2023–24 UEFA Champions League

The 2023–24 UEFA Champions League was the 69th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 32nd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League.

Real Madrid defeated Borussia Dortmund 2–0 in the final, which was played at the Wembley Stadium in London, England, for a record-extending 15th European Cup title, and their sixth in eleven years. As winners, Real Madrid earned the right to play against Atalanta, the winners of the 2023–24 UEFA Europa League, in the 2024 UEFA Super Cup. They also qualified for the final of the brand-new 2024 FIFA Intercontinental Cup and the expanded 2025 FIFA Club World Cup in the United States.

This edition was the final season with the format of 32 teams participating in the group stage, after UEFA announced that a brand new format would be introduced for the following edition.

Manchester City were the defending champions, but were eliminated by eventual winners Real Madrid in the quarter-finals.

A total of 78 teams from 53 of the 55 UEFA member associations participated in the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League (the exceptions being Liechtenstein, which did not organise a domestic league, and Russia). The association ranking based on the UEFA association coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:

• Associations 1–4 each had four teams qualify.
• Associations 5–6 each had three teams qualify.
• Associations 7–15 (except Russia) each had two teams qualify.
• Associations 16–55 (except Liechtenstein) each had one team qualify.
• The winners of the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League and 2022–23 UEFA Europa League were each given an additional entry if they did not qualify for the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league.

For the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2022 UEFA association coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2017–18 to 2021–22. The team allocation reflected Russia's ongoing suspension from UEFA competitions.

Apart from the allocation based on the association coefficients, associations could have additional teams (a maximum of 5 per association) participating in the Champions League, as noted below:

• (UEL) – Additional berth for UEFA Europa League title holders

The following is the default access list for the 2023–24 season.

Due to the suspension of Russia for the 2023–24 European season, the following changes to the access list were made:

• The champions of association 11 (Serbia) entered the group stage instead of the play-off round (Champions Path).
• The champions of association 13 (Belgium) entered the play-off round instead of the third qualifying round (Champions Path).
• The champions of association 15 (Greece) entered the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round (Champions Path).
• The champions of associations 18 (Denmark) and 19 (Croatia) entered the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round (Champions Path).
• The runner-up of association 11 (Serbia) entered the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round (League Path).

Since the Champions League title holders (Manchester City) qualified via their domestic league, the following changes to the access list were made:

• The champions of association 12 (Ukraine) entered the group stage instead of the play-off round (Champions Path).
• The champions of association 14 (Switzerland) entered the play-off round instead of the third qualifying round (Champions Path).
• The champions of association 16 (Czech Republic) entered the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round (Champions Path).
• The champions of associations 20 (Turkey) and 21 (Cyprus) entered the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round (Champions Path).

The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:

• TH: Champions League title holders
• EL: Europa League title holders
• 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th: League positions of the previous season

The second qualifying round, third qualifying round and play-off round were divided into Champions Path (CH) and League Path (LP).

Notes

The schedule of the competition was as follows. All matches were played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays apart from the preliminary round final and the final.

A total of four teams played in the preliminary round. Seeding of teams was based on their 2023 UEFA club coefficients, with two seeded teams and two unseeded teams in the semi-final round. The matches took place at Kópavogsvöllur in Kópavogur, Iceland. For administrative purposes, the home team in each draw were the first team drawn in each tie in the semi-final round. The same applied for the final draw, between the two winners of the semi-finals, whose identity was not known at the time of draw.The winner of the preliminary round final advanced to the first qualifying round. The losers of the semi-finals and final transferred to the Europa Conference League second qualifying round Champions Path.

The draw for the first qualifying round was held on 20 June 2023. The first legs were played on 11 and 12 July, and the second legs were played on 18 and 19 July 2023.

The winners of the ties advanced to the Champions Path second qualifying round. 13 of the 15 losers were transferred to the Europa Conference League Champions Path second qualifying round and 2 losers received a bye and were transferred to the Europa Conference League Champions Path third qualifying round.

The draw for the second qualifying round was held on 21 June 2023. The first legs were played on 25 and 26 July, and the second legs were played on 1 and 2 August 2023.

The winners of the ties advanced to the third qualifying round of their respective path. The Champions Path losers were transferred to the Europa League Champions Path third qualifying round, while the League Path losers were transferred to the Europa League Main Path third qualifying round.

The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 24 July 2023. The first legs were played on 8, 9 and 15 August, and the second legs were played on 15 and 19 August 2023.

The winners of the ties advanced to the play-off round of their respective path. The Champions Path losers were transferred to the Europa League play-off round, while the League Path losers were transferred to the Europa League group stage.

The draw for the play-off round was held on 7 August 2023. The first legs were played on 22 and 23 August, and the second legs were played on 29 and 30 August 2023.

The winners of the ties advanced to the group stage. The losers were transferred to the Europa League group stage.

The group stage draw for the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League took place at the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco, on 31 August at 18:00 CEST. The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots, each of eight teams, based on the following principles:

• Pot 1 contained the Champions League and Europa League title holders, and the champions of the top six associations based on their 2021–22 UEFA association coefficients. Because Manchester City (the champions of the 2022–23 Premier League) won the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League, the champions of Association 7 (Netherlands) Feyenoord entered into Pot 1.
• Pots 2, 3 and 4 contained the remaining qualified teams, with their pot being determined by UEFA club coefficient (CC).

Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.

Antwerp and Union Berlin made their debut appearances in the group stage.

A total of 15 national associations were represented in the group stage.

In the knockout phase, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The mechanism of the draws for each round was as follows:

• In the draw for the round of 16, the eight group winners were seeded, and the eight group runners-up were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association could not be drawn against each other.
• In the draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals, there were no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association could be drawn against each other. As the draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals were held together before the quarter-finals were played, the identity of the quarter-final winners was not known at the time of the semi-final draw. A draw was also held to determine which semi-final winner was designated as the "home" team for the final (for administrative purposes as it was played at a neutral venue).

The draw for the round of 16 was held on 18 December 2023, 12:00 CET. The first legs were played on 13, 14, 20 and 21 February, and the second legs were played on 5, 6, 12 and 13 March 2024.

The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 15 March 2024, 12:00 CET. The first legs were played on 9 and 10 April, and the second legs were played on 16 and 17 April 2024.

The draw for the semi-finals was held on 15 March 2024, 12:00 CET, after the quarter-final draw. The first legs were played on 30 April and 1 May, and the second legs were played on 7 and 8 May 2024.

The final was played on 1 June 2024 at Wembley Stadium in London. A draw was held on 15 March 2024, after the quarter-final and semi-final draws, to determine the "home" team for administrative purposes.

Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.

The UEFA technical study group selected the following players as the team of the tournament.

• Vinícius Júnior ( Real Madrid)

• Jude Bellingham ( Real Madrid)

• 2023–24 UEFA Europa League

• 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League

• 2024 UEFA Super Cup

• 2023–24 UEFA Women's Champions League

• 2023–24 UEFA Youth League

• Official website