Misplaced Pages

UEFA Champions League: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 22:47, 21 October 2008 view source85.9.106.15 (talk)No edit summary← Previous edit Revision as of 22:49, 21 October 2008 view source 85.9.106.15 (talk) ←Blanked the pageNext edit →
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Redirect6|European Cup|the trophy|European Champion Clubs' Cup||}}
{{ infobox football tournament
| current = ]
| logo = ]
| founded = 1955 (1992 in its new format)
| region = Europe (])
| number of teams = 32 (Group stage)<br>76 or 77 (Total)
| current champions = {{flagicon|ENG}} ] (3)
| most successful club = {{flagicon|ESP}} ] (9)
| broadcasters = ]
| song = ]
}}

The 5) for the most successful football clubs in Europe. The prize, the ] (more commonly known as the Ehampions of their respective national league could participate in the competition; however, this was changed in 1997 to allow the runners-up of the stronger leagues to compete as well.

The title has been held by 21 different clubs, 12 of which have won the title more than once. The all-time record-holder is ] with their nine wins.

The current holders are ] who beat ] 6-5 on penalties, 1-1 after extra time, in ] on 21 May 2008.

==History==
{{main|European Cup and Champions League history}}
].]]

The tournament was inaugurated in 1955, at the suggestion of the French sports journalist and editor of '']'' ],<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.uefa.com/magazine/news/Kind=512/newsId=419682.html | title=Hats off to Hanot | accessdate=2006-07-10 | date=2006-05-12 | publisher=UEFA.com | author=Matthew Spiro | language=English}}</ref> 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 ] 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 ], the tournament was renamed ''UEFA Champions League'' and in 1997&ndash;98, eligibility was expanded to include not just domestic champions but also the best performing runners up according to ] ranking list<ref></ref>. In UEFA's coefficient system, a team finishing second in the Spanish ] would be more deserving of an automatic place in the Champions League than a team finishing first in, for example, Polish ]. As a result, the system was restructured so that national champions from lower ranked countries had to qualify for the group stages, while runners-up from higher ranked countries would automatically get places.

Between 1960 and 2004 the winner of the tournament qualified for the now defunct ] against the winner of the ] of South America. Since then, with ] taking over, the winner automatically qualifies for the ] with other winners of continental club championships.
{{seealso|List of European Cup and UEFA Champions League winners}}

==Qualification==
{{seealso|UEFA coefficients}}
[[Image:UEFA members Champs League group stage.gif|right|thumb|450px|Map of UEFA countries, teams from which have reached the group stage of the UEFA Champions League

{{legend|#67E863|UEFA member country that has been represented in the group stage}}
{{legend|#6085EF|UEFA member country that has not been represented in the group stage}}
{{legend|#C0C0C0|Not a UEFA member}}
]]
Teams that finish 1st to 4th in the strongest leagues go to the qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League.


The number of places in the competition depends on the association's rank in the ] 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 ] but finished outside the top four in the ]. ] ruled that ], who finished fourth in the Premier League, should get the final English place in the 2005&ndash;06 European Cup. UEFA came to an agreement that both ] 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 ].

In 2005-06, Liverpool and ] of ] became the first teams to reach the Champions League group phase after playing in all three qualifying rounds. In 2008-2009, both ] and ] achieved the same feat.

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.

], ], and ] are the teams that have appeared most often in the group stages: fifteen 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.

==The stages==
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 ] of their league, while the sixteen top ranked teams spread across the biggest domestic leagues qualify directly. The current system was adopted in 2003.

===Changes to the competition format from 2009-10 onwards===
The main focus of the changes was to enable champions coming from associations ranked 13 to 53 much easier access to the main tournament through a separate qualifying route, rather than going head-to-head with non-champions from associations ranked 1 to 12. Five teams will enter into the group stage from each new route.

22 teams will now directly qualify for the group stage, the additional 6 teams being champions of associations ranked 10 to 12, and 3rd placed teams in associations ranked 1 to 3. It was also decided that the final would be played on the Saturday evening in calendar week 20 (19:45 ]) from 2009&ndash;10 onwards, instead of the Wednesday evening.<ref>{{cite news |title=Champions League changes agreed |url=http://www.uefa.com/uefa/keytopics/kind=64/newsid=630602.html |publisher=UEFA |date=] |accessdate=2007-12-01 }}</ref>


] in ] was looking likely to host the event that year, only a week after the ] Final would be played there. This caused some criticism and it was later announced that the 2010 final would be played at the ] in Madrid.<ref>{{cite news |title=Madrid and Hamburg awarded 2010 finals |url=http://www.uefa.com/uefa/keytopics/kind=64/newsid=676743.html |publisher=UEFA |date=] |accessdate=2008-03-28}}</ref>

==Sponsorship==

]
Like the ], the UEFA Champions League is sponsored by a group of multinational corporations, in contrast to the single main sponsor of either the ], the ] or ]. 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.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Thompson |first=Craig |coauthors=Magnus, Ems |year=2003 |month=February |title=The Uefa Champions
League Marketing |journal=Fiba Assist Magazine |pages=pp.49–50 |url=http://www.ekospor.com/Sports-Marketing/Sport%20Marketing%20uefa.pdf |accessdate=2008-05-19 }}</ref>

The tournament's current main sponsors are:
*]
*] (excluding France, where alcohol sponsorship is restricted, and the Heineken adboard is changed by a adboard with the sentence: "Great Together")
*]
*]
**The ] also sponsors the tournament as one of Sony's brands
*]

] is a secondary sponsor and supplies the official match ball, as they do for all other UEFA competitions (excluding the UEFA Cup).

