36 teams will take part in the new Champions League draw in 2024. Four German teams will be competing in the Champions League group stage: Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, Eintracht Frankfurt, and Borussia Dortmund.
The Champions League draw 2025 for the group stage will take place on Thursday (August 28) at 6:00 p.m. in Monaco.
Here is all the information about the CL group stage draw 2025: TV and livestream broadcast, division of teams into the four pots, and possible German opponents.
Champions League draw 2025: TV broadcast & time
Date and time: When is the Champions League draw 2025
When is the draw for the new Champions League group stage? A question that many soccer fans have been asking themselves since the start of the Champions League qualifying playoffs, if not before.
The 2025 Champions League draw will take place on Thursday (August 28) at 6:00 p.m. in Monaco. The venue for the event is the Grimaldi Forum.
The draw is expected to take about an hour. Then we will know who will be playing against whom in the “premier class” this season.
Broadcast: Who will be showing the Champions League draw live on TV and stream?
Several broadcasters will be covering the live broadcast of the 2025 Champions League draw for the league phase today.
Sky Sport News: Sky will be showing the 2025 Champions League draw for the league phase live on TV and via stream today. The live broadcast will begin at 5:30 p.m. The commentator is Kai Dittmann. In addition, the Champions League group stage draw will also be available to watch via livestream on skysport.de and in the Sky app.
DAZN: The sports streaming service DAZN also has the broadcasting rights for most of the Champions League matches in the 2025/26 season. That’s why DAZN will also be broadcasting the 2025 Champions League draw. It starts at 6:00 p.m.
ZDF: The 2025 CL draw will also be broadcast on ZDF – but only via livestream in the ZDF media library. It starts at 5:50 p.m.
UEFA website: UEFA is offering a free live stream of the 2025 Champions League group stage draw on its website. This means you can also follow the draw live here on your laptop, tablet, or cell phone.
Who is broadcasting the Champions League draw on TV and livestream?
The 4 pots for the 2025 Champions League draw
A total of 36 teams will take part in the 2025 Champions League group stage draw. Twenty-nine participants are already qualified, and seven winning teams from the fourth qualifying round (“playoffs”) will be added.
The pots for the 2025 Champions League group stage draw are determined according to the UEFA coefficient, which divides the 36 teams into four pots of nine teams each.
The big favorites to win the Champions League in 2026 are in pot 1, including defending champions Paris, record champions Real Madrid, as well as Liverpool FC, Manchester City, and Bayern Munich.
Each club will be drawn against two opponents from each pot.
Champions League group stage draw pots 2025
Pot 1:
- Paris Saint-Germain (2025 Champions League winners, 2024/25 French champions)
- Liverpool FC (English champions 2024/25)
- Manchester City (third in England 2024/25)
- Chelsea FC (fourth in England 2024/25)
- FC Barcelona (Spanish champions 2024/25)
- Real Madrid (Spanish runners-up 2024/25)
- FC Bayern Munich (German champions 2024/25)
- Borussia Dortmund (fourth in Germany 2024/25)
- Inter Milan (second in Italy 2024/25)
Pot 2:
- FC Arsenal (2024/25 English runners-up)
- Bayer 04 Leverkusen (2024/25 German runners-up)
- Eintracht Frankfurt (2024/25 German third-place finishers)
- Atlético Madrid (third in Spain 2024/25)
- FC Villarreal (fifth in Spain 2024/25)
- Atalanta Bergamo (third in Italy 2024/25)
- Juventus Turin (fourth in Italy 2024/25)
Pot 3:
- SSC Napoli (champions of Italy 2024/25)
- Sporting Lisbon (Portuguese champions 2024/25)
- Olympiakos Piraeus (Greek champions 2024/25)
- PSV Eindhoven (Dutch champions 2024/25)
- Ajax Amsterdam (2024/25 Dutch runners-up)
- Slavia Prague (2024/25 Slovakian champions)
- FK Bodø/Glimt (NOR/Champions Path play-off winners)
- Olympique Marseille (Runners-up France 2024/25)
Pot 4:
- Galatasaray Istanbul (Champions Turkey 2024/25)
- Royale Union Saint-Gilloise (Belgian champions 2024/25)
- Athletic Bilbao (Fourth in Spain 2024/25)
- Newcastle United (Fifth in Spain 2024/25)
- Paphos FC (CYP/Winner of the Champions Path Play-offs)
- FK Qairat Almaty (KAZ/Winner of the Champions Path Play-offs)
Each participating club will be drawn once by hand, after which software will be used to randomly determine which team each club will play in the league phase.
