Generally, every season of Champions League start from middle of the July with three knockout qualifying rounds and a play off round. From there, ten teams selects for the group stage matches. The main event as well as group stage matches used to start in September. The season of 2016/17, the Champions League has come to the starting point.
1st Qualifying Schedule 2016-17 UCL
| Date | Time | Match between |
| 28 June, 2016
(Tuesday) 1st Leg |
TBD | Valletta Vs B36 Torshavn |
| TBD | Lincoln Red Imps FC Vs Flora | |
| TBD | The New Saints Vs S.P. Tre Penne | |
| TBD | FC Santa Coloma Vs Alashkert | |
|
5 July, 2016 (Tuesday) 2nd Leg |
TBD | B36 Torshavn Vs Valletta |
| TBD | Flora Vs Lincoln Red Imps FC | |
| TBD | S.P. Tre Penne Vs The New Saints | |
| TBD | Alashkert Vs FC Santa Coloma |
2nd Qualifying Round
| Date | Time | Match between |
|
13 July, 2016 (Wednesday) 1st Leg |
BATE Vs SJK | |
| Dinamo Tbilisi Vs TBD | ||
| Skenderbeu Vs Ferencvaros | ||
| Red Bull Vs Liepaja | ||
| TBD Vs Apoel Nicosia | ||
| Rosenborg Vs Norrkoping | ||
| Crusaders FC Vs Kobenhavn | ||
| TBD Vs Celtic | ||
| H. Be’er Sheva Vs Sheriff | ||
| Trencin Vs Olimpija NK | ||
| Dundalk Vs Fimleikafelag Hafnarfjaroar | ||
| FK Vardar Vs Dinamo Zagreb | ||
| HSK Zrinjski Mostar Vs Legia Warsaw | ||
| Qarabag FK Vs Dudelange | ||
| Zalgiris Vilnius Vs Astana | ||
| Ludogorets Vs Mladost Podgorica | ||
| TBD Vs Red Star Belgrade | ||
|
20 July, 2016 (Wednesday) 2nd Leg |
HSK Zrinjski Mostar Vs Legia Warsaw | |
| Ludogorets Vs Mladost Podgorica | ||
| FK Vardar Vs Dinamo Zagreb | ||
| TBD Vs Red Star Belgrade | ||
| Dinamo Tbilisi Vs TBD | ||
| Red Bull Vs Liepaja | ||
| Crusaders FC Vs Kobenhavn | ||
| Skenderbeu Vs Ferencvaros | ||
| Dundalk Vs Fimleikafelag Hafnarfjaroar | ||
| Celtic Vs TBD | ||
| Qarabag FK Vs Dudelange | ||
| Trencin Vs Olimpija NK | ||
| H. Be’er Sheva Vs Sheriff | ||
| Zalgiris Vilnius Vs Astana | ||
| TBD Vs Apoel Nicosia | ||
| SJK Vs BATE | ||
| Rosenborg Vs Norrkoping |
UEFA Champions League 2016-17 Calendar –
| S/N | Date | Stage | Session |
| 1. | 29th June, 2016 | 1st Leg | 1st Qualifying Round |
| 2. | 6th July, 2016 | 2nd Leg | 1st Qualifying Round |
| 3. | 13th July, 2016 | 1st Leg | 2nd Qualifying Round |
| 4. | 20th July, 2016 | 2nd Leg | 2nd Qualifying Round |
| 5. | 27th July, 2016 | 1st Leg | 3rd Qualifying Round |
| 6. | 3rd August, 2016 | 2nd Leg | 3rd Qualifying Round |
| 7. | 17th August, 2016 | 1st Leg | Play Off Round |
| 8. | 24th August, 2016 | 2nd Leg | Play Off Round |
| 9. | 14th September, 2016 | 1st Match Day | Group Stage |
| 10. | 28th September, 2016 | 2nd Match Day | Group Stage |
| 11. | 19th October, 2016 | 3rd Match Day | Group Stage |
| 12. | 2nd November, 2016 | 4th Match Day | Group Stage |
| 13. | 23rd November, 2016 | 5th Match Day | Group Stage |
| 14. | 7th December, 2016 | 6th Match Day | Group Stage |
| 15. | 15th February, 2017 | 1st Leg | Round of Sixteen |
| 16. | 8th March, 2017 | 2nd Leg | Round of Sixteen |
| 17. | 12th April, 2017 | 1st Leg | Quarter Finals |
| 18. | 19th April, 2017 | 2nd Leg | Quarter Finals |
| 19. | 3rd May, 2017 | 1st Leg | Semi Finals |
| 20. | 10th May, 2017 | 2nd Leg | Semi Finals |
| 21. | 3rd June, 2017 | Final |
UEFA Champions League is the largest club football tournament of Europe where 32 teams from different nation participated on. On the basis of national leagues coefficient rating, 4 – 1 club take chance to play into this event. Popular leagues like La Liga, Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A, Portuguese Liga, French Ligue 1 Champions & Runner-up directly qualify for the main group stage. Rest of the team qualification held among 54 nations/leagues best performing clubs. After every season, qualifying & play-off round held on to pick top performer of that time being.
