Madrid head list in Monaco

Holders Real Madrid CF are among the 16 names already in the hat for the UEFA Champions League first group stage draw, which will take place in Monaco tomorrow at 16.00 CET.

Automatic qualifiers
Madrid have automatically qualified thanks to their success against Bayer 04 Leverkusen in last May's Hampden Park final and the 15 other automatic qualifiers did so on the basis of their performances in their domestic leagues.

Qualifying places
The remaining 16 places are allocated to the teams who have come through the qualifying rounds. The 32 teams will be drawn into eight groups of four teams each, and the winners and runners-up in each group will advance. The groups will be lettered A to H.

Various conditions
Certain conditions must be observed. Teams from the same country will not be drawn into the same group, and if two teams from the same association qualify, they will be paired to split their matches between Tuesday and Wednesday, i.e. one team will always play at home on one day, and the other team will play away from home on the other day.

Pairings
In the case of associations with three representatives, only two teams will be paired, while in the case of associations with four representatives, two pairings will be made. These pairings will be based on the TV audience and take account of the provisions of the competition regulations with regard to stadiums. Each team will play three matches on Tuesday and three matches on Wednesday.

Draw explanation
The 32 teams will be allocated to four pots in accordance with the seeding principles, based on the UEFA list of club coefficients. Pot 1 will comprise last season's title-holders, Real Madrid CF, and the top seven clubs in the club coefficient rankings. Pot 2 will comprise the following eight clubs in the rankings, and so on for Pots 3 and 4. 

Distinguished by colour
To ensure that clubs from the same country play on separate days as per the aforementioned pairing principles, the eight groups will be distinguished by colour: groups A to D will be "red", and groups E to H will be "blue". For example, when a paired club is drawn into one of the "red" groups (A, B, C or D), the other paired club - once it has been drawn - will automatically be assigned to one of the four "blue" groups (E, F, G or H).

Match sequence
The match sequence for the two groups will be:
"red" groups: Tuesday/Wednesday/Wednesday/
Tuesday/Wednesday/Tuesday
"blue" groups: Wednesday/Tuesday/Tuesday/
Wednesday/Tuesday/Wednesday

Draw procedure
First, a red ball will be drawn at random from Pot 1. The ball will be opened to display the name of the team drawn. The computer will then show which groups are available (A to D for the "red" groups, and E to H for the "blue" groups) for this club. A bowl will then be prepared containing the number of green balls representing the number of groups into which the said group could be drawn. A green ball will be drawn from this bowl to determine into which of these available groups the team drawn will go.

Same procedure
Once all of the teams have been drawn from Pot 1, the same procedure will be repeated for the teams in Pots 2, 3 and 4, in that order.

Computer draw
Teams from Pot 1 will be provisionally placed in the first position within their groups, teams from Pot 2 will provisionally take the second position in their groups, and so on. Once the draw procedure has been completed, a computer draw will determine the final position of the teams within their group. These positions and the group will then determine the order of the home and away matches.

Draw result/fixture list
The draw result and full fixture list (match days 1 to 6) will be available 15 minutes after the draw ceremony.