Marseille were the defending champions, but were not allowed to enter the competition due their involvement in a match-fixing scandal in Division 1 the season prior.

Third-placed Monaco took the vacated French berth (second-placed Paris Saint-Germain, who refused the defaulted French title, competed in the Cup Winners' Cup instead as Coupe de France winners).

Yugoslav participants were frequently present in advanced stages of the competition with Red Star Belgrade having won the European Cup in 1991 and finished second in the group the following season.

Meanwhile, Croatia, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia and Wales entered their champions for the first time in this edition.

Since the title holders (Marseille) originally qualified via their domestic league, the title holder spot was vacated and the following changes to the default access list were made: The teams were ranked according to their 1993 UEFA seeding coefficients, which took into account performances in European competitions from 1988–89 to 1992–93.

Two of these teams (Barcelona and Anderlecht) had previously contested the 1991–92 group stage, the only season of the European Cup to adopt such a format.