54 nation of Europe and their clubs get chance to qualifier round of Champions league but around 13-15 countries club can finally join for the main tournament. System of qualification is as much renowned league, as much team will get chance. Important thing is the popularity of national league. As like, around 3-4 teams of England, Spain & Germany able to play the final stages and some where 1 club need to qualify by fight against 18 other countries club. Coefficient rating is the fact behind this qualification procedure.
Current Coeff. Rating of top 10 leagues –
#1 – Spanish La Liga – 99.999
#2 – English Premier League – 80.391
#3 – German Bundesliga – 79.415
#4 – Italian Serie A – 70.510
#5 – Portuguese Liga – 61.382
#6 – French Ligue 1 – 52.416
#7 – Russian Premier League – 50.498
#8 – Dutch Eredivisie – 45.166
#9 – Ukrainian Premier League – 40.979
#10 – Belgian Jupiler League – 37.2
After the playoff matches, 32 teams finally join for the tournament. UEFA make 8 groups where each group consist 4 teams. Before every round schedule including group stage, round of last 16, round of last 8/quarterfinals, Semifinals, UEFA management committee arrange a draw to release fixture. Into the knockout stages, a team play 2 match against the opponent in Home & Away ground and on the basis of total goal aggregation, one of them qualify for the next round. If the aggregation become same, than a match go to tie-breaker penalty shootout.
# Draw Date:
| S/N | Date | Session | Stage |
| 1. | 20th June, 2016 | Qualifying | 1st & 2nd Qualifying Round |
| 2. | 15th July, 2016 | Qualifying | 3rd Qualifying Round |
| 3. | 5th August, 2016 | Play Off | Play Off Round |
| 4. | 25th August, 2016 | Group Stage | From 1st to 6th Match Day |
| 5. | 12th December, 2016 | Knockout | Round of Sixteen |
| 6. | 17th March, 2017 | Knockout | Quarter Finals |
| 7. | 21st April, 2017 | Knockout | Semi Finals |
| 8. | 21st April, 2017 | Knockout | Final |
UEFA Champions League is one of the most prestigious and most viewed football competition where total thirty two (32) clubs will be given approval to participate in main event this season of 2016/17. 32 clubs will be divided into eight group containing four clubs each. The tournament will be executed according to the double round robin format. From there, eight group winners along with eight group runners up will proceed to the next knockout round.
Real Madrid is the most successful team in UEFA Champions League by winning highest ten (10) titles. Last in 2014, they won this title. The current champion is FC Barcelona in 2015 which was their 5th titles. Second most successful team is Italian club Milan by grabbing 7th titles.
Among 32 teams, 22 club get chance to directly play Group stage of Champions League. On the basis of current ranking & coefficient points selection procedure held on.
- Spain (1st [1], 2nd [2] & 3rd [3])
- England (1st [4], 2nd [5] & 3rd [6])
- Germany (1st [7], 2nd [8] & 3rd [9])
- Italy (1st [10] & 2nd [11])
- Portugal (1st [13] & 2nd [14])
- France (1st [15] & 2nd [16])
- Russia (1st [17])
- Ukraine (1st [18])
- Netherlands (1st [19])
- Belgium (1st [20])
- Switzerland (1st [21])
- Turkey (1st [22])
UEFA Champions League started from the year 1955-56 and it’s 62nd season going on. Still now Spanish giant Real Madrid is the highest amount of title winner of this tournament those earned 10 trophy. Italian most renowned club AC Milan won this title 7 times. You can check another content of Sports maza where have a list of “Past winners since 1955-56“.
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