Here Are The Teams Competing In The Champions League Next Season

Champions League (Twitter @championsleague)

JAKARTA - As many as 26 teams have been confirmed to compete in the Champions League group phase for the 2021/22 season after the completion of the domestic leagues and the Champions League and Europa League finals this season.

As has been the case in the last three years, 26 tickets for the Champions League group phase have been determined based on the results of the domestic league, Champions League and Europa League the previous season.

The details are two tickets allocated for the defending champions of the Champions League and Europa League and 10 tickets for domestic league champions in the top 10 ranking UEFA coefficients.

Then six tickets for the runners-up team of the domestic league in the top six rankings of UEFA's coefficiencies

As well as eight tickets each for third and fourth-placed domestic leagues in the top four coefficiencies of UEFA.

Even though the Champions League final has not been played, two finalist teams, namely Manchester City and Chelsea, have already qualified based on the ranking in their domestic league, so that the group phase ticket quota warps to the Turkish League champions, Besiktas, whose league is ranked 11th in UEFA coefficient.

Meanwhile, Villarreal, who won the 2020/21 Europa League, immediately received the right to appear in the main round of the Champions League next season even though they only finished seventh in the Spanish League final standings.

In other words, Villarreal immediately moved up to two classes, from what was supposed to take part in the qualifying playoffs of the UEFA Conference League third tier competition to go straight to the Champions League.

As many as 21 of the 26 teams that have already secured tickets to the Champions League group stage, last season also took part in the main stage of Europe's most prestigious competition.

Even Real Madrid, which is also the collector of the competition's most titles with 13 wins (including six times in the Champions Cup era) in 25 seasons, never being absent from the main round of the Champions League.

Meanwhile, five teams have the opportunity to return to the main stage of the Champions League after missing at least one season, such as Lille, which is absent this season but will appear next season, entering as the new champions of the French country.

Besiktas, who got a second-hand ticket because this season's final brought together City and Chelsea, also returned to the main round of the Champions League after missing two seasons and last appeared in 2017/18.

The same period was also felt by Sporting CP, who this time arrived as champions of the Portuguese League, after ending a 19-year title drought.

Meanwhile, VfL Wolfsburg has been absent for five seasons, when they last won a Champions League ticket while still being strengthened by a young talent named Kevin de Bruyne, even though in the 2015/16 season the Belgian player had changed uniforms and moved home to Etihad.

Meanwhile, AC Milan, which continues to wear the badge of honor as a team that has collected seven Champions trophies, has returned to Europe's highest caste competition after being absent for seven years.

Europa League champions Villarreal are the team that has been absent the longest and are now returning to the main stage of next season's Champions League. Exactly a decade ago Villarreal last felt the main stage of the Champions League in the 2011/12 season, unfortunately they ended up with zero points in the group phase.

The following are the teams that have won tickets to the 2021/22 Champions League group phase (countries based on coefficient rankings, clubs based on domestic final ranking):

Spain: Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla & Villarreal

England: Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool & Chelsea

Germany: Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig, Borussia Dortmund & VfL Wolfsburg

Italy: Inter Milan, AC Milan, Atalanta & Juventus

France: Lille & Paris Saint-Germain

Portugal: Sporting CP & Porto

Russia: Zenit Saint Petersburg

Belgium: Club Brugge

Ukraine: Dynamo Kiev

Netherlands: Ajax

Turkey: Besiktas