[2][3] This will increase the total number of matches played in the competition from 125 to 189 (excluding qualifying rounds).

Real Madrid are the defending champions, having won their record-extending 15th title the previous season.

Apart from the allocation based on the association coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below: The information here reflects the suspension of Russia in European football, and so the following changes to the default access list were made: As the Champions League title holders (Real Madrid) qualified via their domestic league's standard berth allocation, the following changes to the default access list were made: As the Europa League title holders (Atalanta) qualified via their domestic league's standard berth allocation, the following changes to the default access list were made: The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round: The second qualifying round, third qualifying round and play-off round were divided into Champions Path (CH) and League Path (LP).

[9] Compared to past seasons, one "exclusive week" was introduced in which Thursday was also a matchday.

The winners of the ties advanced to the third qualifying round of their respective path.

[12][13] The 36 teams were divided into four pots of nine teams each based on their UEFA club coefficient, except for the Champions League title holders, who were automatically placed as the top seed in pot 1.

The 36 teams were manually drawn and then automated software digitally drew their eight different opponents at random, determining which of their matches were at home and which ones away.

Aston Villa, Bologna and Slovan Bratislava made their debut appearances since the introduction of the group stage.

Teams ranked from 25th to 36th were eliminated from all competitions, with no access to the 2024–25 UEFA Europa League.

In the knockout phase, teams will play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final.

In the knockout phase, there is no country protection, with teams from the same association able to face each other in any round.