No team may play against a club from its own national association in the league phase. This means that there will be no match between Bayern and Dortmund.
Another important rule for the CL league phase draw is that in the league phase, a team may only face a maximum of two clubs from the same country. For example, Borussia Dortmund cannot play against Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, AND Atlético Madrid.
CL draw 2025 league phase: The opponents of the German clubs
With champions Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, Eintracht Frankfurt, and Borussia Dortmund, four German teams are in the Champions League draw 2025 for the league phase.
The draw on Thursday will determine who the German opponents will be in the new league phase.
Due to the new CL draw format, there could be some explosive matches. Here are a few possible scenarios for Bayern, Dortmund, and Leverkusen.
Possible opponents for Bayern Munich
As German champions, Bayern are in this year’s 2025 Champions League draw and are represented in the first pot. This results in the following scenarios for the CL league phase draw.
From pot 1, Bayern could face defending champions Paris St. Germain, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, or English champions FC Liverpool with Florian Wirtz.
From the second pot, matches against Arsenal, Atlético Madrid, and Juventus Turin are conceivable, while from pot 3 of the 2025 league phase draw, PSV Eindhoven (Dutch champions) and SSC Napoli (Italian champions) could be drawn, for example.
From the fourth and final pot, Galatasaray, with former Bayern player Leroy Sane, could become a Bayern opponent.
Champions League draw 2025: Who will BVB face?
However, the CL league phase draw could also be difficult and complicated for BVB, which, like FC Bayern, is also in pot 1.
Like Bayern, Dortmund could also face big names such as PSG, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Manchester City, and Liverpool from pot 1.
Pot 2 offers Schwarzgelb the likes of Arsenal, Juventus, and Atletico. In addition to PSV Eindhoven and SSC Napoli, pot 3 also includes Sporting Lisbon (Portuguese champions) and Olympiacos Piraeus (Greek champions) as two further potential opponents.
From the fourth pot, BVB could face not only Galatasaray, but also Newcastle and Athletic Bilbao after the 2025 Champions League draw. Or the underdogs Paphos from Cyprus and Almaty from Kazakhstan.
Champions League group stage draw: Opponents for Frankfurt and Leverkusen
In theory, Bayer Leverkusen and Eintracht Frankfurt, both of which are in pot 2, could face almost exclusively champions in the new league phase after the Champions League draw.
From pot 1, they could face PSG (French champions), Liverpool FC (English champions), and FC Barcelona (Spanish champions).
In the third pot, the 2025 Champions League league phase draw could see Eintracht and Werkself face potential opponents from Italy (Napoli), the Netherlands (Eindhoven), Portugal (Sporting), and Greece (Olympiakos).
From the fourth pot, two more title holders, Galatasaray (Turkish champions) and Royale Union Saint-Gilloise (Belgian champions), would await the German duo.
The match days of the 2025 Champions League group stage
The exact schedule for the new CL league phase will be announced after the draw. Then it will be clear who will play against whom on which day (Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday).
However, the individual dates and days on which the preliminary round matches of the premier class will be played have already been determined.
The first match day will take place from September 16 to 18, 2025. The last round of the new Champions League group stage is scheduled for January 28, 2026.
Schedule & dates for the group stage
- Matchday 1: September 16–18, 2025
- Matchday 2: September 30–October 1, 2025
- Matchday 3: October 21–22, 2025
- Matchday 4: November 4–5, 2025
- Matchday 5: November 25–26, 2025
- Matchday 6: December 9–10, 2025
- Matchday 7: January 20–21, 2026
- Matchday 8: January 28, 2026
The top eight teams after the eight-game regular season qualify for the Champions League round of 16. The 16 teams ranked 9th to 24th will compete in the playoffs for the remaining eight places in the Champions League round of 16.
For the teams ranked 25th to 36th after the preliminary round, the European Cup season is over. There is no longer any “relegation” to the Europa League.
