How a club earns its place: the champions path and the league path, the qualifying rounds, the play-off, and how a country's places are allocated.
Qualification runs on two separate roads. The champions path is for domestic title winners; the league path is for clubs that finished lower but come from a strong association.
Core
The road can begin before the qualifying rounds proper. The preliminary round trims the field of champions from the smallest associations before the main brackets are drawn.
Intermediate
The first qualifying round is where the champions path widens. Champions of the mid-ranked associations join the preliminary survivors in a seeded draw.
Intermediate
By the second qualifying round the champions path has thinned and the stakes have risen. Champions of higher-ranked associations enter here, and the ties now sit only two steps from the play-off.
Intermediate
The third qualifying round is the last step before the play-off. The champions path and the league path are both at full strength here, one round from the final gate.
Intermediate
The play-off round is the final gate. Winners enter the league phase; losers drop into the Europa League, and the field of 36 is complete.
Core
Places are not equal for every country. The strongest associations can enter several clubs, while others send only their champion, and the split is set by the association ranking.
Core
The winner of the competition is guaranteed a place in the next edition, whatever its domestic finish. That guarantee is the title-holder place, and it sits above the normal allocation.
Core
No association can enter unlimited clubs. A cap limits how many places one country holds, and the title-holder rule can stretch the field at the margin.
Intermediate
The Champions League is the top of a three-tier pyramid. Losing a qualifying tie or a playoff drops a club into a lower tier rather than ending its season.
Intermediate