The UEFA Champions League draw will take place on Thursday, August 27 in Monaco at 5pm UK time, setting the next stage of the competition’s expanded league phase.
The draw matters because the Champions League now uses a 36-team league phase, introduced in 2024/25 after the old format of eight groups of four teams was replaced. Instead of a traditional group stage, clubs are now placed into one large league, and each team plays a set of eight opponents. That makes the draw more than a ceremonial event. It determines the full slate of league phase matchups and shapes the opening months of the tournament.
How the draw works
Under the current format, teams are divided into pots, and clubs are drawn against sides from different pots rather than into fixed groups. Each team plays two clubs from each pot, with one home match and one away match. Arsenal are already confirmed to be in pot 1, which is a strong position in the draw and reflects their status among the competition’s top sides.
The timing also comes with the play-off round still ongoing. The play-off round concludes on Wednesday, August 26, and seven places in the league phase remain to be filled. Once those ties are settled, the field for the draw will be complete.
Arsenal’s place in the competition
Arsenal enter the draw with a strong recent record in the league phase. Last season they won all eight of their league phase matches, topped the group and reached the final for the first time since 2006. In that run, they played Athletic Club, Olympiacos, Slavia Prague, Club Brugge, Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich, Inter and Kairat Almaty.
Since the format change, Arsenal have lost one league phase match in 16, drawn one and won 14. That record suggests they have adapted well to the new structure, even though the draw will still determine how difficult the upcoming league phase looks on paper.
For clubs across Europe, the August 27 draw is the key date that turns qualification into a concrete schedule. Once Monaco has hosted the event, the league phase picture will be complete and the road to the knockout rounds will be clearer.
