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.

2021–22 UEFA Champions League
The Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg will host the final
Tournament details
DatesQualifying:
22 June – 25 August 2021
Competition proper:
14 September 2021 – 28 May 2022
TeamsCompetition 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
Association ranking for 2021–22 UEFA Champions League
Rank Association Coeff. Teams Notes
1  Spain 102.283 4
2  England 90.462
3  Germany 74.784
4  Italy 70.653
5  France 59.248 3
6  Portugal 49.449
7  Russia 45.549 2
8  Belgium 37.900
9  Ukraine 36.100
10  Netherlands 35.750
11  Turkey 33.600
12  Austria 32.925
13  Denmark 29.250
14  Scotland 27.875
15  Czech Republic 27.300
16  Cyprus 26.750 1
17   Switzerland 26.400
18  Greece 26.300
19  Serbia 25.500
Rank Association Coeff. Teams Notes
20  Croatia 24.875 1
21  Sweden 22.750
22  Norway 21.750
23  Israel 19.625
24  Kazakhstan 19.250
25  Belarus 18.875
26  Azerbaijan 18.750
27  Bulgaria 17.375
28  Romania 16.700
29  Poland 16.625
30  Slovakia 15.875
31  Liechtenstein 13.500 0
32  Slovenia 13.000 1
33  Hungary 12.875
34  Luxembourg 8.000
35  Lithuania 7.875
36  Armenia 7.625
37  Latvia 7.625
Rank Association Coeff. Teams Notes
38  Albania 7.375 1
39  North Macedonia 7.375
40  Bosnia and Herzegovina 6.875
41  Moldova 6.750
42  Republic of Ireland 6.700
43  Finland 6.500
44  Georgia 5.750
45  Malta 5.750
46  Iceland 5.375
47  Wales 5.000
48  Northern Ireland 4.875
49  Gibraltar 4.750
50  Montenegro 4.375
51  Estonia 4.375
52  Kosovo 4.000
53  Faroe Islands 3.750
54  Andorra 2.831
55  San Marino 0.666

Distribution

The following is the default access list.[5]

Access list for 2021–22 UEFA Champions League
Teams entering in this round Teams advancing from previous round
Preliminary round
(4 teams)
  • 4 champions from associations 52–55
First qualifying round
(34 teams)
  • 33 champions from associations 18–51 (except Liechtenstein)
  • 1 winner from the preliminary round
Second qualifying round Champions Path
(20 teams)
  • 3 champions from associations 15–17
  • 17 winners from the first qualifying round
League Path
(6 teams)
  • 6 runners-up from associations 10–15
Third qualifying round Champions Path
(12 teams)
  • 2 champions from associations 13–14
  • 10 winners from the second qualifying round (Champions Path)
League Path
(8 teams)
  • 3 runners-up from associations 7–9
  • 2 third-placed teams from associations 5–6
  • 3 winners from the second qualifying round (League Path)
Play-off round Champions Path
(8 teams)
  • 2 champions from associations 11–12
  • 6 winners from the third qualifying round (Champions Path)
League Path
(4 teams)
  • 4 winners from the third qualifying round (League Path)
Group stage
(32 teams)
  • Champions League title holders
  • Europa League title holders
  • 10 champions from associations 1–10
  • 6 runners-up from associations 1–6
  • 4 third-placed teams from associations 1–4
  • 4 fourth-placed teams from associations 1–4
  • 4 winners from the play-off round (Champions Path)
  • 2 winners from the play-off round (League Path)
Knockout phase
(16 teams)
  • 8 group winners from the group stage
  • 8 group runners-up from the group stage

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).

Qualified teams for 2021–22 UEFA Champions League
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) (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]
(1st) (1st) (1st) (1st)
Flora (1st)
Preliminary round (1st) HB Tórshavn (1st) (1st) (1st)

Notes

  1. ^
    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]

Schedule for 2021–22 UEFA Champions League
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

  1. "Champions League final hosts announced for 2021, 2022 and 2023". Union of European Football Associations. 24 September 2019.
  2. "UEFA competitions to resume in August". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 17 June 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  3. "UEFA Executive Committee approves new club competition". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 2 December 2018. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
  4. "Country coefficients 2019/20". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 2020. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  5. "Access list 2021–24" (PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  6. "Guidelines on eligibility principles for 2020/21 UEFA Club Competitions – COVID 19" (PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 23 April 2020.
  7. "Keppni hætt". Knattspyrnusamband Íslands. 30 October 2020.
  8. "2021/22 UEFA Champions League: all you need to know". UEFA. 19 January 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
  9. "Format change for 2020/21 UEFA Nations League". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 24 September 2019.
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