The Champions League Now Belongs to a Bigger Europe

The 36-team Champions League league phase is no longer a novelty. The 2026/27 season is the third under the system introduced in 2024, and the conversation around it has changed considerably since the old four-team groups disappeared. At launch, the objections were easy to understand: more matches in an already crowded calendar, a single table that looked unnecessarily complicated and the removal of a structure supporters had known for decades. Player workload remains a legitimate concern and should not be brushed aside. Yet the sporting format itself has settled remarkably quickly for a game that rarely embraces radical change without years of resistance. On the final night of the first league phase, all 36 clubs played simultaneously, 64 goals were scored across 18 matches and 35 of the 36 teams changed position at least once while the games were being played. The second edition then produced 487 goals across 144 league-phase matches, up from 470 in the first season. (UEFA) (UEFA)

It would be too simple to say that every supporter loves the change. There is still nostalgia for the group stage, and the extra dates remain controversial. But the speed of acceptance is striking. In a January 2025 poll of 1,081 readers by Dutch football magazine Voetbal International, 70.4% described the new set-up positively, while 14.1% said they missed the old group stage; the rest felt it was too early to judge. One poll cannot speak for all of Europe, but it captures something that has become increasingly visible: once the league phase was actually played, much of the debate moved away from whether the table was understandable and towards what the extra matches mean for the calendar. (Voetbal International)

Part of that acceptance comes from variety. Clubs no longer play the same three opponents home and away; they face eight different teams, two from each seeding pot, with one home and one away fixture against teams from every pot. That creates 144 unique league-phase match-ups rather than the 48 produced by the old group system. It also gives the competition a wider geographical rhythm. Madrid, Munich, Paris, Milan and London remain at the centre of European club football, but the same competition now travels more naturally to places such as Baku, Stavanger, Linz and Como. The format has not made the Champions League democratic overnight: of the four places added when the competition expanded from 32 to 36 teams, two are European Performance Spots awarded to the best-performing associations from the previous season. The biggest leagues therefore retain substantial structural advantages. But one additional domestic champion can qualify through the champions path, and the broader league phase gives more clubs and more cities a sustained place inside the main competition rather than a single qualifying tie. (UEFA format guide)

Como: Europe begins at the very top

Como may be the clearest symbol of how quickly a club's horizon can change. Promoted back to Serie A in 2024, the club finished fourth in Italy in 2025/26 and will enter European competition for the first time in its history directly through the Champions League. UEFA lists the 2026/27 league phase as Como's best European Cup performance because there is no earlier campaign to compare it with. Under Cesc Fàbregas, a club that was operating at Serie B level only a few years ago now has to function to Champions League standards. That shift extends well beyond recruitment for the first team. Scouting, performance, media, partnerships, hospitality, travel, security, ticketing and international communications all have to scale with the sporting rise. From a Kickwise perspective, Como is a useful reminder that when a football club moves up a level, the professional ecosystem behind the team has to move with it. (UEFA team profiles)

Sabah: a second Azerbaijani route to the main stage

Sabah's story matters for a different reason. Azerbaijan has already experienced the Champions League through Qarabağ, so this is not a first for the country; it is a sign that elite European access does not have to belong to only one organisation within a smaller football economy. Sabah completed a domestic double in 2025/26 and then survived the qualifying route to reach the league phase for the first time. Their play-off was dramatic: after losing 2-1 away to Hapoel Beer-Sheva, they won 5-2 after extra time in Baku to progress 6-4 on aggregate. UEFA ranked Sabah 244th in its coefficient list at the end of last season, placing them in a very different institutional and financial position from the competition's established powers. That is exactly why their presence is significant. A second Azerbaijani club reaching this level can affect sponsorship, academy ambition, recruitment networks and professional standards across a market that has often been represented internationally by a single dominant name. (UEFA qualifying results) (UEFA team profiles)

Viking: Norway's European rise is becoming broader

Viking will also make their first appearance in the Champions League's main stage. The Stavanger club won the Norwegian title in 2025, ending a 34-year wait, and then came through qualifying by beating GNK Dinamo 5-3 on aggregate in the play-off. UEFA notes that Viking's only previous appearance in a UEFA group or league phase came in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup. Their arrival is particularly interesting after Bodø/Glimt's breakthrough. Bodø/Glimt turned northern Norway into a credible European football destination and returned to the Champions League again this season; Viking now gives the country another club operating on the same stage. That matters because sustained development is more convincing when it is visible in several organisations rather than concentrated in one exceptional team. Stavanger, a city far removed from the traditional Champions League centres, is now part of the competition's regular map. (UEFA qualifying results) (UEFA team profiles)

