2026/27 UEFA Women's Champions League: Dates, access list, full guide

The 2026/27 UEFA Women's Champions League will be the second season under the current format with an 18-team league phase.

• Provisional access list: Who enters and when
•  2026/27 UEFA Women's Football Calendar
• New format from 2025/26

2026/27 UEFA Women's Champions League match dates

First qualifying round (one-venue mini-tournaments)

Draw: 18 June, Nyon (date subject to change)
Semi-finals: 22 July
Final/third-place play-off: 25 July

Second qualifying round (one-venue mini-tournaments)

Draw: 18 June, Nyon (date subject to change)
Semi-finals: 5 August
Final/third-place play-off: 8 August

Third qualifying round

Draw: 10 August, Nyon (date subject to change)
First leg: 26 August
Second leg: 2 September

League phase

Draw: 4 September, Nyon (date subject to change)
Matchday 1: 22/23 September
Matchday 2: 30 September/1 October
Matchday 3: 28/29 October
Matchday 4: 10/11 November
Matchday 5: 18/19 November
Matchday 6: 16 December

Knockout phase play-offs

Draw: 18 December, Nyon (date subject to change)
First leg: 3/4 February
Second leg: 10/11 February

Quarter-finals

Draw: 18 December, Nyon (date subject to change) - also sets semi-final ties
First leg: 23/24 March
Second leg: 31 March/1 April

Semi-finals

 First leg: 1/2 May
Second leg: 8/9 May

Final (Stadion Narodowy, Warsaw)

28, 29 or 30 May tbc

How does the UEFA Women's Champions League format work?

Under the format introduced in 2025/26, teams no longer play three opponents twice – home and away – but instead face fixtures against six different teams in the league phase, playing half of those matches at home and half of them away.

To determine the six different opponents, the teams are ranked in three seeding pots based on their latest club coefficient ranking, with the Women's Champions League title-holders as the top seed in Pot 1. To ensure a balanced level of opposition for all and a balanced calendar, each team is then drawn to play two opponents from each of these pots, playing one match against a team from each pot at home, and one away.

The results of each match decide the overall ranking in the league, with three points for a win, one for a draw and none for a defeat. The format, with all the teams ranked together in a single league, ensures that there is more to play for all the way through to the final night of the league phase, when all the matches will kick off at the same time.

The top four sides in the league phase will qualify automatically for the quarter-finals, while the teams finishing in 5th to 12th place compete in a two-legged knockout phase play-off to secure their path to the last eight. Teams ranked 13 to 18 will be eliminated.

The four clubs which prevail in the knockout phase play-offs will then progress to the quarter-finals, where they each face one of the top-four finishers, who will be seeded and play the second leg of their quarter-final at home.

From the quarter-finals onwards, the competition follows the traditional format as two-legged knockout rounds leading to the final staged at a neutral venue selected by UEFA.

Who will qualify for the 2026/07 UEFA Women's Champions League league phase and how will the format work?

The previous season's Women's Champions League winner, the domestic champions of the six top-ranked national associations, and the runners-up of associations 1 and 2 will access the league phase directly.

For 2026/27, that means the champions and runners-up of England and France will have direct berths in the league phase, along with the champions of Spain, Germany, Italy and Portugal.

Four more teams will join via the champions path and five from the league path.

Who transfers into the UEFA Women's Europa Cup?

Thirteen teams (the third-placed teams in the domestic league from associations ranked 8 to 13 and the runners-up of associations ranked 18 to 24) enter the competition directly, while a feeding system from the Women's Champions League mean the Women's Europa Cup offers a second chance to the clubs eliminated in the third qualifying round as well as the runners-up and third-placed teams from the second qualifying round tournaments.