According to the official UEFA website, among other decisions, a new format for the Women's Champions League was approved and another women's club tournament was introduced.

The new format of the Women's Champions League will come into effect from the 2025/26 season. It will consist of a single-league stage involving 18 teams. This will allow more clubs to compete in a more competitive and dynamic tournament. Such a format guarantees the significance of every match. 

Reasons for changing the Women's Champions League format

The current format has been one of UEFA's first achievements in its women's football strategy "Time to Act," which since 2019 aims to develop the game in Europe, raising standards and increasing coverage and value. After restructuring competitions for the 2021/22 season, record attendance at stadiums and television audiences were recorded. Now UEFA wants to build on this success and make the Women's Champions League even more competitive. The format change will provide an opportunity for top teams to meet each other more frequently without increasing the number of matches at this stage and have a wider choice of opponents.

Format of the UEFA Women's Champions League from the 2025/26 season

According to the new format, teams will no longer play three opponents twice, home and away. Instead, they will play matches with six different opponents in the league stage, playing half of these matches at home and half away.

To determine these six different opponents, teams will be divided into three pots based on their club coefficient in the UEFA ranking. To ensure a balanced level of opposition for all and a balanced calendar, each team will then play against two opponents from each pot, playing one match against each opponent at home and one away.

The results of each match will determine a team's standing in the new league: three points for a win, one for a draw, and none for a loss. The new format, where all teams are united in one league, means tournament interest to play until the very last game.

The top four teams in the league will automatically qualify for the quarter-finals, while teams finishing 5th to 12th will compete in a two-legged knockout round in the play-off phase to secure their place in the quarter-finals. Teams finishing 13th to 18th are eliminated.

The four clubs that win the knockout matches of the play-off phase will advance to the quarter-finals, where each will face one of the top four seeded teams and host a home leg of the 1/4 final.

Starting from the quarter-finals, matches will be played in the existing play-off format, culminating in a final on neutral ground designated by UEFA.

Who will qualify for the new Women's Champions League and how will the format work?

Starting from the 2025/26 season, 18 teams will compete in the league stage, two more than in the current group stage format. In addition to the winner of last year's Women's Champions League and champions of three national associations with the highest ranking who have direct qualification under the current system, champions of associations ranked 4th-6th and runners-up from first and second tiers will also receive automatic berths.

Another four teams join them through the Champions Path qualification route, and five more through an expanded League Path qualification route that includes two new teams. That is, a team finishing second in an association ranked 17th and one finishing third in an association ranked seventh will qualify. The reform of the qualification guarantees participation in the league stage for more teams and means eight teams play two fewer qualifying matches.

Why is UEFA introducing a second women's club tournament, and how will it proceed?

The key goal of UEFA was to create another tournament that would allow more clubs to compete in Europe and provide additional motivation for investment in women's football at the domestic level.

Thirteen teams, including those finishing third in national leagues of associations ranked 8th-13th and teams finishing second in associations ranked 18th-24th, will automatically participate in this tournament, plus a second chance is given to clubs that were eliminated in the second round of the Champions League as well as teams finishing second and third in the first round.

The second tournament will proceed in a straight knockout format parallel to the Women's Champions League. In total, it will include six rounds: the first round, second round, 1/8 finals, 1/4 finals, semi-finals and final, all played as two-legged ties (home and away). The winner of the tournament will automatically qualify for the second round of next season's Champions Path in the Women's Champions League.