The
UEFA Champions League (usually referred to as
simply the
Champions League or historically as the
European Cup) is an annual
Association 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 should not be
confused with the
UEFA Europa
League, formerly known as 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-holders are
Real Madrid, who have won the competition
nine times, including the first five seasons it was contested.
Barcelona are the current champions.
Since the tournament changed name and structure in 1992, 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, 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 of
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 Europa
League.
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 achieved the
same feat.
Barcelona,
Manchester United, and
Porto are the teams that have appeared most often
in the group stage: fourteen times each. FC Porto have only won the
tournament once since the establishment of the group stage (2004),
Manchester United (1999 and 2008) and Barcelona (2006 and 2009)
have both won it twice.
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. The third team enters the
Europa League.
For this stage, one group's winners play against another group's
runners-up, and teams from the same country may not be drawn
against each other. From the quarter-finals onwards, the draw is
entirely random, with country protection no longer in force.
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.
A large part of the distributed revenue from the UEFA Champions
League is linked to the "market pool", the distribution of which is
determined by the value of the television market in each country.
For the 2008-09 season, both Manchester United and Bayern Munich,
who reached the final and quarter-final respectively, earned more
than Barcelona, who won the tournament.
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 the
Barclays Premier League, the
Ligue 1 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.
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, Switzerland and Russia, where alcohol sponsorship
is restricted. In Norway the Heineken adboard is replaced by a
chalk art picture adboard, In France and Switzerland the Heineken
adboard is replaced by a "Star Experience" adboard and in Russia
the Heineken adboard is replaced by a "No To Racism" adboard)
- MasterCard
- Sony
- UniCredit
Adidas is a secondary sponsor and supplies
the official match ball, as they do for all other UEFA
competitions.
Konami's
Pro Evolution Soccer is also a
secondary sponsor as the official Champions League video
game.
Individual clubs may wear uniforms with advertising, even if such
sponsors conflict with those of the Champions League. However, only
one sponsorship is permitted per uniform (plus that of the
manufacturer), and if clubs play a match in a country where the
relevant sponsorship category is restricted (such as the case of
France, alcohol, and betting), then they must remove that logo from
their uniforms.
Alcohol sponsorship
Teams may be forced to remove alcohol sponsorship logos from their
kits if they travel to a country with sponsorship
restrictions.
For example, when
Liverpool played
away to
Lyon, Liverpool was
forced to remove
Carlsberg from
their kits, as France, including state sponsors, restrict such
sponsorships. Other cases occurring in France, Switzerland, Norway,
and Russia, the Heineken adboard is replaced with "Star Experience"
in France and Switzerland, with a chalk art picture in Norway, and
"Say No To Racism" in Russia.
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.
Records and statistics
References
- Europe's top clubs earn €38.45m from Champions
League, research says
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