This Thursday, the footballing world will be looking to Monaco. The draw to decide the eight groups for the initial round of the UEFA Champions League 2017/18 will be carried out from around 18:00 CEST in the principality. Hans-Joachim Watzke and Michael Zorc will be on the ground representing BVB.

After the play-off matches had been concluded, it was clear which 32 teams would be participating. These 32 clubs will be placed into four pots. Title defenders Real Madrid are in pot 1, as well as Europe's seven best domestic league winners once again. Each club allocated to pot 2 is there based on their UEFA coefficient, which reflects their sporting prowess from across the last five seasons. 

Borussia Dortmund is in pot 2 and can, therefore, not be drawn against any club which is in the same pot. Furthermore, a fixture against an opponent from the same country is also not possible (Bayern Munich, Pot 1/RB Leipzig, Pot 4).

Further regulations dictate the constitution of the individual groups. For example, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, as top representatives of the Bundesliga, typically do not appear on the same "tier" (Groups A through D, and groups E through H), so that they will not play on the same day of the week.  (br)

An overview of the pots

Pot 1 Pot 2
Real Madrid FC Barcelona
Bayern Munich Atlético Madrid
Chelsea FC Paris St. Germain
Juventus Turin Borussia Dortmund
Benfica Lisbon FC Sevilla 
AS Monaco Manchester City
Spartak Moscow FC Porto
Shakhtar Donetsk Manchester United
   
Pot 3 Pot 4
SSC Napoli  Celtic Glasgow 
Tottenham Hotspur CSKA Moscow 
FC Basel Sporting Lisbon 
Olympiakos Piräus  APOEL Nicosia 
RSC Anderlecht Feyenoord Rotterdam
FC Liverpool  NK Maribor 
AS Roma Qarabagh Agdam
Beşiktaş Istanbul Rasenballsport Leipzig