UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009) For the tournament's first three editions, a preliminary round was first played to reduce teams to 32. Starting in the second season, this stage grouped teams into mini-tournaments of four teams, whose winners advanced to the second qualifying round, sometimes called the group stage. The group stage was eight groups of four, each group held as a round-robin in a single country, whose winners advanced to the quarter-finals. From the
2004–05 season, the first qualifying stage was expanded to 9 groups of 4, again playing a round-robin in a single location. Seven teams got a bye to the group stage. (in
2007–08, it was 10 groups of 4, advancing winners plus one runner-up, with 5 teams getting a bye). The group stage was then played among only 16 teams in four groups of four, each group in a single host country, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the quarter-finals. The knock-out rounds were played as two-legged home-and-home matches, including the final (except for the first final).
Champions League (2009–2021) On 11 December 2008, UEFA announced that the competition would be reformatted and renamed to the UEFA Women's Champions League beginning with the
2009–10 season. As in the men's game, the new tournament aimed to include runners-up of the top women's football leagues in Europe. The competition was opened to the champions of all 55 UEFA associations that had a qualifying women's league. Due to the varying participation, the number of teams playing the qualifying round changed from year to year. Numbers were based on three principles: • Qualifying rounds are contested by groups of 4 teams. • Group winners, plus the smallest possible number of runners-up, qualify for the Round of 32. • Teams from the top associations would enter directly into the Round of 32. Competition from the Round of 32 onwards would be in the form of home-and-home pairings using the away goals rule, except for the single-legged final.
Minor adjustments When the new format was initially announced, the eight top countries according to the
UEFA league coefficient were awarded two places in the league, and
Spain. The tournament was expanded for the
2016–17 season, with the runners-up from nations 9–12 in UEFA league coefficient also qualifying. For the first three years under this format, the four nations in these slots were Czech Republic, Austria,
Scotland, and Norway. For the
2019–20 season,
Switzerland replaced Norway, and for the
final season under this format, Norway,
Kazakhstan, and
The Netherlands replaced Russia, Scotland, and Austria in the top 12. In all 11 editions of the competition under this general format, qualifying rounds consisted of between 7 and 10 groups-of-4, advancing qualifying-group winners plus 0-2 top-ranked runners-up, varying year to year based on team counts. The number of teams entering at the round of 32 also varied slightly, between 20 and 25. The
COVID-19 pandemic forced a slight restructuring of the 2019–20 and 2020–21 competitions. At the start of the pandemic the round of 16 had been completed; the quarter-finals and on were delayed and eventually played as single-legged matches in the summer of 2020. The qualifying rounds of the 2020–21 competition switched to single-legged matches, with 20 pairings of teams in the first round and 10 pairings in the second round, the winners joining 22 top teams in the round of 32, which was normal from that point on aside from most matches being played behind closed doors.
Champions League (2021–2025) On 4 December 2019, a new format was announced starting with the 2021–22 season. The top six associations entered three teams, associations ranked 7–16 entered two, and the remaining associations entered one. The competition is restructured to appear more similar to the men's CL format, with a double-round-robin group stage, and two paths through the qualifiers (a champions path and a non-champions path) for teams that do not automatically qualify for the group stage. UEFA also centralized the media rights from the group stage onward. • Qualification takes place in two rounds: a First Round of 3- or 4-team mini-tournaments with single elimination brackets, and a Second Round of two-legged matches. Each of these rounds is split into two simultaneous paths based on how teams qualified: • The Champions Path consists of the champions from the associations ranked 8-50. 7 teams advance. • The League Path consists of the runners-up from the top 16 associations and third-place teams from the top 6 associations. 5 teams advance. • The Group stage includes four teams qualifying directly: the defending UWCL champions and the champions from the top 3 associations. It is played in four groups of four, each advancing two teams to two-legged quarterfinals.
Champions League (2025–present) On 4 December 2023, a new format was announced starting with the 2025–26 season. The top seven associations enter three teams, associations ranked 8–17 enter two, and the remaining associations enter one. The competition is restructured to appear more similar to the men's CL format, with a
Swiss-system 'league phase' consisting of 6 games against 6 different opponents (3 home and 3 away), and two paths (a champions path and a non-champions path) for teams that do not automatically qualify for the league stage. • Qualification takes place in two separate paths of up to three rounds. • The Champions Path consists of the domestic champions from associations ranked seventh or below as well as the previous season's second competition winner with 4 teams advancing to the league stage. The first and second rounds are played as series of four-team mini-tournaments while the third round is played as two-legged ties. • The League Path consists of domestic runners-up from associations ranked fourth to seventeenth and domestic third-placed teams from associations ranked first to seventh. A second round is played as a series of four-team mini-tournaments, while the third round is played as two-legged ties. • Losers from the third round ties and runners-up and third-placed teams in the second round mini-tournaments will transfer to the
UEFA Women's Europa Cup, while fourth-placed teams in the second round mini-tournaments and all losers from the first round mini-tournaments will be eliminated. • The League phase consists of nine teams qualifying directly: The defending champions, domestic champions from the associations ranked sixth or higher as well as the domestic runners-up from the top two associations. • The top four teams from the league phase will advance to the quarter-finals while teams ranked fifth to twelfth will qualify to a knockout play-off round. The remaining six teams are eliminated. ==Prize money==