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Revision as of 01:01, 6 April 2008

"European Cup" redirects here. For other uses, see European Cup (disambiguation).
UEFA Champions League
File:UEFA Champions League logo 2.svg
Founded1955
RegionEurope (UEFA)
Number of teams32 (Group stage)
76 or 77 (Total)
Current championsItaly AC Milan (7th time)
Most successful club(s)Spain Real Madrid (9 times)
Television broadcastersList of broadcasters
MottoChampions League Hymn
2007-08 Champions League

The UEFA Champions League, formerly known as the European Cup, is a seasonal club football competition organised by UEFA since 1955 for the most successful football clubs in Europe. The prize, the European Champion Clubs' Cup, is widely considered to be the most prestigious club trophy in the sport. The UEFA Champions League is separate from the less prestigious UEFA Cup and the defunct Cup Winners' Cup.

The tournament consists of several stages. In the present format it begins in mid-July with three preliminary knockout qualifying rounds. The 16 surviving teams join 16 seeded teams in a group stage. Eight group winners and eight runners-up enter the final knockout rounds, which end with the final match in May. Previously only the champions of their respective national league could participate in the competition, however this was changed in 1997 to allow the runners-up to compete as well.

The current holders of the UEFA Champions League trophy are AC Milan, who beat Liverpool FC 2-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece on 23 May 2007. Moscow will host its first European Cup final for the 2007-08 season.

History

File:2007 Champions League Final.JPG
The 2006-07 champion's league final matched AC Milan against Liverpool
Main article: European Cup and Champions League 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 continental competition for winners of the European national football leagues, as the European Champion Clubs' Cup, abbreviated to European Cup.

The competition began in 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. Entry was restricted to the teams that won their national league championships, plus the current European Cup holder. This qualification system continued until 1992. In the 1992–93 season, the tournament was renamed to UEFA Champions League and in 1997/98, eligibility was expanded to include not just domestic champions but also the best performing runners up according to UEFA's coefficient ranking list[2]. In UEFA's coefficient system, a team finishing second in the Spanish La Liga would be more deserving of an automatic place in the Champions League than a team finishing first in, for example, Polish Orange Ekstraklasa. As a result, the system was restructured to force "weaker" national champions to qualify for the group stages, while other, "stronger" national runners-up would automatically get places.

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, with FIFA taking over, the winner automatically qualifies for the FIFA Club World Cup with other winners of continental club championships.

Qualification

See also: UEFA coefficients
The Champions League flag is shown on the centre of the pitch before every game in the competition

The UEFA Champions league is open to the league champions of all UEFA member associations (except Liechtenstein, which has no league competition), as well as to the clubs finishing from second to fourth position in the strongest leagues. Since January 2007 the two lowest-ranked league competitions (currently the Andorra and San Marino leagues) can also represent their domestic champions in the Champions League.

The number of places in the competition depends on the association's rank in the UEFA coefficients table:

  • 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.

An association's rank also determines the stage at which the clubs enter the competition. For example, the three highest-ranked associations have two places in the group stage (for champions and runners-up) and two in the third qualifying round (for third and fourth-placed teams), whereas the lowest-ranked associations have only one place in the first qualifying round for their champions. Nine highest-ranked associations have at least one automatic place in the group stage.

The situation with the European Cup holders has not 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) 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. UEFA's current rule is that 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 league. The superseded team will go to the UEFA Cup.

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 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.

FC Barcelona, Manchester United and FC Porto are the teams that have appeared most often in the group stages: thirteen each. However, each has won the Champions League only once since the group stage was established.

The stages

File:Ligue des champions NB.JPG
The UEFA Champions League trophy.

The tournament consists of several stages and begins with three preliminary knockout qualifying rounds. Different teams start in different rounds, according to their position in domestic league and the UEFA coefficients of their league, while the sixteen top ranked teams spread across the biggest domestic leagues qualify directly.

In the subsequent preliminary round, participating teams are paired, with aggregate winners proceeding into the next round. Qualifying rounds span from mid-July to late August. The losers of the third qualifying round are transferred to the UEFA Cup, while the sixteen winners of the final qualifying round are joined by the sixteen teams who have qualified directly, to participate in the group stage.

Teams are drawn into eight groups of four teams, each team playing every other team in the group twice (home and away). The group stage is played between mid-September and early December. The teams finishing third in their groups are transferred to the UEFA Cup, while the top two teams from every group qualify for the next round. Here the sixteen remaining teams take part in the knock-out stage, which starts in late February and ends with the final match in May.

All qualifying rounds and knock-out ties are two-legged, with each team hosting one match. The team which scores the greater aggregate number of goals qualifies for the next round. The away goals rule applies. Extra time and penalty kicks are used to determine the winner, if necessary. An exception is the final, which is a single match played at a predetermined venue.

The draws are currently structured to ensure that clubs representing the same national association cannot play each other until the quarter-finals. This rule however was lifted for Liverpool's entry in 2006, as England had 5 representatives in the competition. As a result Liverpool were drawn against Chelsea in the group stages. In addition, seeding of the teams according to their UEFA coefficients is used. The competition system has been undergoing changes since the 1991-92 season (see history). The current system was adopted in 2003.

Changes from 2009 forward

At meeting in Lucerne, 30th of November 2007, UEFA decided to introduce new qualification system[3] for period 2009-2012 which will give automatic qualifying berth to the group stage for 22 teams instead of 16 (6 new entrants: 3rd-placed teams from associations 1-3 + champions from associations 10-12). Remaining 10 teams will be given through a double qualification path: one reserved for the champions of the associations ranked 13 or lower, and one reserved for non-champions of associations ranked 1-15. Both paths will be held independently to each other and each will be given by 5 winners - last participants in group stage. The main idea was to enable champions coming from low-ranked associations much easier access to the main tournament through their head-to-head matches than through matches against non-champions from high-ranked associations which failed to qualify directly for group stage through their domestic league.

