The easternmost and northernmost teams in history qualify for the group stage: the new competition map extends the boundaries and forces Italian teams to make very long journeys
The evening of August 26 redrew the map of the Champions League. With the qualification of Bodo Glimt and Kairat Almaty, the 2025/26 tournament has pushed its boundaries even further: never so far north, never so far east. Completing the four cardinal points are Maccabi Tel Aviv in the south and the Lisbon teams in the west. An extreme geography that tests logistics, kilometers, and even the common sense of those who have to organize away games.
Sixty-seven degrees north latitude. That’s enough to make Bodo Glimt the northernmost team ever to reach the Champions League group stage. Not even Rosenborg, which took Norway to the quarterfinals in the 1990s, had ever gone so far beyond the Arctic Circle. The stadium is a small 8,000-seat bowl, nestled between fjords and mountains. Here, winter brings weeks of Arctic darkness, and getting there from Milan takes at least five hours with a stopover, limited flights, and weather that can turn any trip into an odyssey.
Far East— Almaty is the new frontier of the Champions League. At 76.88°E longitude, Kairat has beaten Astana’s previous record and brought the competition closer than ever to Central Asia. The journey has been a marathon: from the first preliminary round in July to the big win against Celtic, who were eliminated on penalties thanks to saves by 21-year-old Anarbekov. Today, Kairat finds itself in a position that speaks for itself: closer to Beijing than to Rome. For those arriving from Italy, the numbers leave no room for doubt: it is 6,735 km and over nine hours by plane from Milan to Almaty. The longest away trip ever in the Champions League.
Far south— In the south, Maccabi Tel Aviv holds the record. At 32.04°N, it is the southernmost team ever to reach the group stage, a milestone first achieved in 2005/6. The journey from Milan takes about four hours: yes, much less demanding than Almaty. Yet, on the map, Tel Aviv remains the lowest point in the Champions League.
Far west— In the west, the frontier is entirely Portuguese: Benfica and Sporting preside over 9.14°W longitude, the extreme tip towards the ocean. This is not the only record for Lisbon, also the scene of legendary away games. In 2015/16, Benfica flew to Astana: 6,173 km as the crow flies, a European record for a Champions League match. A first place that it now risks losing: Milan-Almaty surpasses it by more than 500 km.
The Champions League— When UEFA was founded in 1954, there were just 25 member associations and the maximum distance between two capitals—Lisbon and Moscow—was less than 4,000 km. Today, there are 55 member associations and political geography has drastically extended the boundaries. Astana, Lisbon, Tel Aviv, Bodo, Almaty: the Champions League is no longer just the heart of European football, but a tournament that touches the edges of the continent. Journeys that resemble expeditions.