LASK: Linz finally reaches the Champions League

LASK arrived in the most dramatic fashion of the four newcomers. The Austrian champions lost the first leg of their play-off 3-0 at Celtic and then fell behind again in the return match in Linz. What followed was a 5-1 extra-time victory and a 5-4 aggregate comeback that delivered the first Champions League qualification in the club's history. The result was spectacular, but the wider context matters more than one extraordinary night. LASK had already won the Austrian Bundesliga and Austrian Cup in 2025/26, building a domestic season strong enough to put the club in position to take that step. For Linz, Champions League football means international visibility, new commercial attention and higher operational demands. For LASK, it means that departments throughout the organisation will be working at a scale they have never experienced before. (UEFA qualifying results) (UEFA team profiles)

The returnees tell another side of the same story

The 2026/27 line-up is not notable only because of its first-timers. Some of Europe's historic clubs have spent astonishingly long periods trying to get back. Real Betis last appeared in the main stage in 2005/06. Their return therefore comes 21 years after a campaign in which they shared a group with Liverpool and Chelsea. Fenerbahçe's absence has lasted almost as long. The Istanbul club last played in the Champions League group stage in 2008/09 and had repeatedly fallen in qualifying since then, despite reaching the quarter-finals only one season earlier in 2007/08. This time they drew 1-1 with Lyon in Istanbul and won 2-1 away to complete a 3-2 play-off victory. A club with one of Europe's largest supporter bases and significant financial resources needed 18 years to return to this level. That fact alone is a useful correction to the idea that Champions League participation is routine for every major club. (Fenerbahçe history) (UEFA qualifying results)

Roma and AEK Athens offer similar reminders on a shorter timescale. Roma were Champions League semi-finalists in 2017/18 and reached the round of 16 the following season, but had not been back in the competition's main stage since 2018/19. AEK's last appearance was also in 2018/19, and they had to win the Greek title and then defeat Levski Sofia in the play-off to return. Real Betis, Fenerbahçe, Roma and AEK are very different organisations, but together they underline how valuable a place in this competition remains. The Champions League can welcome first-time participants and still be difficult enough to keep historically significant clubs outside for years.

This is where the wider meaning of the 36-team field becomes more interesting than the simple claim that expansion creates more access. The competition remains unequal, and the additional European Performance Spots can strengthen countries that are already powerful. Revenue gaps between the largest clubs and the rest have not disappeared. Yet the league phase brings very different football worlds into the same sporting structure for longer. A club from Pot 4 plays two opponents from Pot 1 and hosts one of them at home. For Sabah, Viking, LASK or Como, a visit from one of Europe's biggest clubs is therefore not dependent on the luck of surviving several rounds and then landing in the right four-team group; it is built into the architecture of the league phase. (UEFA format guide) (2026/27 pots)

For smaller and medium-sized football markets, those nights can have consequences well beyond the scoreboard. A Champions League club needs stronger matchday operations, international media workflows, commercial activation, hospitality, security, travel planning, data and performance support, multilingual communications and more sophisticated recruitment. UEFA revenue can accelerate that process, but money alone does not guarantee sustainable growth. The lasting value comes when clubs use the opportunity to improve infrastructure, academies and professional departments rather than treating qualification as a one-season windfall. The risk runs in the opposite direction too: Champions League income can widen domestic inequalities if one club grows far beyond the rest of its league. The opportunity is real, but so is the responsibility attached to it.

There is also a less measurable effect. For a child in Baku who trains in Sabah's academy, the Champions League is no longer only something happening in Madrid or Manchester. For a young player in Stavanger, the biggest club competition in Europe now includes the badge they see in their own city. The same applies to young people who do not expect to become professional players but want to work in football. When Champions League-level operations exist in more places, careers in analysis, coaching, media, marketing, scouting, medical performance and club operations become visible closer to home. The dream does not suddenly become easy, but it becomes easier to imagine because there is a local example of it.

That may be the most interesting legacy of the format as it enters its third season. The debate began with mathematics: 36 teams instead of 32, eight matches instead of six, one table instead of eight groups. Three years later, the more important question is what those numbers have done to the competition's reach. Como, Sabah, Viking and LASK arrive for the first time. Real Betis return after 21 years, Fenerbahçe after 18, while Roma and AEK are back after absences dating to 2018/19. These are not the same stories, and that is precisely the point.

The Champions League remains Europe's elite club competition. Its richest and most powerful teams will continue to dominate the list of favourites, and its calendar will continue to raise legitimate questions. But the boundary around who can realistically picture themselves inside it looks a little less fixed than it once did. The Champions League is still elite. It simply belongs to a slightly bigger Europe now.