==Media coverage==
{{main|List of UEFA Champions League broadcasters}}

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.<ref>{{cite news | title = World’s most watched TV sports events: 2006 Rank & Trends report| publisher = Initiative | date = 2007-01-19 | url = http://initiative.com/static/prDec2006.html|accessdate = 2007-05-26}}</ref>

==Records and statistics==

{{main|European Cup and Champions League records and statistics}}

====By nation====
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!width=3%| Nation
!width=1%| Wins
!width=1%| Runs Up
!width=9%| Winning Clubs
!width=9%| Runners-Up
|-
| {{flagicon|Italy}} Italy
|align=center| 11
|align=center| 14
| ] (7), ] (2), ] (2)
| ] (5), ] (4), ] (2), ] (1), ] (1), ] (1)
|-
| {{flagicon|Spain}} Spain
|align=center| 11
|align=center| 9
| ] (9), ] (2)
| ] (3), ] (3), ] (2), ] (1)
|-
| {{flagicon|England}} England
|align=center| 11
|align=center| 5
| ] (5), ] (3), ] (2), ] (1)
| ] (2), ] (1), ] (1), ] (1)
|-
| {{flagicon|Germany}} Germany
|align=center| 6
|align=center| 7
| ] (4), ] (1), ] (1)
| ] (3), ] (1), ] (1), ] (1), ] (1)
|-
| {{flagicon|Netherlands}} Netherlands
|align=center| 6
|align=center| 2
| ] (4), ] (1), ] (1)
| ] (2)
|-
| {{flagicon|Portugal}} Portugal
|align=center| 4
|align=center| 5
| ] (2), ] (2)
| ] (5)
|-
| {{flagicon|France}} France
|align=center| 1
|align=center| 5
| ] (1)
| ] (2), ] (1), ] (1), ] (1),
|-
| {{flagicon|Romania}} Romania
|align=center| 1
|align=center| 1
| ] (1)
| ] (1)
|-
| {{flagicon|Serbia}} Serbia
|align=center| 1
|align=center| 1
| ] (1)
| ] (1)
|-
| {{flagicon|Scotland}} Scotland
|align=center| 1
|align=center| 1
| ] (1)
| ] (1)
|-
| {{flagicon|Sweden}} Sweden
|align=center| 0
|align=center| 1
|
| ] (1)
|-
| {{flagicon|Greece}} Greece
|align=center| 0
|align=center| 1
|
| ] (1)
|-
| {{flagicon|Belgium}} Belgium
|align=center| 0
|align=center| 1
|
| ] (1)
|-
|}

====All-time top goalscorers====
<small>Including qualifying games</small>
<br>''Players in '''Bold''' are still active.''
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!width=2%|Rank
!width=4%|Nation
!width=10%|Player
!width=5%|Goals
!width=5%|Games
!width=8%|Debut in Europe
!width=13%|Clubs
|-
|align=center|1
|align=center|{{flagicon|ESP}}
|''']'''
|align=center|63
|align=center|120
|align=center|1996
|]
|-
|align=center|2
|align=center|{{flagicon|NED}}
|''']'''
|align=center|60
|align=center|79
|align=center|1997
|], ], ]
|-
|align=center|3
|align=center|{{flagicon|UKR}}
|''']'''
|align=center|56
|align=center|103
|align=center|1994
|], ], ], ]
|-
|align=center|4
|align=center|{{flagicon|ARG}}
|]
|align=center|49
|align=center|58
|align=center|1955
|]
|-
|align=center|5
|align=center|{{flagicon|POR}}
|]
|align=center|47
|align=center|64
|align=center|1961
|]
|-
|align=center|6
|align=center|{{flagicon|ITA}}
|''']'''
|align=center|46
|align=center|75
|align=center|1997
|], ]
|-
|align=center|7
|align=center|{{flagicon|FRA}}
|''']'''
|align=center|46
|align=center|100
|align=center|1997
|], ], ]
|-
|}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commonscat}}
{{external links}}
*
* {{cite web |url=http://www.uefa.com/newsfiles/240459.pdf |title=50 years of the European Cup |publisher=UEFA |month=October |year=2004 |accessdate=2008-07-17 |format=] }}
*
*
*
*

{{fb start}}
{{European Cup Seasons}}
{{UEFA Champions League Seasons}}
{{Champions League Final}}
{{International Club Football}}
{{fb end}}

]
]
]
]
]

]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]
]

Revision as of 22:49, 21 October 2008