This article details the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League qualifying phase and play-off round.

All times are CEST (UTC+02:00).

All draws held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[1]

There are two routes which the teams are separated into during qualifying:

• Champions Route, which includes all domestic champions which did not automatically qualify for the group stage.
• League Route (also called the Non-champions Path or the Best-placed Path), which includes all non-domestic champions which did not automatically qualify for the group stage.

Each tie is played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The team that has the higher aggregate score over the two legs progresses to the next round. In the event that aggregate scores finish level, the away goals rule is applied, i.e. the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs progresses. If away goals are also equal, then 30 minutes of extra time are played, divided into two 15-minute halves. The away goals rule is again applied after extra time, i.e. if there are goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score is still level, the visiting team qualifies by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals are scored during extra time, the tie is decided by penalty shoot-out.^[5]

In the draw for each round, teams are seeded based on their 2011 UEFA club coefficients,^[6] with the teams divided into seeded and unseeded pots. A seeded team is drawn against an unseeded team, with the order of legs in each tie decided randomly. Due to the limited time between matches, the draws for the second and third qualifying rounds take place before the results of the previous round are known. The seeding in each draw is carried out under the assumption that all of the highest-ranked clubs of the previous round are victorious. If a lower-ranked club is victorious, it simply takes the place of its defeated opponent in the next round. Prior to the draw, UEFA may form "groups" in accordance with the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee, but they are purely for convenience of the draw and do not resemble any real groupings in the sense of the competition, while ensuring that teams from the same association are not drawn against each other.

Below are the 54 teams (39 in Champions Route, 15 in League Route) involved in the qualifying phase and play-off round, grouped by their starting rounds.^[7] The 10 winners of the play-off round (5 in Champions Route, 5 in League Route) qualify for the group stage to join the 22 automatic qualifiers. The losing teams from the third qualifying round and the play-off round enter the Europa League play-off round and group stage respectively.

Champions Route

More information Third qualifying round, Team ...

Third qualifying round Team Coeff Rangers 56.028 Copenhagen 51.110 Genk 8.400

Second qualifying round Team Coeff BATE Borisov 23.216 Maccabi Haifa 21.400 Dinamo Zagreb 20.224 Rosenborg 19.375 Partizan 15.850 APOEL 13.124 Wisła Kraków 10.183 Sturm Graz 8.640 Litex Lovech 8.575 Slovan Bratislava 5.899 Viktoria Plzeň 5.170 Maribor 4.224 HJK 3.793 Ekranas 3.541 Zestafoni 2.891 Malmö 2.825 Shamrock Rovers 2.741 Dacia Chișinău 2.549 Pyunik 2.516 Borac Banja Luka 2.324 Mogren 2.275 Skonto 2.233 Videoton 2.200 Bangor City 2.058 HB Tórshavn 1.783 Linfield 1.699 Tobol Kostanay 1.624 Flora Tallinn 1.508 Breiðablik 1.491 Neftchi Baku 1.233 Shkëndija 1.041 Skënderbeu 0.774

First qualifying round Team Coeff F91 Dudelange 1.524 Valletta 1.483 FC Santa Coloma 1.200 Tre Fiori 1.183

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League Route

More information Play-off round, Team ...

Play-off round Team Coeff Bayern Munich 118.887 Arsenal 108.157 Lyon 92.735 Villarreal 75.465 Udinese 27.110

Third qualifying round Team Coeff Benfica 81.319 Dynamo Kyiv 60.776 Panathinaikos 57.833 Twente 41.025 Standard Liège 32.400 Rubin Kazan 31.941 Zürich 18.980 Odense 18.610 Trabzonspor[A] 12.010 Vaslui 10.164

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Notes

1. ^
   Trabzonspor also qualified for the group stage after they replaced Fenerbahçe, which was suspended by the Turkish Football Federation on 24 August 2011 from participating in the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League due to the ongoing investigation into match-fixing.^[8]