The 2025/26 Champions League season gets underway with the Premier League representatives including Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham all in action and set to feel the pinch of UEFA’s new rules
UEFA have revealed two significant Champions League rule alterations that will impact Premier League sides over the forthcoming campaign.
Premier League sides commence their respective European charges over the coming week. Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester City and Newcastle are set to represent the Premier League. The Gunners face Athletic Bilbao in Spain, while Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea welcome German champions Bayern Munich.
Following their Europa League triumph last season, Tottenham have been paired with Villarreal for their opening clash. Meanwhile, Newcastle take on Barcelona, Liverpool host Atletico Madrid and Manchester City kick-off their campaign against Italian champions Napoli.
This campaign marks the second year featuring the restructured league stage format – which UEFA introduced last term. After its inaugural season, European football’s governing body has opted to implement a minor adjustment to the regulations.
It has been confirmed that any sides securing an automatic quarter-final berth will host the second-leg of that tie at home. UEFA’s revised Regulations of the Champions League document states: “Seeded teams, i.e. teams ranked 1 to 4 after the league phase, play the return leg at home in the quarter-finals, and teams ranked 1 and 2 also play the return leg of the semi-finals at home. If a seeded team is beaten in any round, the team that eliminates them takes over their seeding position in the bracket path (i.e. the higher ranking for seeding purposes is not recalculated after each round).”
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Arsenal were among the clubs caught out by that regulation last season, having secured automatic qualification only to discover their quarter-final second leg with Real Madrid would take place at the Santiago Bernabeu rather than the Emirates Stadium.
Meanwhile, alterations have been made to squad regulations. Clubs are presently permitted to register just 25 players for their Champions League squads, with a maximum of 17 who aren’t ‘locally trained’.
This has resulted in several prominent players being omitted, including Federico Chiesa (Liverpool), Mathys Tel (Tottenham), Facundo Buonanotte (Chelsea) and others. However, UEFA have unveiled a fresh initiative enabling clubs to register one additional temporary replacement should injuries or illness occur during the opening six matchdays of the league phase.
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The updated regulations state: “The Executive Committee approved an amendment to the 2025/2026 UEFA men’s club competitions’ regulations to admit the temporary replacement of a maximum of one outfield player with long-term injury or illness during the league phase until matchday 6 included.”
This development will undoubtedly please Spurs boss Thomas Frank, who previously criticised the regulations after excluding Tel from his official squad list. He said: “That was an extremely difficult decision. I also think in many ways it was a bit unfair – as the UEFA lists are not big enough. The load is getting more and more on the players. We need a bigger squad. I cannot understand why we need to limit ourselves.
“I like the idea of club-trained players by the way. I needed to name it before I really knew ‘Matty’ [Mathys Tel]. I think the way he handled it was extremely mature. It was really impressive.”
The Champions League league stage continues until January next year. The top nine sides will secure automatic qualification for the quarter-finals, while the remaining 18 teams will then battle it out in a playoff to progress to the next stage.
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