The 2021–22 UEFA Champions League will be the 67th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 30th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League.
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The final will be played at the Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was originally scheduled to be played at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany.[1] However, due to the postponement and relocation of the 2020 final, the final hosts were shifted back a year, with Saint Petersburg instead hosting the 2022 final.[2] The winners of the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League will automatically qualify for the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League group stage, and also earn the right to play against the winners of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League in the 2022 UEFA Super Cup.
This season is the first since 1998–99 (the last season when the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was played) where three major European club competitions (UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and the newly created UEFA Europa Conference League) are organised by UEFA. No changes are made to the format of the Champions League, but teams which are eliminated from the preliminary round and first qualifying round of the Champions League are now transferred to the Europa Conference League instead of the Europa League.[3] Chelsea are the defending champions.
On 24 June 2021, UEFA approved the proposal to abolish the away goals rule in all UEFA club competitions, which had been used since 1965. Accordingly, if in a two-legged tie two teams score the same amount of aggregate goals, the winner of tie would not be decided by the number of away goals scored by each team but always by 30 minutes of extra time, and if the two teams score the same amount of goals in extra time, the winner would be decided by a penalty shoot-out.[4]
A total of 80 teams from 54 of the 55 UEFA member associations participate in the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League (the exception being Liechtenstein,[Note LIE] which does not organise a domestic league). The association ranking based on the UEFA association coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[5]
Associations 1–4 each have four teams qualify.
Associations 5–6 each have three teams qualify.
Associations 7–15 each have two teams qualify.
Associations 16–55 (except Liechtenstein)[Note LIE] each have one team qualify.
The winners of the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League and 2020–21 UEFA Europa League are each given an additional entry if they do not qualify for the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league. However, the Champions League title holders have qualified through their domestic league, meaning the additional entry for the Champions League title holders is not necessary for this season.
Association ranking
For the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2020 UEFA association coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2015–16 to 2019–20.[6]
Apart from the allocation based on the association coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below:
(UEL) – Additional berth for UEFA Europa League title holders
The following is the access list for this season.[7] As the Champions League title holders, Chelsea, which were guaranteed a berth in the Champions League group stage, already qualified via their domestic league (as fourth place in the 2020-21 Premier League), the following changes to the access list were made:
The champions of association 11 (Turkey) entered the group stage instead of the play-off round.
The champions of association 13 (Denmark) entered the play-off round instead of the third qualifying round.
The champions of association 15 (Czech Republic) entered the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round.
The champions of associations 18 (Greece) and 19 (Serbia) entered the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round.