2020–21 UEFA Champions League

The 2020–21 UEFA Champions League is the 66th season of the UEFA Champions League.
The final will be played at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey. The stadium was originally suppose to host the 2020 UEFA Champions League Final, but this was moved due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. However, UEFA is moved to Portgual. The winners of the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League will automatically qualify for the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League group stage, and will also play against the winners of the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League in the 2021 UEFA Super Cup. They will also qualify for the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan.
Bayern Munich are holding the current title, but was eliminated in the quarter-finals by Paris Saint-Germain. Paris Saint-Germain was the opponent whom Bayern Munich defeated in the previous final.
Association team allocation.
A total of 79 teams from 54 of the 55 UEFA member associations participate in the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League (the exception being Liechtenstein, which does not organise a domestic league). The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:
Distribution.
The following is the access list for this season.
Changes were made to the default access list since the Champions League title holders, Bayern Munich, and the Europa League title holders, Sevilla, which were guaranteed berths in the Champions League group stage, already qualified for the Champions League group stage via their domestic leagues. However, as a result of schedule delays to both the 2019–20 and 2020–21 European seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020–21 European season started before the conclusion of the 2019–20 European season. Therefore, the changes to the access list that should be made based on the Champions League and Europa League title holders could not be certain until matches of the earlier qualifying rounds had been played and/or their draws had been made. UEFA used "adaptive re-balancing" to change the access list once the berths for the Champions League and Europa League title holders were determined, and rounds which had already been drawn or played by the time the title holders were determined would not be impacted (Regulations Article 3.04). The following changes were made:
Teams.
In early April 2020, UEFA announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, the deadline for entering the tournament had been postponed until further notice. UEFA also sent a letter to all member associations that domestic leagues must be completed in full without ending prematurely in order to qualify for European competitions. After meeting with the 55 UEFA associations on 21 April 2020, UEFA strongly recommended them to finish domestic top league and cup competitions, although in some special cases where it is not possible, UEFA would develop guidelines concerning participation in its club competitions in case of a cancelled league or cup. After the UEFA Executive Committee meeting on 23 April 2020, UEFA announced that if a domestic competition is prematurely terminated for legitimate reasons in accordance with conditions related to public health or economic problems, the national associations concerned are required to select their participating teams for the 2020–21 UEFA club competitions based on sporting merit in the 2019–20 domestic competitions, and UEFA reserves the right to refuse their admission if UEFA deems the termination of the competitions not legitimate, or the selection procedure not objective, transparent and non-discriminatory, or the team is perceived by the public as qualifying unfairly. A suspended domestic competition may also be restarted with a different format from the original one in a manner which would still facilitate qualification on sporting merit. All leagues should communicate to UEFA by 25 May 2020 whether they intend to restart their competitions, but this deadline was later extended. On 17 June 2020, UEFA announced that associations must enter their teams by 3 August 2020.
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 are divided into Champions Path (CH) and League Path (LP).
Notes
Schedule.
The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws are held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland unless otherwise stated). The tournament would originally have started in June 2020, but had been delayed to August due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe. The new schedule was announced by the UEFA Executive Committee on 17 June 2020. All qualifying matches, excluding the play-off round, were played as single leg matches, hosted by one of the teams decided by draw (except the preliminary round which was played at neutral venue).
The group stage draw was originally to be held at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens, Greece, but UEFA announced on 9 September 2020 that it would be relocated to Nyon, but it was eventually held at nearby Geneva.
The original schedule of the competition, as planned before the pandemic, was as follows (all draws held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).
Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, the following special rules are applicable to the competition:
On 24 September 2020, UEFA announced that five substitutions would be permitted from the group stage onward, with a sixth allowed in extra time. However, each team is only given three opportunities to make substitutions during matches, with a fourth opportunity in extra time, excluding substitutions made at half-time, before the start of extra time and at half-time in extra time. Consequently, a maximum of twelve players can be listed on the substitute bench.
All qualifying matches were played behind closed doors. Following the partial return of fans at the 2020 UEFA Super Cup, UEFA announced on 1 October 2020 that matches from the group stage onward could be played at 30% capacity if allowed by the local authorities.
Qualifying rounds.
First qualifying round.
The draw for the first qualifying round was held on 9 August 2020, 12:00 CEST. The matches were played on 18 and 19 August 2020. The match between KÍ and Slovan Bratislava was cancelled due to Slovan Bratislava players being put into quarantine after one player had tested positive for coronavirus, and KÍ were awarded a technical 3–0 win.
&lt;section end=Q1 /&gt;
Second qualifying round.
The draw for the second qualifying round was held on 10 August 2020, 12:00 CEST. The matches were played on 25 and 26 August 2020.
From the ten losers of Champions Path, two teams, Tirana and Ludogorets Razgrad, determined by a draw held on 31 August 2020 after the Europa League second qualifying round draw,entered the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League play-off round (Champions Path), while the other eight teams entered the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League third qualifying round (Champions Path). The losers of League Path entered the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League third qualifying round (Main Path).
Third qualifying round.
The losers of Champions Path entered the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League play-off round (Champions Path). The losers of League Path entered the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League group stage.
Play-off round.
The losers of both Champions Path and League Path entered the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League group stage.
Group stage.
A total of 32 teams play in the group stage, from 15 countries: 26 teams which entered in this stage, and the six winners of the play-off round (four from Champions Path, two from League Path).
The draw for the group stage was held on 1 October 2020, 17:00 CEST, at the RTS Studios in Geneva, Switzerland. The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots based on the following principles (introduced starting 2015–16 season):
In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 16, while the third-placed teams enter the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League round of 32. The matchdays are 20–21 October, 27–28 October, 3–4 November, 24–25 November, 1–2 December and 8–9 December 2020.
The youth teams of the clubs that qualify for the group stage also participate in the 2020–21 UEFA Youth League, along with the youth domestic champions of the top 32 associations, in a single leg knockout tournament.
İstanbul Başakşehir, Krasnodar, Midtjylland and Rennes made their debut appearances in the group stage. With İstanbul Başakşehir's appearance in the group stage, Istanbul became the first city that has been represented in the group stage by four different teams (had been previously represented by Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray). This season became the first in the history of the Champions League in which three Russian clubs will play in the group stage.
Knockout phase.
In the knockout phase, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final.
Statistics.
Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.
Squad of the season.
The UEFA technical study group selected the following 23 players as the squad of the tournament.