The 1996–97 UEFA Champions League featured 24 teams, with eight teams (the seven top-ranked league champions in the UEFA clubs coefficient table, plus the defending champions from 1995–96) qualifying automatically for the group stage and the remaining 16 (the league champions ranked 8–23 in the coefficient table) playing in a two-legged preliminary round. The winners of each tie entered the Champions League group stage, while the losers entered the UEFA Cup First Round.
Note: In 1991–92, the competition was still known as the European Cup, but is included as it was the first to use a group stage format. In that season and 1992–93, there was no knockout phase between the group stage and final.