The first two places into next season’s Champions League’s league phase go to the winners of this season’s Champions League and Europa League.
Following that, to determine how many places each nation gets, Uefa uses their association rankings from the five-year period ending two seasons prior to that campaign.
For example, for the 2026-27 season, places are used based on Uefa’s rankings between the 2020-21 and 2024-25 seasons.
With England, Italy, Spain and Germany ranked first to fourth respectively, the top four teams in their leagues qualify straight to the league path.
France, ranked in fifth, see the top three teams in Ligue 1 directly qualify. Fourth place will also earn a spot in the third qualifying round of the competition.
Netherlands are ranked sixth and are awarded spots for the top two Eredivisie sides, as well as third place entering the third qualifying round.
Portugal, Belgium, Czech Republic and Turkey, ranked seventh to 10th in order, are given two places each. The league winners from all four countries get a spot in the league phase. The league runners-up in Portugal, Belgium and Czech Republic all get a place in the third qualifying round, while Turkey are given an extra team in the second qualifying round.
Norway, Greece, Austria and Scotland are the nations ranked 11th to 14th. The winners of each league all get a place in the play-off qualifying round, effectively the fourth and final round of qualifying. All four countries also get a second place in the second qualifying round.
Poland, ranked 15th, will see their top two clubs enter in the second qualifying round. All other nations only get one team each, all of which will enter in either of the first two rounds of qualifying.
In qualifying, seven spots are available. Teams are split into the ‘champions path’ and the ‘league path’.
Champions path clubs, league winners from nations outside the top 10 during the qualifying period, will compete for one of five spots.
The other two spots go to league path clubs, a separate qualifying path for clubs from nations given multiple qualifying spots without winning their domestic league.
The other EPS spot is yet to be decided, but only Germany, Spain and Portugal can mathematically qualify for it.
While not officially guaranteed, there is a likely scenario in which the winners of this season’s Champions League will have already qualified for next season’s competition via their domestic competition.
In that instance, Uefa will re-award that spot to the league winner that has yet to directly qualify for the Champions League with the highest club coefficient ranking over a five-year period ending this season.
Olympiakos are the highest-ranked club in the race for the title-holder replacement spot but are five points shy of Greek Super League leaders AEK Athens.
Second on the list is Rangers, meaning if they win the Scottish Premiership and Olympiakos do not overturn their current deficit in their domestic league, Rangers would qualify straight into next season’s league phase.
