[1] After the great success of the first tournament, six new nations entered representatives: Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, England, Luxembourg, Romania and Turkey.

The Football League had not allowed Chelsea to enter in 1955, and continued its stance on the European Cup as it being a "distraction".

[2] An additional place was awarded to third in 1955–56 La Liga Real Madrid as the competition's reigning champions, occupying the free berth left by Saar after its reunification with West Germany.

As a result, Spain became the first association to provide two representatives to the premier European competition and it was only for Manchester United, who had won against Athletic Bilbao in the quarter-finals, that first ever meeting between two sides from the same country in the competition didn't happen.

AGF, Anderlecht, Rapid Wien and Real Madrid returned to the competition, after participating in the inaugural edition.

Galatasaray was the only team, other than the title holder, who didn't enter as a national association champion, as Süper Lig was not founded until 1959.[relevant?]

The first four teams drawn in each pot would play the preliminary round in September, while the remaining three clubs received byes.