 The Colovray Stadium in Nyon will host the semi-finals and final | |
| Dates | 16 September 2025 – 20 April 2026 |
|---|---|
← 2024–25 2026–27 → | |
The 2025–26 UEFA Youth League will be the twelfth season of the UEFA Youth League, a European youth club football competition organised by UEFA.[1]
The title holders are Barcelona, who defeated Trabzonspor 4–1 in the previous edition's final.
Teams
[edit]A total of 88 teams from 52 of the 55 UEFA member associations entered the tournament. They were split into two sections.
- UEFA Champions League Path: The youth teams of the 36 clubs which qualified for the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League league phase entered the UEFA Champions League Path. If there had been a vacancy (youth teams not entering), it would have been filled by a team defined by UEFA.
- Domestic Champions Path: The youth domestic champions of all UEFA associations (with the exception of Liechtenstein and San Marino, who do not have a youth domestic competition, and Russia, who was suspended from UEFA competitions) entered the Domestic Champions Path. Clubs from the top 28 associations according to their 2025 UEFA country coefficients qualified for the second round, with the remaining 24 teams starting from the first round. If the youth domestic champions qualify for the UEFA Champions League path, their spot was filled by the youth domestic runners-ups; if the runners-ups also qualify for the UEFA Champions League path, the vacancy was not filled (a change from previous editions where only the winners were taken into consideration).[1]
|
- Notes
- TH Title holders.
- RU Youth domestic runners-up playing in the Domestic Champions Path because the domestic champions qualified for the UEFA Champions League Path.
- YC Teams playing in the UEFA Champions League Path which were also youth domestic champions.
- PO Teams playing in the UEFA Champions League Path after their senior team qualified for the Champions League league phase via play-offs.
- ^ Russia (RUS): On 28 February 2022, Russian football clubs and national teams were suspended from FIFA and UEFA competitions due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[2] The tables reflect Russia's ongoing suspension from UEFA competitions.[3]
Distribution
[edit]| Path | Round | Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from the previous round |
|---|---|---|---|
| UEFA Champions League Path (36 teams) |
League phase (36 teams) |
|
|
| Domestic Champions Path (52 teams) |
First round (24 teams) |
|
|
| Second round (40 teams) |
|
| |
| Third round (20 teams) |
| ||
| Knockout phase (32 teams) |
| ||
As the Youth League title holders (Barcelona) qualified for Champions League Path via their senior side, the following changes to the default access list were made:
Round and draw dates
[edit]The schedule of the competition was as follows.[1]
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UEFA Champions League Path | Matchday 1 | 28 August 2025 | 16–18 September 2025 | |
| Matchday 2 | 30 September – 1 October 2025 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 21–22 October 2025 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 4–5 November 2025 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 25–26 November 2025 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 9–10 December 2025 | |||
| Domestic Champions Path |
First round | 1 September 2025 | 17 September 2025 | 1 October 2025 |
| Second round | 22 October 2025 | 5 November 2025 | ||
| Third round | 26 November 2025 | 10 December 2025 | ||
| Knockout phase | Round of 32 | 12 December 2025 | 3–4 February 2026 | |
| Round of 16 | 6 February 2026 | 24–25 February 2026 | ||
| Quarter-finals | 17–18 March 2026 | |||
| Semi-finals | 17 April 2026 Colovray Stadium, Nyon | |||
| Final | 20 April 2026 Colovray Stadium, Nyon | |||
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c "2025/26 UEFA Youth League dates, format". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 28 April 2025.
- ^ "Ukraine crisis: Fifa and Uefa suspend all Russian clubs and national teams". British Broadcasting Corporation. 28 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- ^ "UEFA decisions for upcoming competitions relating to the ongoing suspension of Russian national teams and clubs". UEFA.com (Press release). Nyon: Union of European Football Associations. 2 May 2022. Retrieved 2 May 2022.