What time is the Champions League draw today? When it starts, group stage pots and how to watch live for free

The Champions League group stage draw takes place today, with six British sides in Europe’s premier club competition.

For the first time since the 2007-08 season, the Scottish Premiership will have two clubs in the group stage, after Rangers overcame PSV Eindhoven in a play-off last night to join Celtic, who qualified automatically.

English champions Manchester City are joined by the rest of last season’s Premier League top four – Liverpool, who were beaten by Real Madrid in last year’s final, Chelsea and Tottenham.

Here’s everything you need to know about how the Champions League draw works, who’s in the group stages and how to watch it live.

What time is the Champions League draw today?

The Champions League draw is scheduled to start at 5pm (BST) on Thursday 25 August, and i sbeing held in Istanbul, Turkey.

Subscribers to BT Sport – which has exclusive rights to the competition in the UK – will be able to watch the proceedings live on TV, with coverage on BT Sport 1 from 4.45pm to 6.45pm, or via the BT Sport App here.

There will also be a free live stream available on the Uefa website, which you can find here.

Rangers won a dramatic play-off victory against PSV to earn a group stage spot (Photo: Getty Images)

Which teams are in each pot?

In the draw, 32 teams will be in the pot – 26 automatic qualifiers and six play-off winners – and divided into eight groups.

Clubs have been split into four pots, with one team from each making up a group. Pot one is made up of holders Real , the other champions of Europe’s biggest leagues and Europa League winners Eintracht Frankfurt.

The other pots are based on how well teams have done in Europe over the past five seasons.

Teams from the same league cannot meet in the group stage, but there is nothing to stop an English team being drawn against a Scottish opponent.

Man City are in pot one, while Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham are in the second, with Celtic and Rangers in the fourth pot.

Here are the Champions League pots in full:

Pot 1

• Real Madrid
• Eintracht Frankfurt
• Manchester City
• AC Milan
• Bayern Munich
• Paris Saint-Germain
• FC Porto
• Ajax

Pot 2

• Liverpool
• Chelsea
• Barcelona
• Juventus
• Atletico Madrid
• Sevilla
• RB Leipzig
• Tottenham Hotspur

Pot 3

• Borussia Dortmund
• FC Salzburg
• Shakhtar Donetsk
• Inter Milan
• Napoli
• Benfica
• Sporting CP
• Bayer Leverkusen

Pot 4

• Rangers
• Dinamo Zagreb
• Marseille
• FC Copenhagen
• Club Brugge
• Celtic
• Viktoria Plzen
• Maccabi Haifa

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The system raises the possibility of some heavyweight groups.

Man City could end up with Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund and Marseille, while facing Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Marseille is a possibility for the other English clubs.

Celtic and Rangers could find themselves with Paris St Germain, Liverpool and Inter.

When are the Champions League group stage fixtures?

This year, the Champions League group stage will be condensed into just eight weeks, due to the 2022 World Cup starting in Qatar on 20 November:

• Matchday 1: 6-7 September
• Matchday 2: 13-14 September
• Matchday 3: 4-5 October
• Matchday 4: 11-12 October
• Matchday 5: 25-26 October
• Matchday 6: 1-2 November

The draw for the round of 16 will then take place on Monday 7 November.

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