The tournament was expanded such that the top 12 national associations in the rankings were allowed to enter two teams in the competition. The change has been criticized, as it broadens the tournament but doesn't add teams from top countries. The lack of an increase in prize-money also has been criticized. For the first time the clubs receive money for flights to away games. The amount increases from €12,000 over €17,000 to €20,000 based on flight time.
Association team allocation
A total of 59 teams from 47 of the 55 UEFA member associations participated in the 2016–17 UEFA Women's Champions League, which was a record number of entries. The ranking based on the UEFA Women's Champions League association coefficient is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:
Associations 1–12 each have two teams qualify.
All other associations, should they enter, each have one team qualify.
The winners of the 2015–16 UEFA Women's Champions League were given an additional entry if they do not qualify for the 2016–17 UEFA Women's Champions League through their domestic league. Since the title holders Lyon qualified through their domestic league, the additional entry for the Champions League title holders was not necessary for this season.
Association ranking
For the 2016–17 UEFA Women's Champions League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2015 UEFA Women's Champions League association coefficient, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2010–11 to 2014–15. Scotland for the first time receive two entries in the UEFA Women's Champions League.
;Notes
– Additional berth for title holders
– Did not enter
– No rank
Distribution
The format of the competition remains unchanged from previous years, starting from the qualifying round, which is played as mini-tournaments with four teams in each group, followed by the knockout phase starting from the round of 32, which is played as home-and-away two-legged ties except for the one-match final. Unlike the men's Champions League, not every association enters a team, and so the exact number of teams in each round can not be determined until the full entry list is known. In general, the title holders, the champions of the top 12 associations, plus the runners-up of highest-ranked associations receive a bye to the round of 32. All other teams enter the qualifying round, with the group winners plus a maximum of two best runners-up advancing to the round of 32 to join the direct qualifiers. With 59 entries for this season, the lowest-ranked 36 teams enter the qualifying round, with only the 9 group winners advancing to the round of 32 to join the 23 direct qualifiers.
Teams
The following list the teams that qualified and entered this season's competition. Here CH denotes the national champion, RU the national runner-up. Entries from 49 associations were possible. Three associations have no current league. Azerbaijan only has junior leagues and teams from Liechtenstein play in the Swiss leagues. Gibraltar's league is only nine-a-side for 2015/16 and Andorra's is only five-a-side. Thus they are ineligible as well. Armenia has a regular league with an 11-a-side champion crowned for autumn and summer, but hasn't registered for European competition the last years. Also Georgia and Luxembourg did not enter a team. It's the first time a club from Kosovo enters a UEFA competition.
Round and draw dates
UEFA has scheduled the competition as follows.
Qualifying round
The draw was held on 24 June 2016, 13:30 CEST, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. The 36 teams were allocated into four seeding positions based on their UEFA club coefficientsat the beginning of the season. They were drawn into nine groups of four containing one team from each of the four seeding positions. First, the nine teams which were pre-selected as hosts were drawn from their own designated pot and allocated to their respective group as per their seeding positions. Next, the remaining 27 teams were drawn from their respective pot which were allocated according to their seeding positions. In each group, teams play against each other in a round-robin mini-tournament at the pre-selected hosts. The nine group winners advance to the round of 32 to join the 23 teams which qualified directly. The matchdays are 23, 25 and 28 August 2016.
Tiebreakers
The teams are ranked according to points. If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied in the order given to determine the rankings :
higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question;
higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question;
if, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 apply;
superior goal difference in all group matches;
higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
if only two teams have the same number of points, and they are tied according to criteria 1 to 6 after having met in the last round of the group, their ranking is determined by a penalty shoot-out.
lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in all group matches ;
In the knockout phase, teams play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows:
In the draw for the round of 32, the sixteen teams with the highest UEFA coefficients are seeded, and the other sixteen teams are unseeded. The seeded teams are drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other.
In the draw for the round of 16, the eight teams with the highest UEFA coefficients are seeded, and the other eight teams are unseeded. The seeded teams are drawn against the unseeded teams, with the order of legs decided by draw. Teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other.
In the draws for the quarter-finals onwards, there are no seedings, and teams from the same association can be drawn against each other.
Bracket
Round of 32
The draw for the round of 32 was held on 1 September 2016, 13:30 CEST, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
Round of 16
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 17 October 2016, 13:30 CEST, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
Quarter-finals
The draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals was held on 25 November 2016, 13:30 CET, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
Semi-finals
Final
The final was played on 1 June 2017 at the Cardiff City Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. The "home" team was determined by an additional draw held after the quarter-final and semi-final draws.
Statistics
Qualifying goals count towards the topscorer award.
Top goalscorers
Top assists
Squad of the season
The UEFA technical study group selected the following 18 players as the squad of the tournament:
Sarah Bouhaddi
Katarzyna Kiedrzynek
Lucy Bronze
Kadeisha Buchanan
Saki Kumagai
Dzsenifer Marozsán
Pernille Harder
Vivianne Miedema
Cristiane
Zsanett Jakabfi