A total of 56 teams from 47 of the 54 UEFA member associations participated in the 2015–16 UEFA Women's Champions League. The ranking based on the UEFA Women's Champions League association coefficient was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:
Associations 1–8 each had two teams qualify.
All other associations, should they enter, each had one team qualify.
The winners of the 2014–15 UEFA Women's Champions League were given an additional entry if they do not qualify for the 2015–16 UEFA Women's Champions League through their domestic league. Because Frankfurt finished outside the top two league places, this additional entry was necessary, meaning Germany had three teams in the competition this season.
Association ranking
For the 2015–16 UEFA Women's Champions League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2014 UEFA Women's Champions League association coefficient, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2009–10 to 2013–14. Spain overtook the Czech Republic in the UEFA coefficient ranking and thus assured themselves a second entry.
;Notes
– Additional berth for title holders
– Did not enter
– No rank
Teams
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. For this season, the title holders, the champions and runners-up from associations 1–8 and the champions from associations 9–15 entered the round of 32, while the remaining teams entered the qualifying round. The following list the teams that qualified and enter this season's competition. Here TH denotes the title holders, CH denotes the national champion, RU the national runner-up, Ned 1 and Bel 1 the best placed Belgian and Dutch team in their joint league. Gibraltar's champions were still ineligible, as the 2014–15 national league season was again played with only nine players per side. After some years of hiatus Georgia played out a national champion in 2014. For the first time in 12 years Neulengbach from Austria missed out on qualification. Luxembourg entered a team for the competition for the first time since the 2011–12 season. Faroese club KÍ had entered every past edition.
Round and draw dates
The schedule of the competition was as follows. In contrast to previous seasons, the round of 16 draw was held after the round of 32 was completed and was seeded. Moreover, the quarter-finals were now moved back to be played in midweek, with only the semi-finals played on weekends.
Qualifying round
The draw for the qualifying round was held on 25 June 2015. The 32 teams were allocated into four seeding positions based on their 2015 UEFA club coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2010–11 to 2014–15 plus 33% of their association coefficient from the same time span. They were drawn into eight groups of four, with the restriction that each group had to contain one of the eight teams which were pre-selected as hosts. In each group, teams played against each other in a round-robin mini-tournament at the pre-selected hosts. The eight group winners advanced to the round of 32. The matchdays were 11, 13 and 16 August 2015.
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 played 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 was as follows:
In the draw for the round of 32, the sixteen teams with the highest UEFA coefficients were seeded, and the other sixteen teams were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
In the draw for the round of 16, the eight teams with the highest UEFA coefficients were seeded, and the other eight teams were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
In the draws for the quarter-finals onwards, there were no seedings, and teams from the same association could be drawn against each other.
Bracket
Round of 32
The draw for the round of 32 was held on 20 August 2015. The first legs were played on 7 and 8 October, and the second legs were played on 14 and 15 October 2015.
Round of 16
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 19 October 2015. The first legs were played on 11 and 12 November, and the second legs were played on 18 and 19 November 2015.
Quarter-finals
The draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals were held on 27 November 2015. The first legs were played on 23 March, and the second legs were played on 30 March 2016.
Semi-finals
The first legs were played on 24 April, and the second legs were played on 1 and 2 May 2016.
Final
The final was played on 26 May 2016 at the Mapei Stadium – Città del Tricolore in Reggio Emilia, Italy. The "home" team was determined by an additional draw held after the quarter-final and semi-final draws.
Statistics
Statistics include qualifying rounds.
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
Sandra Paños
Emma Berglund
Wolfsburg
Saki Kumagai
Shirley Cruz
Ada Hegerberg
Cristiane