What is the Women's Champions League?
The UEFA Women’s Champions League is the top club competition in European women’s football, contested by the champions and leading clubs of UEFA’s member associations. Seventy-four teams from 50 associations entered the 2026–27 edition: associations ranked first to seventh in UEFA’s women’s coefficient enter three clubs, eighth to seventeenth two, the rest one, with the holders and the winners of the new second-tier UEFA Women’s Europa Cup guaranteed a league-phase place if they have not qualified domestically.[1] [2] [7]
How does it work?
Since 2025–26 the group stage has been replaced by a league phase of 18 clubs, each playing six matches in a single table; the top four go straight to the quarter-finals, fifth to twelfth into a knockout playoff, and the competition proceeds through two-leg ties to a one-off final. The 2026–27 edition qualified its 18 league-phase clubs — including Barcelona, OL Lyonnes, Chelsea, Bayern, Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Juventus and Manchester City — on 5 September 2026; the league phase runs from 22 September to 16 December and the final is at the Stadion Narodowy in Warsaw.[1] [2] [7]
Since when does it exist?
UEFA launched the competition as the UEFA Women’s Cup in 2001–02 and renamed it the Women’s Champions League from 2009–10; a group stage was added in 2021–22 and the league phase in 2025–26. Lyon — now OL Lyonnes — hold the record with eight titles, five of them in a row from 2016 to 2020; Barcelona have won four of the last six finals. The 2020 final was relocated from Vienna to San Sebastián and, like the 2021 final in Gothenburg, played behind closed doors.[1] [4] [5]
| Season | Pool / Format | Host cities |
|---|---|---|
| 2025–26 | Barcelona | Final: 4–0 vs OL Lyonnes — Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo, 23 May 2026 (att. 24,258); fourth title |
| 2024–25 | Arsenal | Final: 1–0 vs Barcelona — Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon (att. 38,356) |
| 2023–24 | Barcelona | Final: 2–0 vs Lyon — San Mamés, Bilbao |
| 2022–23 | Barcelona | Final: 3–2 vs VfL Wolfsburg — Philips Stadion, Eindhoven |
| 2021–22 | Lyon | Final: 3–1 vs Barcelona — Juventus Stadium, Turin; eighth title |
| 2020–21 | Barcelona | Final: 4–0 vs Chelsea — Gamla Ullevi, Gothenburg, behind closed doors |
| 2019–20 | Lyon | Final: 3–1 vs VfL Wolfsburg — San Sebastián, behind closed doors |
| 2018–19 | Lyon | Final: 4–1 vs Barcelona — Groupama Arena, Budapest |
| 2017–18 | Lyon | Final: 4–1 aet vs VfL Wolfsburg — Kyiv |
| 2016–17 | Lyon | Final: 0–0, 7–6 pens vs Paris Saint-Germain — Cardiff City Stadium |
Winners of the last ten finals.
Why does it matter?
UEFA’s centralisation of the competition’s commercial rights produced a record EUR 37.7m per season for 2025–27, up 122 percent on the previous cycle, with EUR 505,000 for each league-phase club and up to EUR 1.995m for the winner. The 2025 final in Lisbon drew 38,356 and the 2026 final in Oslo 24,258. England (70.082) and Spain (69.665) led UEFA’s women’s association ranking on 28 December 2025, and Barcelona topped the 2025–26 club coefficients.[1] [3] [4] [6]
References
- UEFA — UEFA Women’s Champions League official site. Accessed September 2026.
- UEFA — UEFA Women’s Champions League: meet the league phase contenders. Accessed September 2026.
- UEFA — Record revenue distribution for UEFA women’s club competitions. Accessed September 2026.
- Wikipedia — 2026 UEFA Women’s Champions League final (background). Accessed September 2026.
- Wikipedia — UEFA Women’s Champions League (background). Accessed September 2026.
- UEFA — UEFA rankings 2025: which teams and nations are on top?. Accessed September 2026.
- Wikipedia — 2026–27 UEFA Women’s Champions League (background). Accessed September 2026.