A football on a dew-covered pitch at dusk, stadium lights hazing in the cold air.

Champions League bracket challenge

There is no group stage to bracket. The bracket starts at the last sixteen.

Thirty-six teams play one league table, then sixteen go into a knockout bracket whose route to the final is fixed the moment the round of 16 is drawn. Run your own branded Champions League predictor for that bracket. Our team builds it and records every result, so you never enter a score.

Free to start. No credit card.

The competition your bracket sits inside.

League phase
36 teams in one table, not eight groups of four. Each plays eight matches against eight different opponents: two from each of four seeding pots.
Top eight
Straight into the round of 16 as seeded teams.
Ninth to 24th
A two-legged play-off, with 9th to 16th seeded against 17th to 24th. The 25th to 36th sides are out, with no drop into the Europa League.
The bracket
Sixteen teams, four rounds and 15 ties, from the round of 16 to the final.
Play-offs, 2026/27
16/17 and 23/24 February 2027. The sixteen are known once the second legs finish.
Round of 16, 2026/27
9/10 and 16/17 March 2027, then quarter-finals on 6/7 and 13/14 April.
Semi-finals and final
Semi-finals on 27/28 April and 4/5 May. The final is on Saturday 5 June 2027 at the Estadio Metropolitano in Madrid.

How a Champions League bracket challenge runs on Fanzava.

  1. Ask for the bracket once the sixteen are known.

    When the play-off second legs are done, the round of 16 is drawn and the whole route to the final is set. Our team builds the sixteen-team bracket from that draw, seeds and all, so your people see the real ties rather than a blank grid.

  2. Everyone fills it in before the first leg.

    Each person picks the team that goes through in every tie, from the round of 16 to the final. One lock time covers the whole bracket, so set it before the first round of 16 leg. Reminders go out before lock, and nobody sees anyone else's picks until then.

  3. We record who goes through.

    A tie is two matches, so your bracket scores the team that goes through, whether that takes 180 minutes, extra time or penalties. Our team records each result once the tie is decided, the winner moves on and every bracket is rescored.

  4. The leaderboard carries the talk.

    One point times the round number for each correct pick, plus ten for the correct champion. Bracket pools let a department, a supporters' group or a pub table run its own league inside the challenge.

Five decisions that shape a Champions League bracket.

Most Champions League bracket advice online still describes a group stage that stopped after 2023/24. These are the choices that matter now.

The route is fixed, so a bracket is honest.

The round of 16 draw sets every tie through to the final. That is what separates this from the FA Cup, where each round is drawn on its own and no bracket exists in advance. Here the tree is real, printable and the same for everyone.

Fifteen ties make for a shallow bracket.

Flat scoring would leave a crowded leaderboard. Fanzava weights every round the same way for every bracket: one point for a correct round of 16 pick, two in the quarter-finals, three in the semi-finals and four for the final, with ten more for the champion. There is no upset bonus, so the champion pick carries the contest.

Two legs, one pick.

Away goals were abolished in 2021, so a tie level after 180 minutes goes to extra time and then penalties. Your bracket asks who goes through, not what happens in each leg. If your group wants leg-by-leg picks, run that as a separate predictor and keep the bracket clean.

Before or after the play-offs.

Open the bracket after 24 February and the sixteen are known, which gets more entries. A bracket of only sixteen teams cannot be built before then, because the play-off winners are the last names in it. Set the lock time before you announce it, and tell people it falls before the first round of 16 leg.

Ties on the leaderboard.

Level on points, the leaderboard looks first at possible points remaining, then at correct picks in the latest round, then at total correct picks. A bracket with a living champion usually has more left to win.

Why run the Champions League bracket yourself.

One setup, a spring of contact.

The bracket opens in late February and runs to 5 June. That is three months of attention from one hub, and a second reason to email people if you ran a league phase competition alongside it.

Fifteen picks is a five-minute entry.

The gap between forty entries and four hundred is nearly always how long the form takes. Sixteen teams fits in a coffee queue. Auto-fill can start the bracket from the higher seeds or at random, and each person can still change every pick before lock.

It lands in a room that supports nothing in common.

An office that follows five leagues still has a view on who wins this. There is no home team to navigate, which is why it works across a whole organisation.

Your brand on every screen.

Paid plans and a Bracket Pass ship full white label with your logo and colours. Pro and above add a custom domain and a custom email sender. It is a free social game, and Fanzava never handles entry money.

Running it for one tournament? Bracket Pass.

Brackets start above the Free plan. Run them on Starter or higher, or pay once for a Bracket Pass that covers a single knockout tournament with no subscription. Included: Full white label · Fanzava watermark removed · Brackets.

  • £229 Up to 100 players
  • £389 Up to 250 players
  • £629 Up to 500 players
  • £1,029 Up to 1,000 players

All prices in pounds sterling. No VAT is added: business buyers only, and a VAT number is required at checkout. See Bracket Pass →

Questions Champions League bracket organisers ask.

Is there still a group stage?
No. Since 2024/25, 36 teams sit in one league table and each plays eight matches. The top eight go straight to the round of 16, ninth to 24th play a two-legged knockout play-off, and 25th to 36th are out. A bracket challenge therefore starts once the sixteen are known.
When can the bracket be filled out?
After the play-off second legs, which finish on 24 February 2027 this season. The round of 16 draw then sets the ties and the route to the final, and your bracket can open. Set the lock before the first round of 16 leg on 9 or 10 March.
Is this a Champions League predictor?
It is one you run yourself. Your people predict the knockout bracket under your branding and compete on your leaderboard. The official fixtures and results stay with UEFA, and we link to them from the top of this page.
How do two-legged ties score?
As one result. Each pick names the team that goes through, over 180 minutes, extra time or penalties. Our team records it once the tie is decided.
Who enters the results?
Our team builds the bracket from the draw and records each result. Because a tie is two matches, it is recorded by hand rather than picked up automatically. You do not enter anything.
Can we run a league phase predictor too?
Yes, as a separate predictor. You add the fixtures by hand or by CSV and confirm the results yourself. The bracket stays its own competition with its own leaderboard.
What does it cost?
Brackets are not on the Free plan. Run one on Starter or above, or buy a one-off Bracket Pass for the event. The prices are in the Bracket Pass panel on this page, and free tools such as the bracket maker cost nothing.
Does money change hands?
No. Entry is free and Fanzava never handles entry money. It is a free social game where people make predictions and a leaderboard ranks them.

Ready to run the Champions League under your own brand?

Free to start. No credit card.

Want the format explained first? See how brackets work →