2021–22 UEFA Champions League
The 2021–22 UEFA Champions League will be the 67th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 30th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League.
 The Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg will host the final | |
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | Qualifying: 22 June – 25 August 2021 Competition proper: 14 September 2021 – 28 May 2022 |
| Teams | Competition proper: 32 Total: 79, 80 or 81 (from 54 associations) |
The final will be played at the Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was originally scheduled to be played at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany.[1] However, due to the postponement and relocation of the 2020 final, the final hosts were shifted back a year, with Saint Petersburg instead hosting the 2022 final.[2] The winners of the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League will automatically qualify for the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League group stage, and also earn the right to play against the winners of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League in the 2022 UEFA Super Cup.
This season will be the first since 1998–99 (last season when the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was played) where three major European club competitions (UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and the newly created UEFA Europa Conference League) are organised by UEFA. However, no changes are made to the format of the Champions League, but teams which are eliminated from the preliminary round and first qualifying round of the Champions League are now transferred to the Europa Conference League instead of the Europa League.[3]
Association team allocation
A total of 79, 80 or 81 teams from 54 of the 55 UEFA member associations participate in the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League (the exception being Liechtenstein, which does not organise a domestic league, and may only have a participant as the Europa League title holders if their previous season's cup winner win the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League). The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:
- Associations 1–4 each have four teams qualify.
- Associations 5–6 each have three teams qualify.
- Associations 7–15 each have two teams qualify.
- Associations 16–55 (except Liechtenstein) each have one team qualify.
- The winners of the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League and 2020–21 UEFA Europa League are each given an additional entry if they do not qualify for the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league.
Association ranking
For the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2020 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2015–16 to 2019–20.[4]
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below:
- (UCL) – Additional berth for UEFA Champions League title holders
- (UEL) – Additional berth for UEFA Europa League title holders
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Distribution
The following is the default access list.[5]
| Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from previous round | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Preliminary round (4 teams) |
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| First qualifying round (34 teams) |
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| Second qualifying round | Champions Path (20 teams) |
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| League Path (6 teams) |
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| Third qualifying round | Champions Path (12 teams) |
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| League Path (8 teams) |
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| Play-off round | Champions Path (8 teams) |
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| League Path (4 teams) |
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| Group stage (32 teams) |
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| Knockout phase (16 teams) |
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Changes will be made to the access list above if the Champions League and/or Europa League title holders qualify for the tournament via their domestic leagues.
- If the Champions League title holders qualify for the group stage via their domestic league, the following changes to the access list will be made:
- The champions of association 11 (Turkey) enter the group stage instead of the play-off round.
- The champions of association 13 (Denmark) enter the play-off round instead of the third qualifying round.
- The champions of association 15 (Czech Republic) enter the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round.
- The champions of associations 18 (Greece) and 19 (Serbia) enter the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round.
- If the Europa League title holders qualify for the group stage via their domestic league, the following changes to the access list will be made:
- The third-placed team of association 5 (France) enter the group stage instead of the third qualifying round.
- The runners-up of associations 10 (Netherlands) and 11 (Turkey) enter the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round.
- If the Champions League and/or Europa League title holders qualify for the qualifying rounds via their domestic league, their spot in the qualifying rounds is vacated, and teams of the highest-ranked associations in earlier rounds will be promoted accordingly.
- An association may have a maximum of five teams in the Champions League. Therefore, if both the Champions League and Europa League title holders come from the same top-four association and finish outside of the top four of their domestic league, the fourth-placed team of the league will not compete in the Champions League and will instead compete in the Europa League.
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
- Abd-: League positions of abandoned season due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe as determined by the national association; all teams are subject to approval by UEFA as per the guidelines for entry to European competitions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[6]
The second qualifying round, third qualifying round and play-off round are divided into Champions Path (CH) and League Path (LP).
