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The UEFA Champions League is an annual football competition organised by UEFA for the top football clubs in Europe. It is the most prestigious club trophy in European football. THE TEENAGER takes a look at the history of Europe’s biggest football extravaganza.
UEFA Champions League trophy
It is 62 cm tall, weighs 7.5 kg and
cost €6,800 to make. “It may not be
an artistic masterpiece,” says the
maker of the trophy, “but everybody
in football is keen to get their hands
on it.”
What is UEFA?
World football is centrally governed by FIFA, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association. This massively powerful organisation is subdivided into various regional football associations covering Asia, Africa, Central and North America, South America and Europe.Of these several subsidiary FIFA federations, the Union of European Football Associations or UEFA controls and regulates the game of football across 53 countries in Europe, including the richest leagues in world football.
UEFA is responsible for dealing with a number of pan-European issues relating to the governance, rules, sponsorship and public broadcasting of football matches in the continent. UEFA’s primary task is to enforce the rules and regulations of football within Europe whilst also being responsible for organising and marketing competitions such as the UEFA Cup and Champions League.
As part of the broader FIFA structure UEFA is also expected to introduce relevant rule and format changes when appropriate, ensuring European uniformity with international football rules. The massive business of football within Europe has resulted in confrontations between UEFA and the European Union in the past; highlighting the fact that UEFA is a significant political force in its own right.
UEFA Champions League History
The trophy is awarded to the club that wins the UEFA. The history of the UEFA Champions League dates back to 1955, when Gabriel Hanot, editor of the French sports daily L’Equipe petitioned UEFA to set up a competition for some of the most popular teams in Europe’s various domestic leagues.Meetings were held in April of 1955 with representatives of Europe’s most popular clubs and a set of competition rules was established. The first game in UEFA Champions League history kicked off between Sporting Club de Lisbon and FK Partizan.
Late changes to the rules saw the inaugural tournament contested only by winners of Europe’s domestic leagues. This format remained popular until 1992 when the competition was expanded to give additional teams a chance to compete for the cup.
Stadio Olimpico
The 72,689-capacity stadium has
been one of Europe’s most
impressive sporting venues for over
70 years, hosting the 1960 Olympics
as well as the final of the 1990 FIFA
World Cup and three European Cup
finals.
The inaugural Champions Clubs’ Cup was won by Spanish club Real Madrid. The rest of the decade saw Real Madrid string together a remarkable succession of victories as they claimed the Champions Clubs Cup five times in succession.
In the 1960 final Real Madrid claimed their fifth Champions Clubs’ Cup victory. The game against Eintracht Frankfurt drew a crowd of 135,000 to Hampden Park in Scotland, confirming the immense popularity of the tournament. To this day this attendance figure is the highest in UEFA Champions League history.
It was another Spanish giant that broke Real Madrid’s grip on the title. In 1961 Barcelona defeated Real Madrid in the first round of competition, opening the door for Portuguese Club SL Benfica to claim the first of two consecutive titles. Fittingly, Benfica claimed their first title by knocking out Barcelona in the finals held in Bern, Switzerland.
Latin dominance in the competition continued well into the 1960s with only Italian, Portuguese and Spanish sides proving able to win the tournament. This trend was only squashed in 1966 when Scottish club Celtic beat Inter Milan in the final held in Portugal.
Celtic’s victory seemed to crack open the competition for Northern European clubs, and over the next two decades clubs from the North dominated the UEFA Champions League, with Ajax Amsterdam, Bayern Munich and Liverpool all making their mark on the tournament.
The last amendment made to the competition in recent UEFA Champions League history was implemented during the 1992-1993 football season, when the tournament was expanded to include more clubs and incorporate a group stage prior to the knockout stages.
Reaching the finals
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 following year.
The title so far
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. Manchester United won the 2007-2008 season championship.
