2022–23 UEFA Champions League

The 2022-23 UEFA Champions League will be the 68th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA.
The final will be played at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey. The stadium was originally appointed to host the 2020 UEFA Champions League Final, but both this, and the 2021 final which had been eventually re-allocated to the Ataturk, were moved due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The winner of the 2022-23 UEFA Champions League will automatically qualify for the 2023-24 UEFA Champions League group stage, and also earn the right to play against the winner of the 2022-23 UEFA Europa League in the 2023 UEFA Super Cup.
Real Madrid are the defending champions, having won a record fourteenth title in the previous edition.
Association team allocation
A total of 78 teams from 53 of the 55 UEFA member associations participate in the 2022-23 UEFA Champions League (the exceptions being Russia, who are banned from participating due to 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, and Liechtenstein, which does not organise a domestic league). The association ranking based on the UEFA association 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 (except Russia) each have two teams qualify.
Associations 16-55 (except Liechtenstein) each have one team qualify.
The winners of the 2021-22 UEFA Champions League and 2021-22 UEFA Europa League are each given an additional entry if they do not qualify for the 2022-23 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league.
Association ranking
For the 2022-23 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2021 UEFA association coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2016-17 to 2020-21.
Apart from the allocation based on the association coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below:
- Additional berth for UEFA Europa League title holders
Distribution
The following is the access list for this season.
Due to the suspension of Russia for the 2022-23 European season, and since the Champions League title holders (Real Madrid) have qualified via their domestic league, the following changes to the access list have been made:
The champions of association 11 (Scotland) and 12 (Ukraine) enter the group stage instead of the play-off round (Champions Path).
The champions of association 13 (Turkey) and 14 (Denmark) enter the play-off round instead of the third qualifying round (Champions Path).
The champions of association 15 (Cyprus) and 16 (Serbia) enter the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round (Champions Path).
The champions of associations 18 (Croatia), 19 (Switzerland), 20 (Greece) and 21 (Israel) enter the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round (Champions Path).
The runners-up of associations 10 (Austria) and 11 (Scotland) enter the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round (League Path).
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 as determined by the national association; all teams are subject to approval by UEFA
The second qualifying round, third qualifying round and play-off round are divided into Champions Path (CH) and League Path (LP).
CC: 2022 UEFA club coefficients.
Notes
Schedule
The schedule of the competition is as follows. All matches are played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays apart from the preliminary round final. Scheduled kick-off times starting from the play-off round are 18:45 and 21:00 CEST/CET.
As the 2022 FIFA World Cup takes place in Qatar between 21 November and 18 December 2022, the group stage will commence in the first week of September 2022 and conclude in the first week of November 2022 to make way for the World Cup.
All draws start at 12:00 CEST/CET and are held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
Qualifying rounds
Preliminary round
First qualifying round
Second qualifying round
Third qualifying round
Play-off round
Group stage
The draw for the group stage will be held on 25 August 2022. The 32 teams will be drawn into eight groups of four. For the draw, the teams are seeded into four pots, each of eight teams, based on the following principles:
Pot 1 contain the Champions League and Europa League title holders, and the champions of the top six associations based on their 2021 UEFA country coefficients. Since the Champions League titleholders, Real Madrid, are also the champions of Association 2 (Spain), the champions of Association 7 (Netherlands), Ajax, will also be seeded into Pot 1.
Pots 2, 3 and 4 contain the remaining teams, seeded based on their 2022 UEFA club coefficients.
Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.
Eintracht Frankfurt will make their debut appearance in the group stage after winning Europa League. This season is also the first in which five German clubs will play in the group stage.