| Entry round | Teams | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group stage |  (TH) |
(EL) |
|||
 (1st) |
(2nd) |
(3rd) |
(4th) | ||
 (1st) |
(2nd) |
(3rd) |
(4th) | ||
 (1st) |
(2nd) |
(3rd) |
(4th) | ||
 (1st) |
(2nd) |
(3rd) |
(4th) | ||
 (1st) |
(2nd) |
 (1st) |
(2nd) | ||
 (1st) |
.svg.png.webp){kind=small} (1st) |
 (1st) |
 (1st) | ||
| Play-off round | CH |  (1st) |
 (1st) |
||
| Third qualifying round | CH |  (1st) |
 (1st) |
||
| LP | (3rd) |
(3rd) |
(2nd) |
(2nd) | |
| (2nd) |
|||||
| Second qualifying round | CH |  (1st) |
 (1st) |
 (1st) |
|
| LP | (2nd) |
(2nd) |
(2nd) |
(2nd) | |
| (2nd) |
(2nd) |
||||
| First qualifying round |  (1st) |
 (1st) |
 (1st) |
 Malmö FF (1st) | |
 Bodø/Glimt (1st) |
 (1st) |
 Kairat (1st) |
 Shakhtyor Soligorsk (1st) | ||
 (1st) |
 (1st) |
 (1st) |
 (1st) | ||
 (1st) |
 (1st) |
 (1st) |
 (1st) | ||
 Žalgiris (1st) |
 (1st) |
 Riga (1st) |
 (1st) | ||
 (1st) |
 (1st) |
 (1st) |
 Shamrock Rovers (1st) | ||
 HJK (1st) |
 Dinamo Tbilisi (1st) |
 (1st) |
 Valur (Abd-1st)[Note ISL] | ||
.svg.png.webp){kind=small} (1st) |
 (1st) |
 (1st) |
 (1st) | ||
 Flora (1st) |
|||||
| Preliminary round |  (1st) |
 HB Tórshavn (1st) |
 (1st) |
 (1st) | |
Notes
- ^ Iceland (ISL): The 2020 Úrvalsdeild was abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Iceland. The top team of the league at the time of the abandonment based on the average number of points per matches played for each team, Valur (who were declared champions), were selected to play in the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League by the Football Association of Iceland, entering the first qualifying round.[7]
Schedule
The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws are held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).[8] All matches are played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays apart from the preliminary round final, which takes place on a Friday, and the final, which takes place on a Saturday. The third qualifying round second legs are only played on a Tuesday due to the 2021 UEFA Super Cup on the following Wednesday. Scheduled kick-off times are 18:45 (instead of 18:55 previously) and 21:00 CEST/CET.[9]
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying | Preliminary round | June 2021 | 22 June 2021 (semi-finals) | 25 June 2021 (final) |
| First qualifying round | June 2021 | 6–7 July 2021 | 13–14 July 2021 | |
| Second qualifying round | June 2021 | 20–21 July 2021 | 27–28 July 2021 | |
| Third qualifying round | July 2021 | 3–4 August 2021 | 10 August 2021 | |
| Play-offs | August 2021 | 17–18 August 2021 | 24–25 August 2021 | |
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | August 2021 (Monaco) |
14–15 September 2021 | |
| Matchday 2 | 28–29 September 2021 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 19–20 October 2021 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 2–3 November 2021 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 23–24 November 2021 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 7–8 December 2021 | |||
| Knockout phase | Round of 16 | December 2021 | 15–16 & 22–23 February 2022 | 8–9 & 15–16 March 2022 |
| Quarter-finals | March 2022 | 5–6 April 2022 | 12–13 April 2022 | |
| Semi-finals | 26–27 April 2022 | 3–4 May 2022 | ||
| Final | 28 May 2022 at Krestovsky Stadium, Saint Petersburg | |||
See also
References
- "Champions League final hosts announced for 2021, 2022 and 2023". Union of European Football Associations. 24 September 2019.
- "UEFA competitions to resume in August". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 17 June 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
- "UEFA Executive Committee approves new club competition". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 2 December 2018. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
- "Country coefficients 2019/20". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 2020. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
- "Access list 2021–24" (PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
- "Guidelines on eligibility principles for 2020/21 UEFA Club Competitions – COVID 19" (PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 23 April 2020.
- "Keppni hætt". Knattspyrnusamband Íslands. 30 October 2020.
- "2021/22 UEFA Champions League: all you need to know". UEFA. 19 January 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
- "Format change for 2020/21 UEFA Nations League". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 24 September 2019.