2024–25 UEFA Champions League

The 2024–25 UEFA Champions League was 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 was the first season under a new format, which had 36 participating teams that played eight games each against different opponents in a league phase, all the teams being ranked in a joint group. This increased the total number of matches played in the competition from 125 to 189 (excluding qualifying rounds).

Luis Enrique's Paris Saint-Germain defeated Simone Inzaghi's Inter Milan 5–0 in the final, which was held at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, to win their first Champions League title in a record margin of victory. As winners of the Champions League, Paris Saint-Germain automatically qualified for the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League league phase, the 2025 FIFA Intercontinental Cup final, the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup group stage, and earned the right to play against Tottenham Hotspur, the winners of the 2024–25 UEFA Europa League, in the 2025 UEFA Super Cup. Paris Saint-Germain became the second French side to win after Olympique Marseille in the 1992–93 edition and the first team since Porto in the 2003–04 edition that didn't come from England, Germany, Italy or Spain.

Real Madrid were the defending champions, having won a record-extending 15th title in the previous season, but were eliminated by Arsenal in the quarter-finals.

Association team allocation

A total of 81 teams from 53 of the 55 UEFA member associations participated in the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League (the exceptions being Liechtenstein, which did not organise a domestic league, and Russia, which was suspended). The association ranking based on the UEFA association coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:

• Associations 1–5 each had four teams.
• Association 6 had three teams.
• Associations 7–15 each had two teams.
• Associations 16–55 (except Liechtenstein and Russia) each had one team.
• The winners of the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League and 2023–24 UEFA Europa League were each given an additional entry if they did not qualify for the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league.
• The two associations who obtained the most coefficient points in the 2023–24 season each had one European Performance Spot into the league phase. The winners of the UEFA Champions League and Europa League could not fill the European Performance Spots.

Association ranking

For the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2023 UEFA association coefficients, which took 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 could 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 two 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 suspension of Russia in European football, and so the following changes to the default access list were 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 were 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 were made:

• Benfica, as the club with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have entered the League Path third qualifying 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 two associations with the highest coefficient points in 2023–24

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

Schedule

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

Qualifying rounds

First qualifying round

The draw for the first qualifying round was held on 18 June 2024. The first legs were played on 9 and 10 July, and the second legs were played on 16 and 17 July 2024.

The winners of the ties advanced to the Champions Path second qualifying round. 12 of the 14 losers were transferred to the Conference League Champions Path second qualifying round and 2 were transferred to the Conference League Champions Path qualifying and received a bye to the third qualifying round.

Second qualifying round

The draw for the second qualifying round was held on 19 June 2024. The first legs were played on 23 and 24 July, and the second legs were played on 30 and 31 July 2024.

The winners of the ties advanced to the third qualifying round of their respective path. The Champions Path losers were transferred to the Europa League Champions Path third qualifying round, while the League Path losers were transferred to the Europa League Main Path third qualifying round.

Third qualifying round

The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 22 July 2024. The first legs were played on 6 and 7 August, and the second legs were played on 13 August 2024.

The winners of the ties advanced to the play-off round of their respective paths. The Champions Path losers were transferred to the Europa League play-off round, while the League Path losers were transferred to the Europa League league phase.

Play-off round

The draw for the play-off round was held on 5 August 2024. The first legs were played on 20 and 21 August, and the second legs were played on 27 and 28 August 2024.

The winners of the ties advanced to the league phase. The losers were transferred to the Europa League league phase.

League phase

The league phase draw for the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League took place at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on 29 August 2024, 18:00 CEST. The 36 teams were divided into four pots of nine teams each based on their UEFA club coefficient, except for the Champions League title holders, who were automatically placed as the top seed in pot 1.

The 36 teams were manually drawn and then, the automated software digitally drew their eight different opponents at random, determining which of their matches were at home and which ones away. Each team faced two opponents from each of the four pots, one at home and one away. Teams could not face opponents from their own association, and could only be drawn against a maximum of two sides from the same association.

Brest and Girona made their debut appearances in European football. Aston Villa, Bologna and Slovan Bratislava made their debut appearances since the introduction of the group stage.

A total of 16 national associations were represented in the league phase.

Table

The top eight ranked teams received a bye to the round of 16. The teams ranked from 9th to 24th contested the knockout phase play-offs, with the teams ranked from 9th to 16th seeded for the draw. Teams ranked from 25th to 36th were eliminated from all competitions, with no access to the 2024–25 UEFA Europa League.