Things to know ahead of 2023/24 UCL draw

The draw for the 2023-2024 UEFA Champions League will take place at 5pm Nigerian time, today, Thursday, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.

The draw will determine the groups for the competition, which will feature 32 teams from across Europe.

The qualified teams have been seeded into four pots, with the top pot containing the defending champions, Manchester City, as well as the winners of the six top-ranked leagues. The other pots are seeded based on the UEFA club coefficients.

The remaining three slots in the draw were decided on Wednesday when PSV Eindhoven beat Rangers 5-1, Copenhagen played 1-1 against Rokow Czezchakowa, but qualified on aggregate and AK Athens lost the spot to Royal Antwerp after a 1-2 loss.

The group stage of the Champions League will begin on September 19, with the final taking place on June 1, 2024 at Wembley Stadium in London.

Team Pots

Pot 1: Manchester City, Sevilla, FC Barcelona, Napoli, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Benfica, Feyenoord.

Pot 2: Real Madrid, Manchester United, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Atletico Madrid, RB Leipzig, Porto, Arsenal.

Pot 3: Shakhtar Donetsk, Red Bull Salzburg, AC Milan, Lazio, Red Star Belgrade, Braga, Copenhagen, PSV Eindhoven.

Pot 4: Newcastle United, Union Berlin, Lens, Real Sociedad, Celtic, Galatasaray, Young Boys, Antwerp.

The 69th season of Europe’s elite club competition, the 32nd since it was renamed the UEFA Champions League, started on Tuesday 27 June 2023, and runs to Saturday 1 June 2024.

The 2023/24 UEFA Champions League season will conclude at London’s Wembley Stadium. The highlight of European football’s club calendar is returning to the London venue for a record eighth time, and the third in the UEFA Champions League era following the 2011 and 2013 finals.