The 1995–96 UEFA Champions League featured 24 teams, with eight teams (the league champions from the seven top-ranked nations in the UEFA country coefficient table, plus the defending champions from 1994–95) qualifying automatically for the group stage and the remaining 16 (the league champions of the nations ranked 8–23 in the country coefficient table) playing in a two-legged preliminary round. The winners of each tie entered the Champions League group stage
Dynamo Kyiv won their tie against AaB, but, in their first group game against Panathinaikos, they were accused of a failed attempt to bribe referee Antonio López Nieto to get a win. Despite an appeal, they were thrown out of the competition by UEFA and were banned for the subsequent two years. AaB replaced them in the group stage. Dynamo's ban was eventually reduced to just one season.
Teams The sixteen lowest-ranked associations with teams that qualified for the Champions League entered the qualifying round.
Key to coloursWinners of qualifying round advanced to group stage + Qualifying round participantsTeam8 Anderlecht10 Beşiktaş11 Casino Salzburg13 Panathinaikos14 AaB15 IFK Göteborg16 Rangers17 Grasshopper18 Legia Warsaw19 Steaua București20 Rosenborg21 Maccabi Tel Aviv22 Ferencváros23 Hajduk Split24 Anorthosis Famagusta25 Dynamo Kyiv
Seeding The sixteen teams were divided into seeded and unseeded pots, each containing eight teams, for the draw based on their association's ranking.
SeededUnseeded
Summary
Dynamo Kyiv won their tie against AaB, but, in their first group game against Panathinaikos, they were accused of a failed attempt to bribe the referee, Antonio López Nieto, to get a win. Despite an appeal, they were ejected from the competition and banned for two years, with AaB replacing them in the group stage. Dynamo's ban was eventually reduced to one season.
Matches
Grasshopper won 2–1 on aggregate.
Rangers won 1–0 on aggregate.
Legia Warsaw won 3–1 on aggregate.
Steaua București won 1–0 on aggregate.
Dynamo Kyiv won 4–1 on aggregate.
Rosenborg won 4–3 on aggregate.
Ferencváros won 2–1 on aggregate.
1–1 on aggregate; Panathinaikos won on away goals.
References
External links Qualifying round at UEFA.com