UEFA Champions League

The UEFA Champions League [ ue fa ː li ː tʃæmpiənz g] is a competition for European football club teams of men under the umbrella of the European Football Association ( UEFA ). The designation is valid for the 1992/93 season, 1955-1992, the event was held as the European Champion Clubs' Cup. He is the more important of the two competitions within the discharged annually the European Cup before the UEFA Europa League.

Record winner of this competition is the Spanish representative Real Madrid with nine title wins, the Spaniard won their first five sweeps of the competition itself. FC Bayern Munich ( five wins), Hamburger SV and Borussia Dortmund were from German -speaking countries so far ( once each ) successfully.

Winning the Champions League qualifying the concerned team for the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.

• 2.1 history
• 2.2 participants
• 2.3 Unauthorized teams
• 2.4 Qualification Round
• 2.5 Group Games
• 2.6 final
• 2.7 final

• 3.1 trophy
• 3.2 penalties
• 3.3 Finance
• 3.4 label
• 3.5 anthem
• 3.6 sponsors
• 3.7 UEFA Champions League Ceremony

• 4.1 Rankings
• 4.2 Record Player
• 4.3 highest wins
• 4.4 Age Records
• 4.5 The most successful coaches

History

Europe Champions Cup

The idea of ​​a European club competition or a European " Super League " first came in the early 1950s on and leaned against the idea of Mitropapokals, which was held from 1927 until the outbreak of World War II and a popular competition between Austrian, Hungarian, Yugoslav, Czechoslovak, Italian, Swiss and Romanian club teams represented. Similarly good experiences you made ​​with the Coupe Latine, which included an even smaller group of participants ( national champions from Italy, France, Spain and Portugal) since the late 1940s. The new European Cup, so the idea should include significantly more nations and thus clarify which countries make the game strongest club teams. The occasion was not least the British press, the ever happy to explain the clubs of the island to international success to the world champion. Whether should attend a fine selection of top European clubs and all European national champion in such a competition, but at the time was still an issue.

Gabriel Hanot, former French national team and 1954 journalist of the French sports newspaper L' Équipe, the question took up again and developed a proposal for a " European clubs ." The British tabloid Daily Mail had particularly Hanots incurred displeasure, as they had in 1954 after victories against Spartak Moscow and Budapest Honvéd proclaimed with Wolverhampton Wanderers the English champions of the year again for the world's best team. L' Équipe published Hanots draft on 16 December 1954 by inviting 18 European clubs that were not consistently national champion, after Paris. The majority of the participants was the idea of ​​an open mind and also UEFA and FIFA agreed. In the following months Hanot submitted proposals for the regulations, that the winner optimally determined, among other things, in home and away matches, draw the pairings and up to the final, the knockout system should be performed.

In the same year began the first competition. The English Football League blocked the participation of Chelsea FC, which is why Gwardia Warszawa nachrückte. The first 16 participants were already at that time clubs that still belong to the part of the European elite. Real Madrid and AC Milan, had been kept in the home of professional football since found its way, were compared with the semi-professionals of other nations as a clear favorite. Nevertheless, the 1 FC Saarbrücken celebrated as a participant for which at the time still independent Saarland in Milan a sensational 4-3 victory before they were eliminated by a 1:4 in the second leg.

For summit between Milan and Madrid came in the first semi-final in which the Spaniard prevailed 4-2 and 1:2. Real Madrid finally won the then- finals (4:3 against Stade Reims ), and thus secured on June 13, 1956 the first European Champion Clubs' Cup. Until 1960, should the " Royal " to the new competition dominate and win it five times in a row, which until now succeeded no more team. Even then dominated southern European clubs from Italy ( Inter Milan, AC Milan ) and Portugal ( Benfica ) the European Cup competition, before, after a recent victory of Real Madrid (1966 ) 1967 and 1968 with Glasgow Celtic and Manchester United penetrated the first British representative.

From the 1970s, there were striking Years blocks in which successive representatives of the same country won the European Champions Cup again. From 1970 to 1973 dominated Dutch teams Feyenoord (1970) and Ajax Amsterdam ( 1971-73 ), 1974-1976 won three times in succession Bayern Munich. 1974 had to be repeated the final in Brussels for the first time. At that time although the penalty shootout was introduced, but was banned in the rules, to implement this type of decision-making in a playoff.

This was followed by eight years in which the English dominance of Liverpool FC, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa was interrupted by the victory of Hamburger SV only in 1983. The success story of English football might have stopped even longer if May 29, 1985 not received as the darkest day of the European Soccer Cup history with the disaster at Heysel and English football clubs had been closed for five (Liverpool even for seven ) years.

With the end of the winning streak English teams mid-eighties the time of individual dominant countries came to an end. Apart from the double victory of AC Milan during the years 1989 and 1990 not only no club was able to defend his title, also alternated from the winning state associations. This was mainly a result of simplified rules for changing clubs, as professionals from the European Union could be active at least since the Bosman ruling of 1995 without restriction abroad and so the individual teams, " Europeanized ". This led to a leveling of playing styles in the various leagues, successful " football philosophies " became popular quickly, even outside the country's borders.

