Aston Villa is among the 24 clubs that have qualified for the league phase of the 2026-27 Champions League.

A win over Liverpool at Villa Park secured Aston Villa's place, making them the fourth English team to qualify for Europe’s elite club competition. Joining Villa are Arsenal, Manchester City, and Manchester United, all of whom will finish no lower than fifth in the Premier League this season.

Traditionally, England is awarded four places in the Champions League. However, strong performances in UEFA club competitions this season have earned England one of the two Elite Performance Spots (EPS), leading to the top five Premier League clubs qualifying.

Other teams that have secured their spots include Inter Milan, Napoli, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Stuttgart, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Villarreal, Atletico Madrid, Real Betis, Paris St-Germain, Lens, Lille, PSV Eindhoven, Feyenoord, Galatasaray, Shakhtar Donetsk, Slavia Prague, and Porto.

Inter and Napoli have secured top-four finishes in Serie A, with Italy's top flight still having two places up for grabs. Spain's La Liga will also take five places in next season's Champions League due to an EPS, with Real Betis joining Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, and Villarreal.

Bayern Munich, PSV Eindhoven, Porto, Slavia Prague, and Galatasaray have already won their respective league titles, guaranteeing their places. Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, and Stuttgart earned top-four finishes in the Bundesliga, while Lens and Lille qualified by finishing second and third in Ligue 1.

Shakhtar Donetsk, the winner of Ukraine's top flight, was initially set to enter the second round of qualifying. However, due to Arsenal and Paris St-Germain already qualifying, Shakhtar was given the spot initially reserved for the winner of this season's Champions League.

A total of 36 teams will compete in the league phase of the Champions League, with 29 spots already decided before the end of this season. The other seven spots will come from qualification rounds in the early months of the 2026-27 campaign.

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Two places for next season's Champions League league phase go to the winners of this season's Champions League and Europa League.

Following that, to determine how many places each nation gets, UEFA uses its association rankings from the five-year period ending two seasons prior to that campaign.

For example, for the 1926-27 season, places are used based on UEFA rankings between the 2020-21 and 2024-25 seasons. With England, Italy, Spain, and Germany ranked first to fourth respectively, the top four teams in their leagues qualify straight to the league path. From France, which ranks fifth, the top three teams in Ligue 1 directly qualify, and fourth place will also earn a spot in the third qualifying round of the competition. The Netherlands is ranked sixth and is awarded spots for the top two Eredivisie sides, as well as third place entering the third qualifying round. Portugal, Belgium, Czech Republic, and Turkey, ranked seventh to 10th in order, are given two places each. The league winners from all four countries get a spot in the league phase, and the league runners-up in Portugal enter the third qualifying round.