Champions League Overhauls Home Advantage Rule for 2025-26 Season Following Club Protests

The UEFA Champions League is set to implement a significant structural change for its 2025-26 knockout phase, redefining how home advantage is allocated for pivotal second-leg matches. This new regulation, directly influenced by protests from prominent clubs, aims to reward consistent performance throughout the initial league phase of the competition.

Under the updated rules, teams that finish within the top four positions of the league phase will automatically secure home advantage for the second leg of their quarter-final ties. Furthermore, the top two teams from the league phase will be guaranteed to host the second leg of their semi-final matches, should they progress to that stage.

This move is a direct response to dissatisfaction voiced by several clubs, including European giants Arsenal and Barcelona, after the conclusion of the 2024-25 season. Both clubs expressed concerns over feeling disadvantaged by the previous random draw system, which arbitrarily determined the venue for second-leg encounters. For example, Arsenal, despite finishing considerably higher than Paris Saint-Germain in the league phase, was compelled to play the second leg of their semi-final away from home. Barcelona experienced similar drawbacks in both their quarter-final and semi-final second legs.

While the new system prioritizes league phase performance, it includes an interesting caveat: if a higher-ranked team is eliminated by a lower-ranked team, the victorious lower-ranked team will inherit the higher-ranked team's seeding position. This inheritance then determines home advantage in subsequent rounds. This provision means a team could potentially earn home advantage in later stages even if they didn't finish at the very top of the league phase, provided they successfully overcome higher-seeded opponents.

Despite these changes, some concerns persist regarding teams finishing third or fourth in the league phase, as they will still not be guaranteed home advantage in the semi-finals. Nevertheless, the overarching goal of the new format is to foster greater clarity and provide a tangible reward for teams that demonstrate sustained high performance across the entire league stage of the UEFA Champions League.