Champions League football is about to kick off on the BBC – what ...

It was announced back in July 2022 that the BBC had secured video rights to European Football’s most prestigious club competition – the Champions League. As the BBC’s Head of Football, it’s a privilege to bring this exhilarating sporting competition free-to-air on all our platforms, for UK fans.

Now, for the first time, football fans can watch every goal from every match in the men’s Champions League, across the BBC. But there’s actually so much more.

What will the BBC be showing?

From 10pm on the Wednesday of match weeks, the best bits from every fixture will be available to watch on our brand new UEFA Champions League Channel on the BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport website.

This gives fans the freedom to catch up on the fixtures that most interest them with crafted three minute match edits. Or they can watch every single game. The choice is theirs.

And from 10.40pm on the same day, a new midweek Match of the Day programme airs on BBC One and iPlayer.

Like the iconic weekend show, which is celebrating 60 years this season, MOTD: UEFA Champions League will show the best of the action, every key moment and every goal from the week’s fixtures, alongside real insight and analysis from our panel of studio experts.

The studio itself takes inspiration from the Champions League star ball and there’ll be an interactive analysis area and floor map of Europe to highlight match locations to audiences. It is a real feast for the eyes. This will be the place to go for a more in depth look at the action, stories and the tactics. We want this 80 minutes to really educate, inform and entertain.

Our rights package consists of a 26-hour window where the BBC can show match highlights from every Champions League fixture across its platforms, and we’re squeezing out every last drop of footballing action so that audiences can watch the biggest players in Europe go head-to-head.

So each match week, as well as games on the Champions League channel and our analysis and highlights programme, there’ll be clips across the BBC Sport website and social media.

Our website’s much loved live pages will be enhanced with video from the Champions League, including interviews and reaction as well as those goals, near misses and the fun bits audiences might have missed.

We have put storytelling at the heart of our champions league coverage, with more analysis and insight than anywhere else, using every part of BBC Sport to do so. That’s why we have ensured we have archive access as part of our package - so we can bring Champions League features and action into our weekend television shows.

And let’s not forget that we’ll continue live audio commentary of Champions League matches on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds, with complementary programmes such as Champions League Final Score broadcast on the Champions League channel.

Despite the competitive nature of sports rights, and the significant increase in costs over the last decade, we’ve always been and will continue to be committed to giving audiences content that they want. From the 2024-25 season, people can consume the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup on all platforms on the BBC.

Who’s in the BBC’s line up?

Our MOTD programme is hosted by familiar faces Mark Chapman and Gabby Logan. They are simply two of the best broadcasters in the business and have also been selected for their ability to get the very best out of expert guests and analysts.

They’ll be joined by former professional players and sports journalists to offer analysis of all aspects of the competition, including player and manager perspectives. Crucially, all of our guests will be immersed in the Champions League with a mission to tell the audience what they want to know and even what they did not know they wanted to know!

Manchester City and Celtic goalkeeper Joe Hart, former Arsenal player Theo Walcott, Villa, Bayern Munich and Stuttgart’s Thomas Hitzlsperger and former Manchester City captain Steph Houghton are all on punditry duties.

Joining them are former topflight players and football superfans Nedum Onuoha and Stephen Warnock, who will offer specialist football, tactical analysis and insight. European Football Journalists, Julien Laurens, Rory Smith, Guillem Balague and Nicky Bandini make up the squad, bringing sporting storytelling to the programme that will immerse viewers in everything Champions League.

What to expect from the coverage

The dynamics of this line up excites me. The football will certainly entertain, but we’ve selected a team that can inform and educate audiences too, with high-quality analysis, impartial journalistic insight and first-hand ex-professional player experiences.

It’s no secret that other broadcasters are showing live matches, but we are the only destination where fans can watch comprehensive highlights from every single game, and it’s free-to-air for everyone.

But the most significant difference with this new offering is the option to watch the high-quality match edits digitally, either on BBC iPlayer or on the BBC Sport website, before the linear programme airs on BBC One. We wanted to give audiences the freedom to consume coverage in a way that suits them, whether that be on your phone at 10pm, catching a high quality show on BBC One at 10.40pm, or both– we're leaving that one up to you.

What next?

The first set of matches are available from 10pm on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website on Wednesday 18 September, with MOTD: UEFA Champions League starting at 10.40pm on the same day on BBC One and iPlayer.