots.

Association ranking
For the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2023 UEFA association coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2018–19 to 2022–23. The table reflects Russia's ongoing suspension from UEFA.

Apart from the allocation based on the association coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below:
 * (EPS) – European Performance Spot, the additional berths for associations who finished in the top 2 of the 2023–24 association coefficients
 * (TH) – Additional berth for UEFA Champions League title holders
 * (EL) – Additional berth for UEFA Europa League title holders

Distribution
The information here reflects the ongoing suspension of Russia in European football, and so the following changes to the default access list have been made:
 * The champions of associations 23 (Sweden) and 24 (Poland) will enter the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round (champions path).

As the Champions League title holders (Real Madrid) qualified via their domestic league's standard berth allocation, the following changes to the default access list have been made:


 * Shakhtar Donetsk as the club with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have entered the champions path of the qualifying phase or play-off round, will enter the league phase instead of the champions path play-off round.
 * Dinamo Zagreb, as the club with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have entered the champions path second qualifying round, will enter the champions path play-off round.
 * Ferencváros and Qarabağ, as the two clubs with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have entered the champions path first qualifying round, will enter the champions path second qualifying round.

As the Europa League title holders (Atalanta) qualified via their domestic league's standard berth allocation, the following changes to the default access list have been made:
 * Benfica, as the club with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have entered at any stage of the qualifying phase or play-off round, will enter the league phase instead of the league path third qualifying round.
 * Slavia Prague and Red Bull Salzburg, as the two clubs with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have entered the league path second qualifying round, will enter the third qualifying round.

Teams
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
 * TH: Champions League title holders
 * EL: Europa League title holders
 * 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.: League positions of the previous season
 * EPS: The European Performance Spots given to clubs from the 2 associations with the highest coefficient points in 2023–24

The second qualifying round, third qualifying round and play-off round are divided into Champions Path (CH) and League Path (LP).

Schedule
The schedule of the competition is as follows. Compared to past seasons, one "exclusive week" will be introduced in which Thursday will also be a matchday. All matches in other weeks will be played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays apart from the final.

League phase
The draw for the league phase will be held on 29 August 2024.

Sixteen clubs will be national champions. All teams will make their debut appearances in the inaugural league phase, while Aston Villa, Bologna, Brest and Girona will make their debut appearances since the introduction of the group stage. Brest and Girona will also make their debut appearances in European football.

Qualified teams

Knockout phase
The top eight sides in the league will qualify automatically for the knockout phase, while the teams finishing in 9th to 24th place will compete in a two-legged play-off to secure their path to the last 16, with teams ranked 9th–16th being seeded and hosting the second leg at home. The winners will join the top eight in that round. Meanwhile, teams that finish 25th or lower will be eliminated from all competitions, with no access to the 2024–25 UEFA Europa League.