UEFA Champions League
| File:UEFA Champions League logo 2.svg | |
| Founded | 1955 (1992 in its current format) |
|---|---|
| Region | UEFA |
| Number of teams | 32 (group stage) 76 or 77 (total) |
| Current champions |  Manchester United (3) |
| Most successful club(s) |  Real Madrid (9) |
| Television broadcasters | List of broadcasters |
| Website | Official website |
 2008–09 Champions League | |
The UEFA Champions League (usually referred to as simply the Champions League or less frequently as the European Cup) is an annual football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It is the most prestigious club trophy in European football.
Prior to 1992 the tournament was officially called the European Champion Clubs' Cup but was usually referred to as simply the European Cup or European Champions' Cup. The competition was initially a straight knockout competition open only to the champion club of each country. During the 1990s the tournament began to be expanded, incorporating a round-robin group phase and more teams. Europe's strongest national leagues now provide up to four teams each for the competition. The UEFA Champions League is not to be confused with the UEFA Cup.
The tournament consists of several stages. In the present format it begins in mid-July with three knockout qualifying rounds. The 16 surviving teams join 16 seeded teams in the group stage, in which there are eight groups consisting of four teams each. The eight group winners and eight runners-up enter the final knockout phase, which ends with the final match in May.
The title has been won by 21 different clubs, 12 of which have won the title more than once. The all-time record-holder is Real Madrid, who have won the competition nine times, including the first five seasons it was contested. Since Milan successfully retained the trophy in 1990, no club has managed consecutive wins.
History
The tournament was inaugurated in 1955, at the suggestion of the French sports journalist and editor of L'Équipe Gabriel Hanot,[1] as a reaction to a declaration on the part of Wolverhampton Wanderers as being "Champions of the World" by the British press, after a successful run of European friendlies in the 1950s. The tournament was conceived as a continental competition for winners of the European national football leagues, as the European Champion Clubs' Cup, abbreviated to European Cup.
The competition began as the 1955–56 using a two-leg knockout format where the teams would play two matches, one at home and one away, and the team with the highest overall score qualifying for the next round of the competition. Until 1992, entry was restricted to the teams that won their national league championships, plus the current European Cup holder. In the 1992–93 season, the format was changed to include a group stage and the tournament was renamed the UEFA Champions League. There have since been numerous changes to eligibility for the competition, the number of qualifying rounds and the group structure. In 1997–98, eligibility was expanded to include the runners-up from some countries according to UEFA's coefficient ranking list. The qualification system has been restructured so that national champions from lower ranked countries have to take part in one or more qualifying rounds before the group stages, while runners-up from higher ranked countries enter in later rounds. Up to four clubs from the top-ranked countries are currently given entry to the competition.
Between 1960 and 2004, the winner of the tournament qualified for the now defunct Intercontinental Cup against the winner of the Copa Libertadores of South America. Since then, the winner automatically qualifies for the FIFA-organised Club World Cup with other winners of continental club championships.
Format
Qualification
As of 2009, the UEFA Champions League commences with a round-robin group stage of 32 teams, which is preceded by two qualification 'streams' for teams which do not receive direct entry to the tournament proper. The two streams are divided between teams which have qualified by virtue of being league champions, and those which have qualified by virtue of finishing 2nd-4th in their national championship.
The number of teams that each association enters into the UEFA Champions League is based upon the UEFA coefficients the member associations. These coefficients are generated by the results of clubs representing each association during the previous five Champions League and UEFA Cup seasons. The higher an association's coefficient, the more teams which represent the association in the Champions League and the fewer qualification rounds that the association's teams must compete in.
The number of places in the competition is currently allocated as so:
- associations ranked 1 to 3 have four positions,
- associations ranked 4 to 6 have three positions,
- associations ranked 7 to 15 have two positions,
- associations ranked 16 or lower have one position.
