Leicester Tigers fans will learn who the club will take on in the 25/26 Investec Champions Cup when the pools are drawn for next season on Tuesday, July 1, in Dublin.
Supporters will be able to watch live on epcrugby.com from 1.30pm (UK time).
The 24 x Investec Champions Cup clubs, which have qualified on merit from the Gallagher Premiership, TOP 14, and United Rugby Championship (URC), will once again compete in four pools of six – Pool 1, Pool 2, Pool 3, and Pool 4.
DRAW INFORMATION
- Each pool of six will contain two clubs from each of the leagues.
- Clubs from the same URC Shield cannot be in the same pool. Therefore, the Irish qualifiers – Leinster Rugby and Munster Rugby – will each be drawn or allocated into separate pools. The same principle applies for the Scottish qualifiers – Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby. Similarly, the Vodacom Bulls, the Hollywoodbets Sharks, and the DHL Stormers from South Africa cannot be in the same pool.
- There will be no matches between clubs from the same league, so in order to create the pool stage fixtures, each club will play four matches against four different clubs who are not from the same league, either home or away.
For the purposes of the draw, the clubs will be divided into two tiers, Tier 1 and Tier 2.
The four clubs in Tier 1 will be: Union Bordeaux Bègles (2025 Investec Champions Cup winners), Bath Rugby (2025 Gallagher Premiership winners), Leinster Rugby (2025 URC winners), and the TOP 14 winners. If Union Bordeaux Bègles win the TOP 14 title, then the Investec Champions Cup final runners-up, Northampton Saints, will be included in Tier 1.
To start the process, the four Tier 1 clubs will be drawn with the first club out of the drum going into Pool 1, the second club out of the drum going into Pool 2, the third club out of the drum going into Pool 3 and the fourth club out of the drum going into Pool 4.
Adhering to the key principles, the remaining 20 clubs in Tier 2 will then be drawn or allocated into the pools. If a club cannot be drawn into a pool in accordance with the key principles, then the club will be allocated to the next available pool. The process will then restart at the pool into which the initial club could not be drawn.
