The 2015/16 tournament has just finished with Lyon beating Wolfsburg on penalties and the new season will start soon with the draw for the qualifying round on the 24th of June.

The final next season will played at Cardiff City Stadium on the 1st June 2017 and the home nations’ teams will hope to be there on the day.

There will be a record 59 entries from 47 countries with a first entry from Kosovo.

The top 12 countries ranked by UEFA enter their title winners and runner-ups, while the other 35 countries enter their League winners.

The competition is organised as follows: a qualifying round, where 36 teams are involved in nine groups of four teams. The nine group winners qualify for the Round of 32 alongside the 23 teams who are given a bye to that round of 32.

This year, the top two teams from the countries ranked one to eleven are given a bye to the round of 32 alongside the Norwegian champions, while the Norwegian runners-up will play in the qualifying round.

Here are the teams who have a bye to the round of 32:

1 Lyon (FRA, holders) 114.410
2 Wolfsburg (GER) 116.535
3 FC Rosengård (SWE) 85.615
4 Paris Saint-Germain (FRA) 74.410
5 Fortuna Hjørring (DEN) 51.705
6 Brøndby IF (DEN) 50.705
7 Barcelona (ESP) 49.695
8 Rossiyanka (RUS) 44.365
9 Glasgow City FC (SCO) 39.900
10 Sparta Praha (CZE) 36.550
11 Bayern München (GER) 34.535
12 Zvezda-2005 (RUS)) 32.365
13 Brescia (ITA) 27.705
14 Verona (ITA) 25.705
15 Slavia Praha (CZE) 25.550
16 Chelsea (ENG) 24.830
17 Eskilstuna United (SWE) 21.615
18 LSK Kvinner (NOR) 21.405
19 St. Pölten (AUT) 18.065
20 Manchester City (ENG) 16.830
21 Athletic Club (ESP) 13.695
22 Hibernian (SCO) 9.900
TBC from AUT: Neulengbach (41.065) or Sturm Graz (10.065)

Chelsea Ladies are currently in 16th place and Manchester City are in 20th place. Chelsea could drop to the 17th or 18th place, if Neulengbach finishes as runners-up in Austria and qualify for the tournament or if FC Zurich win their qualifying group.

Those two teams have a better five-year coefficient than Chelsea.

That ranking is important because as per the regulations:

The UEFA administration seeds clubs for the qualifying round, round of 32 and round of 16, in accordance with the club coefficient rankings established at the beginning of the season (see Annex D) and with the principles set by the UEFA Women’s Football Committee. The titleholder is always the top seed.

Should Manchester City and Chelsea both be non-seeded, they could run the risk of getting a tough draw like Lyon, Wolfsburg, Rosengard, PSG or Bayern Munchen.

The Irish entry, Wexford Youth, and the Welsh entry, Cardiff Met, will be hosting a qualifying group, the Northern Irish entry, Newry City Ladies, will be debuting in the competition.

The tournament calendar is as follows:

Qualifying round draw: 24 June
Qualifying round: 23–28 August
Round of 32 draw: 1 September
Round of 32: 5/6 & 12/13 October
Round of 16 draw: 17 October
Round of 16: 9/10 November & 16/17 November
Quarter-final & Semi-final draw: 25 November
Quarter-finals: 22/23 & 29/30 March
Semi-finals: 22/23 & 29/30 April
Final (Cardiff City Stadium): 1 June