Champions League finals

Main article: European Cup and Champions League finals

The Champions League final is the most important match of the season in European club football. The stadium to host the final is selected by UEFA two years before the match. Template:Champions league finals

The winning club gets possession of the trophy at the awards ceremony, but must return it to UEFA headquarters two months before the following year's final. UEFA gives the winners a scaled-down replica of the trophy to keep permanently, and winning clubs are free to make replicas of the trophy as long as they are clearly marked as replicas and are no larger than 80% of the size of the actual trophy. However, the current competition rules also specify that the actual trophy will be permanently awarded to a team that wins three consecutive years or five times in all.[4]

Five clubs have been awarded the UEFA badge of honour and the right to keep the trophy permanently:

  • Real Madrid, who won the first five competitions from 1956 to 1960, and again in 1966, 1998, 2000 and 2002.
  • Ajax, who won consecutively in 1971–1973, and again in 1995.
  • Bayern Munich, who won consecutively in 1974–1976, and again in 2001.
  • AC Milan, who won for the fifth time in 1994, and again in 2003 and 2007 .
  • Liverpool, who were five-time winners of the European Cup in 1977, 1978, 1981, 1984 and 2005.

The first European Cup/UEFA Champions League final to be competed between two clubs from the same country was in 2000, when Spanish giants Real Madrid and Valencia reached the final. This was followed in 2003 when Italian giants AC Milan and Juventus FC reached the final, making it only two intra-national finals since its inception in 1955.

Media coverage

Main article: List of UEFA Champions League broadcasters

Records and statistics

Map of UEFA countries, teams from which have reached the group stage of the UEFA Champions League
  UEFA member country that has been represented in the group stage
  UEFA member country that has not been represented in the group stage
  Not a UEFA member
Main article: European Cup and Champions League records and statistics

By club

Team Won Lost Years Won Years Lost
Spain Real Madrid 9 3 (1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960,
1966, 1998, 2000, 2002)		 (1962, 1964, 1981)
Italy AC Milan 7 4 (1963, 1969, 1989, 1990, 1994,
2003, 2007)		 (1958, 1993, 1995,
2005)
England Liverpool FC 5 2 (1977, 1978, 1981, 1984, 2005) (1985, 2007)
Germany FC Bayern München 4 3 (1974, 1975, 1976, 2001) (1982, 1987, 1999)
Netherlands AFC Ajax 4 2 (1971, 1972, 1973, 1995) (1969, 1996)

By nation

Nation Winners Runners Up Winning Clubs Runners-Up
Italy Italy 11 14 AC Milan (7), Juventus (2), Inter (2) Juventus (5), AC Milan (4), Internazionale (2), Fiorentina (1), Roma (1), Sampdoria (1)
Spain Spain 11 9 Real Madrid (9), Barcelona (2) Real Madrid (3), Barcelona (3), Valencia (2), Atlético Madrid (1)
England England 10 4 Liverpool FC (5), Manchester United (2), Nottingham Forest (2), Aston Villa (1) Liverpool FC (2), Leeds United (1), Arsenal (1)
Germany Germany 6 7 Bayern Munich (4), Borussia Dortmund (1), Hamburg (1) Bayern Munich (3), Bayer Leverkusen (1), Borussia Mönchengladbach (1), Eintracht Frankfurt (1), Hamburg (1)
Netherlands Netherlands 6 2 AFC Ajax (4), PSV Eindhoven (1), Feyenoord AFC Ajax (2)
Portugal Portugal 4 5 SL Benfica (2), FC Porto (2) SL Benfica (5)
France France 1 5 Olympique de Marseille (1) Stade de Reims-Champagne (2), AS Saint-Étienne (1), AS Monaco FC (1), Olympique de Marseille (1)
Romania Romania 1 1 FC Steaua Bucureşti (1) FC Steaua Bucureşti (1)
Serbia Serbia 1 1 Red Star Belgrade (1) FK Partizan (1)
Scotland Scotland 1 1 Celtic FC (1) Celtic FC (1)
Sweden Sweden 0 1 Malmö FF (1)
Greece Greece 0 1 Panathinaikos FC (1)

All-time top goalscorers

Including qualifying games

Rank Nat. Player Goals Games Debut in Europe Clubs
1 Italy Filippo Inzaghi 63 117 1995 Juventus, AC Milan
2 Spain Raúl 61 117 1995 Real Madrid
3 Ukraine Andriy Shevchenko 59 103 1994 Dynamo Kyiv, Milan, Chelsea
4 Netherlands Ruud van Nistelrooy 57 76 1997 PSV, Man. United, Real Madrid
5 Argentina Alfredo Di Stéfano 49 58 1955 Real Madrid
6 Portugal Eusébio 47 64 1961 SL Benfica

Players in Bold are still active.

Top five appearances

Rank Nat. Player Games Club
1 Brazil Roberto Carlos 117 Real Madrid, Fenerbahçe
2 Spain Raúl 117 Real Madrid
3 Italy Paolo Maldini 107 A.C. Milan
4 Germany Oliver Kahn 103 FC Bayern Munich
5 Wales Ryan Giggs 102 Manchester United

See also

References

  1. ^ Matthew Spiro (2006-05-12). "Hats off to Hanot". UEFA.com. Retrieved 2006-07-10.
  2. ^ uefa.com - UEFA Champions League
  3. ^ http://www.uefa.com/newsfiles/630630.pdf
  4. ^ "Regulations for the UEFA Champions League 2006-07" (PDF). UEFA. Retrieved 2006-07-10.

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