Of these, 22 teams receive automatic qualification for the group stage, as follows:
- 1st-3rd ranked teams of associations ranked 1 to 3
- 1st-2nd ranked teams of associations ranked 4 to 6
- 1st ranked team of associations ranked 7 to 12
- Champions League holders or 1st ranked team of association ranked 13
The situation with holders of the Champions League has not always been clearly defined. There was controversy when Liverpool won the competition in 2004–05 but finished outside the top four in the FA Premier League. The Football Association ruled that Everton, who finished fourth in the Premier League, should get the final English place in the 2005–06 European Cup. UEFA came to an agreement that both Merseyside rivals would be allowed to enter the competition with Liverpool starting from the first qualifying round and Everton starting from the third qualifying round. This confusion resulted in the current ruling, whereby if the European Cup winners fail to finish in one of its national league's qualifying positions, it will take the place of the lowest placed team in its association. The superseded team will go to the UEFA Cup.
5 of the remaining ten qualifying places are granted to the winners of a four round qualifying tournament between the remaining 39 or 38 national champions, within which those champions from associations with higher coefficients receive byes to later rounds. The other 5 are granted to the winners of a two round qualifying tournament between the 15 clubs from the associations ranked 1-15 which have qualified based upon finishing 2nd-4th in their national league.
In addition to sporting criteria, any club must be licensed by its national association to participate in the Champions league. To obtain a license, club must meet certain stadium, infrastructure and finance requirements.
In 2005-06, Liverpool and Artmedia Bratislava of Slovakia became the first teams to reach the Champions League group phase after playing in all three qualifying rounds. In 2008-09, both BATE and Anorthosis Famagusta FC achieved the same feat. FC Barcelona, Manchester United, and FC Porto are the teams that have appeared most often in the group stages: fourteen each. FC Porto and Barcelona have only won the tournament once each since the establishment of the Group stages (2004 and 2006 respectively), whilst Manchester United have won it twice, in 1999 and 2008.
Between 2003 and 2008, no differentiation was made between champions and non-champions in qualification. The sixteen top ranked teams spread across the biggest domestic leagues qualified directly for the tournament group stage. Prior to this, three preliminary knockout qualifying rounds whittled down the remaining teams, with different teams starting in different rounds.
Tournament
The tournament proper begins with a group stage of 32 teams, divided into 8 groups. Seeding is used whilst making the draw for this stage, whilst teams from the same country may not be drawn into groups together. Each team meets the others in its group home and away in a round-robin format. The top two teams from each group progress to the round of 16, which commences the knock-out tournament. For this stage, group winners play against group runners-up. From the quarter-finals onwards, the draw is entirely random.
The group stage is played through the autumn, whilst the knock-out stage starts after a winter break. The knock-out ties are played in a two-legged format, with the exception of the final. This is typically held in the final two weeks of May.
Prize money
UEFA awards €3 million to each team that qualifies for the UEFA Champions League, plus €2.4 million for participating in the Group stage. A Group stage win is worth €600,000 and a draw is worth €300,000.
In addition, UEFA pays each quarter finalist €2.5 million, €3 million for each semi-finalist, €4 million for the runners-up and €7 million for the winners. [2]
Sponsorship
Like the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA Champions League is sponsored by a group of multinational corporations, in contrast to the single main sponsor of either the Barclays Premier League, the Ligue 1 Orange or Serie A TIM. When the Champions League was created in 1992, it was decided that a maximum of eight companies should be allowed to sponsor the event, with each corporation being allocated four advertising boards around the perimeter of the pitch, as well as logo placement at pre- and post-match interviews and a certain number of tickets to each match. This, combined with a deal to ensure tournament sponsors were given priority on television advertisements during matches, ensured that each of the tournament's main sponsors was given maximum exposure.[3]
The advertising boards are a source of criticism, due to their larger size compared to those in other leagues such as the Premier League. Their larger size means that, at some grounds, such as Old Trafford, Anfield, and Stamford Bridge, the front rows of seating cannot be used as their views of the pitch are blocked by the extreme size of the boards; accordingly, some season ticket holders are not guaranteed tickets for games and have to sit in seats other than their usual ones for games. Additionally, some stadia use the flat area in front of the front rows of seating for wheelchairs and disabled seating, so the boards drastically reduce these grounds' disabled supporter capacity.
