UEFA Champions League 2018-19 - Draw rules and restrictions

August 30, 2018 By Oscar Rojas

Topics: UEFA Champions League, UEFA Champions League draw, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Juventus

Hours away from the big draw, there are still some doubts among fans that we will try to clarify with this article.

Whenever the UEFA Champions League season arrives, fans want to keep tabs on which opponents their favorite teams will be playing.

Even if the draw has been explained time and time again, there seem to be some doubts regarding the draw process and its outcome. Which teams can't face each other during the group stage? How are teams dealt from Group A to Group D and from Group E to Group H? Here are a number of questions we'll be happy to answer to make the experience of watching this draw a bit easier.

Pots

All 32 teams have been allocated in four pots. Pot 1 includes the UEFA Champions League holders, the UEFA Europa League winner from last season, and all champions from the Top 6 European leagues. Pots 2 to 4 are determined by each team's European coefficient. This coefficient is obtained by the team's point tally in the last five seasons or by the association's coefficient during the same period.

Pot 1: Real Madrid (ESP), Atlético Madrid (ESP), Barcelona (ESP), Bayern München (GER), Manchester City (ENG), Juventus (ITA), PSG (FRA), Lokomotiv Moskva (RUS).

Pot 2: Borussia Dortmund (GER), Porto (POR), Manchester United (ENG), Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR), Benfica (POR), Napoli (ITA), Tottenham (ENG), Roma (ITA).

Pot 3: Liverpool (ENG), Schalke (GER), Lyon (FRA), Monaco (FRA), Ajax (NED), CSKA Moskva (RUS), PSV Eindhoven (NED), Valencia (ESP).

Pot 4: Viktoria Plzen (CZE), Club Brugge (BEL), Galatasaray (TUR), Young Boys (SUI), Inter Milan (ITA), Hoffenheim (GER), Crvena Zvezda (SER), AEK Athens (GRE).

Rule No. 1: No teams from the same league can face each other in the UCL Group Stage

With this rule, Juventus and Inter Milan wouldn't be allowed to face each other during the Group Stage. That would be the same case for Der Klassiker between Bayern and Dortmund or Manchester United and Manchester City.

Due to political reasons, teams from Russia and Ukraine are also not allowed to be paired up in the same Group. This rule applies this year to the following teams: Shakhtar Donetsk, Lokomotiv Moskva and CSKA Moskva.

Rule No. 2: Pairings to balance teams from the same association

There are some associations that have two or more teams playing in this edition of the UEFA Champions League. In order to avoid teams such as Real Madrid and Barcelona from playing the same day, once any of those teams has been draw in Group A to D, the other one will be immediately allocated in one of the Groups from E to H.

Team pairings for the UEFA Champions League 2018-19 edition.

Real Madrid - Barcelona
Atlético Madrid - Valencia
Bayern - Borussia Dortmund
Manchester City - Tottenham
Juventus - Inter Milan
PSG - Lyon
Lokomotiv Moskva - CSKA Moskva
Porto - Benfica
Manchester United - Liverpool
Napoli - Roma
Schalke - Hoffenheim
Ajax - PSV Eindhoven

We hope that, with this rule, you can get a better idea of why each team will be allocated on which group. Let's see what the draw has in store for us today!