What time is the Champions League knockout phase play-off draw?

The knockout phase play-off draw for the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League takes place from 12:00 CET on Friday 31 January.

Check out the draw timings where you are thanks to Hublot, Official Timekeeper of the UEFA Champions League.

From the knockout phase play-offs onwards the tournament is a bracket. The teams that finished the league phase between ninth and 16th will be seeded for the first draw for the knockout phase, and will face a team placed 17th to 24th.

Potential opponents are also pre-defined by pairings of teams' final league positions. For example, teams finishing ninth and tenth will face the sides that ended 23rd or 24th; teams finishing 11th or 12th will be drawn against either the 21st or 22nd-placed sides and so on.

The eight clubs that prevail in the knockout phase play-offs will progress to the round of 16.

How will the draw work?

Eight bowls are prepared for the draw, with the balls containing the names of the seeded and unseeded teams placed in pairs in the corresponding marked bowls according to the league phase rankings.

The draw starts with the unseeded teams, allocating each team from a pair of unseeded teams to one of the relevant pre-determined positions in the bracket, starting with the sides ranked 23/24 and finishing with those in 17/18.

One ball is taken from the bowl containing the two relevant ranked teams (i.e. the teams ranked 23 and 24) and is opened to display the team. The first team drawn from this bowl is placed in their reserved spot on the silver side of the bracket. The other unseeded team of the pairing is then drawn and displayed, and allocated in the corresponding reserved spot on the blue side of the bracket.

The same procedure is carried out with the remaining unseeded clubs.

Once all the pairings of unseeded teams have been drawn and assigned to an appropriate position on the bracket, the draw continues with the seeded sides, starting with the pairing ranked 15/16. The process is the same as described above for the unseeded teams, with the first team drawn from the relevant bowl allocated to the reserved designated spot on the silver side of the bracket and the second team on the blue side.

The procedure is repeated for the remaining pairings, finishing with the teams ranked 9/10 to complete the pairings for the knockout round play-offs.

In principle, the seeded clubs play the return leg at home.