The tournament's current main sponsors are:
- Ford
- Heineken (excluding Norway, France and Russia, where alcohol sponsorship is restricted. In France the Heineken adboard is replaced with an adboard with the sentence: "Great Together" and in Russia the Heineken adboard is replaced by a "No To Racism" adboard)
- MasterCard
- Sony
- The PlayStation series also sponsors the tournament as one of Sony's brands
- Vodafone
Adidas is a secondary sponsor and supplies the official match ball, as they do for all other UEFA competitions (excluding the UEFA Cup).
Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer is also a secondary sponsor as the official Champions League video game.
Media coverage
The competition attracts a huge television audience, not just in Europe, but throughout the world. The matches are broadcast in over 70 countries in more than 40 languages each year, and some important matches can attract over 200 million TV audience, often considered as one of the most watched sports events on TV.[4]
Records and statistics
By club
By nation
All-time top goalscorers
 |
Including qualifying games
Players in bold are still active.
| Rank | Nation | Player | Goals | Games | Goals/Games | Debut in Europe | Clubs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
Raúl | 64[5] | 127 | 0.54 | 1995 | Real Madrid |
| 2 | 
|
Ruud van Nistelrooy | 60 | 79 | 0.76 | 1997 | PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United, Real Madrid |
| 3 | 
|
Thierry Henry | 59 | 117 | 0.44 | 1997 | AS Monaco, Arsenal, Barcelona |
| 4 | 
|
Andriy Shevchenko | 56 | 103 | 0.54 | 1994 | Dynamo Kyiv, Milan, Chelsea |
| 5 | 
|
Alfredo di Stéfano | 49 | 58 | 0.84 | 1955 | Real Madrid |
| 6 | 
|
Eusébio | 47 | 64 | 0.73 | 1961 | Benfica |
| 7 | 
|
Filippo Inzaghi | 46 | 75 | 0.61 | 1997 | Juventus, Milan |
| 8 |
|
Alessandro Del Piero | 44 | 83 | 0.51 | 1993 | Juventus |
| … | 
|
Gerd Müller | 35 | 33 | 1.06 | 1966 | Bayern Munich |
All-time top appearances
|
| Rank | Nation | Player | Games | Club(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
Thierry Henry | 131 | AS Monaco, Juventus, Arsenal, Barcelona |
| 2 | 
|
Ryan Giggs | 128 | Manchester United |
| 2 |
|
Raúl | 128 | Real Madrid |
| 4 | 
|
Roberto Carlos | 120 | Real Madrid, Fenerbahçe |
| 5 |
|
Paul Scholes | 115 | Manchester United |
Statistics accurate as of match played 5th May, 2009
References
- ^ Spiro, Matthew (12 May 2006). "Hats off to Hanot". UEFA.com. Retrieved 10 July 2006.
- ^ Europe's top clubs earn €38.45m from Champions League, research says
- ^ Thompson, Craig (2003). "The Uefa Champions League Marketing" (PDF). Fiba Assist Magazine: pp.49–50. Retrieved 19 May 2008.
{{cite journal}}:|pages=has extra text (help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help); line feed character in|title=at position 19 (help) - ^ "World's most watched TV sports events: 2006 Rank & Trends report". Initiative. 19 January 2007. Retrieved 26 May 2007.
- ^ Leach, Matthew (2008-11-25). "Raul tops European goal scoring charts and guides Real Madrid into the last 16". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
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External links
- UEFA Official Site
- "50 years of the European Cup" (PDF). UEFA. 2004. Retrieved 17 July 2008.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - RSSSF European Cups Archive
- European Cup History
- All time statistics with link to all results
Template:Fb start Template:UEFA Champions League
| Global |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Africa | ||
| Asia | ||
| Europe | ||
| North, Central America and the Caribbean | ||
| Oceania | ||
| South America | ||
See also: International women's club football | ||