The 1997–98 UEFA Champions League had two qualifying rounds to determine which 16 teams would play in the group stage, along with the eight teams that had qualified automatically. Teams from the higher-ranked UEFA nations received byes to the second qualifying round. Losing teams in the first qualifying round were eliminated from European competition for the season, while the losing teams from the second qualifying round were put into the draw for the first round of the 1997–98 UEFA Cup. Matches took place between 23 July and 27 August 1997.[1]
Teams
The national champions from associations 8 and below, along with all league runners-up, entered the qualifying rounds.[2]
Key to colours
Winners of second qualifying round advanced to group stage
^The first match was abandoned after 68 minutes because the lights went out in the stadium. The leg was replayed from scratch a day later.[5]
^The Steaua București v Paris Saint-Germain first leg match, which originally finished 3–2 to Steaua București, was awarded 3–0 to Steaua București because Paris Saint-Germain fielded an ineligible player.
^Csepregi, J. Botond (13 August 2009). "Áramszünet verte ki az MTK-t a BL-ből" [Power outage knocks MTK out of the Champions League]. Index (in Hungarian). Archived from the original on 30 July 2020. Retrieved 15 February 2025.
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.