American fans of the UEFA Champions League have much to be excited about as they watch the 2023/24 UEFA Champions League draw. Christian Pulisic is back in the competition with AC Milan alongside Yunus Musah. Brenden Aaronson is too, as he joined Union Berlin this summer. There are more American talents that could feature, too.

However, that is just the beginning of the intrigue for global audiences. The UEFA Champions League is the biggest club competition in the world. Last season, fans saw Manchester City win the competition for the first time en route to the treble. Along the way, City knocked off the defending champions of both Germany and Spain, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. Both of those clubs will have eyes out for revenge this season.

Each of these major clubs learns their fate as they watch the UEFA Champions League draw. In the United States, that is available on Paramount+ on Thursday, Aug. 31.

Watch the UEFA Champions League draw

The UEFA Champions League draw commences at noon ET on Thursday. Coverage for American audiences is exclusive to Paramount+. However, this is not much of a surprise. Most of the Champions League games throughout the season are exclusive to CBS’s paid streaming platform.

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The live draw is happening in Monaco, and representatives from each of the 32 group-stage teams will be in attendance.

Group stage participants finalized Wednesday

As of now, 26 of the 32 teams already secured their spots in the group stage draw on Thursday. Playoff fixtures on Tuesday and Wednesday round out all of the teams competing.

After that, these 32 teams go into four pots. Fittingly, there are eight teams in each pot. A club’s positioning for the group stage draw comes based on either their finish in the previous season’s domestic campaign or their club coefficient calculation. This is, more or less, how well a team has done in European play over the last five seasons.

The previous season’s winners of the top leagues, the Champions League and the Europa League go into pot 1. Pot 2 consists of elite teams that did not win those competitions last season, but have had success in Europe in recent campaigns. Pots three and four are other domestic league champions. Plus, it includes the clubs that finished toward the top of the best European domestic leagues. The full list of teams and their pots is available on the UEFA website.

Then, each Champions League group has one team from each pot. There are stipulations that teams from the same country cannot compete against one another in this stage. After the draw, the group stage in the UEFA Champions League commences on Sep. 19. Coverage is available on Paramount+.

PHOTO: IMAGO / Newspix