For the first time since 2022, the young Blues are taking part in UEFA European football this season, facing the best youth teams the continent has to offer.

Here is everything you need to know about the UEFA Youth League ahead of next week’s opening fixture.

What is the UEFA Youth League?

Beginning in 2013, UEFA devised the Youth League to provide Europe's top academies with the opportunity to play regular, competitive matches against foreign opposition of the same high standard.

All matches are played between Under-19s teams, with players born in 2007 or later, plus a maximum of five players per squad born in 2006.

How do teams qualify for the UEFA Youth League?

There are two ways to qualify for the Youth League. Every club whose men’s team qualifies for the UEFA Champions League is automatically given a spot in the Youth League.

Each country is additionally represented by its national champion at youth level, or the highest-placed side not to have already qualified through their men’s team.

In England, that extra place is reserved for the winners of the Under-18 Premier League.

Who are Chelsea playing in the UEFA Youth League?

Having qualified for the Youth League through our men’s team’s place in the Champions League, Chelsea’s Under-19s fixtures will mirror those of the senior competition through the league stage until the end of 2025.

That means six matches, three at home at Cobham and three away, on the same day as the Champions League games but with an earlier kick-off.

Chelsea Under-19s UEFA Youth League fixtures

Bayern Munich vs Chelsea, Wednesday 17 September, 3pm
Chelsea vs Benfica, Tuesday 30 September, 3pm
Chelsea vs Ajax, Wednesday 22 October, 1pm
Qarabag vs Chelsea, Wednesday 5 November, time TBC
Chelsea vs Barcelona, Tuesday 25 November, time TBC
Atalanta vs Chelsea, Tuesday 9 December, time TBC

What is the format of the UEFA Youth League?

The competition begins by being split into two halves. Chelsea are in the Champions League path, which is identical to the men’s competition, with every team mirroring the first six senior fixtures to be ranked in a single table. The top 22 teams in that table will qualify directly for the next round, with no play-offs.

The other side of the draw, for the national youth champions, involves three rounds of two-legged knockout ties, ending with the 10 surviving teams joining those from the league stage in the last 32.

From there, the competition has just a single path, becoming a straight knockout competition of one-off matches until the final.

When are the UEFA Youth League finals?

The semi-finals and the final of the Youth League are played on neutral ground at the Colovray Stadium in Nyon, Switzerland, UEFA’s headquarters.

Those games take place over a long weekend, with both semi-finals on Friday 17 April, followed by the final on Monday 20 April.

Where can I watch the UEFA Youth League?

Selected Youth League fixtures will be broadcast live by the local Champions League rights holders in each country – TNT Sports in the UK – with further games shown on the official UEFA website and the UEFA.tv app.

Have Chelsea won the UEFA Youth League?

Chelsea have twice triumphed in this competition in the past, putting us second on the all-time list, with only Barcelona having lifted the trophy on more occasions. We were also runners-up in 2018 and 2019, meaning nobody has appeared in more Youth League finals than the Blues.

Our first triumph came in 2015, when a side featuring the likes of Andreas Christensen, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Dominic Solanke came out on top in a 3-2 thriller with Shakhtar Donetsk.

We successfully defended the title the following year by beating Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 in the final, with Trevoh Chalobah, Fikayo Tomori, Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham all part of that year’s team.

Mount and Christensen remain the only players to have won both the Youth League and Champions League with the same club, having also been in the senior side that beat Manchester City in Porto five years later.