UEFA Champions League

On the other hand, the competition was gradually extended to other teams as the national champion, so now was able to attend the entire European lace. Already for season 1991/92, a second round was introduced with group games in the European Cup of Champions, a year later, the competition was then renamed " UEFA Champions League ". First of all, could still only the respective national champions qualify for the competition; through the group games but remained the economic risk for the participants to calculate a retirement without a minimum number of games was unlikely. To allow a representative picture of the play strongest teams in Europe and to further popularize the competition, the Champions League was then discharged since 1997, with the runners-up of certain leagues; even up to four teams of an association for the competition to qualify for the 1999/2000 season. Judging by the success of previous years are granted to the football associations depending on the position in the UEFA five year ranking a certain number of starting positions, so even the master must in a qualification in the weakest leagues.

Sporty dominated in recent years, the financially strong clubs from Italy, England and Spain. With the exception of 2003/ 04, when FC Porto and AS Monaco faced each other in the final, since the founding of Champions always at least one participant from the three countries has League 1992 reached the final of the competition until 2012. The most successful were the case FC Barcelona, ​​Real Madrid and AC Milan, with three titles. Only in 2013 could this series be broken again, as with Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern Munich for the first time two German teams clashed in the final. The first team that could win the title without having to have been masters of their country in the preseason, was in 1999 Manchester United, who won 2-1 against Bayern Munich in the final of Barcelona.

Game Mode

History

The participants in the European Champion Clubs' Cup, the first European Cup competition, were originally the single European country champion and the defending champion. The games were played until 1991 exclusively in the knockout system, in home and away matches, where since the mid-1960s in the first round, 32 teams competed.

In the nineties, this game mode has been changed four times basic: In the seasons 1991/92 (still as " Europe Champions Cup " ) and 1992 /93 ( for the first time as "Champions League" ), the remaining teams were after the second round in two groups divided, the group winners contested the final. From 1994, 16 teams in the finals of the Champions League, which were divided for three seasons in four groups of four teams each, and of which the group winners and runners reached the quarter- finals took part. After the increase to 24 teams in 1997/98 and 1998/99, six groups were formed of four teams. The six group winners and the two best runners qualified for the quarter-finals. The mode provided that compete after completion of the group matches, the teams in the knockout system, in home and away matches to progress to the next round.

In December 1998, the UEFA again a far-reaching reform of the regulations, which brought a huge increase in the budget budgets, but also large scheduling problems with it decided: from the 1999/2000 season took 32 teams to the finals of the Champions League, to be in eight groups four teams were divided. The group winners and runners-up formed in an intermediate round turn four groups of four teams. The table first and second round of the intermediate reached the quarter- finals, which was as well as the semi-finals played in home and away matches. For the 32 participating teams were for a specific country code, taking into account the European Cup results of the last five years, 16 seats firmly assigned to: Italy, Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands and England sent the national champion and the runner-up in the race in Portugal, Greece and the Czech Republic entitled only to the national championship titles to participate in the Champions League. In addition to 2002/2003 the Defender was qualified. The remaining 16 seats were determined in three qualifying rounds, the table third and fourth of the three most successful nations of European club football (currently Germany, Spain and England) were set for the third qualifying round (if these teams failed, they took as well as the eight third-placed the group stage in the UEFA Cup in part ). How were the quarter and semi-final games in the knockout system with home and away matches, the finals played in a playoff at a neutral site so far. The second group stage has been replaced from the season 2003/ 04 by a second round in the knockout system.

Participants

Fix qualifies are beside the defending champion of the twelve best European leagues ( measured at the level in the five-year evaluation) as well as the runner-up of the best six leagues as well as the third-placed of the top three leagues.

The remaining ten positions are ( also five places) played on the one hand among the remaining masters ( five seats) and the other under the best previously qualified teams from the 15 best European leagues.

The classification of leagues takes place according to the rules of UEFA's five-year rating. A national association receives points for success of his club teams in UEFA competitions, so wins, draws and the achievement of certain rounds. The counters for all clubs are added and divided by the number of participating clubs of the national association. This results in a value per season. The values ​​of the last five seasons are in turn added (starting not before the respective straight past, but with the season). The sum determines the rank order of the respective league.

Unauthorized teams

Where a club sporting the requirements for participation in the competition, then the UEFA reserves the right to pre- license check and the team may not be allowed. Since 2004, it came from licensing reasons for the following six exclusions from UEFA Champions League:

Qualifying round

Since the beginning of the 2009/10 season a reformed Qualifying will be played. After UEFA president Michel Platini announced at the office, in the future to allow more masters of European leagues to participate in the Champions League, a new mode was adopted in November 2007. The number of qualifying rounds was increased to four and renamed the final round of qualification which is now also marketed centrally, analogous to the at the same time redesigned UEFA Cup in "Play -off" round.

Group Games

For the draw for the group stage of the UEFA arranges the 32 participating clubs - staggered according to their UEFA club coefficient - four pots to. The defending champion is generally performed in one pot # 1 in the seedings, regardless of its coefficients. From the four pots, the clubs will be drawn into eight groups of four. Each club receives each an opponent from one of the other three pots. Clubs from the same association can not be drawn into the same group.

The game is played in eight groups of four teams in a return match. The First and Second of the groups remain in the competition, while the third-placed for the UEFA Europa League qualifying (to enter the second round ) and the fourth place in the European Cup retire.

After completion of all group matches, where two or more teams are equal on points, decides ( in that order)

Finals

After the group stage of the tournament follows ( in knock-out system) with the eighth note, quarter and semi-final games that determined in a return game the winner of a game pairing. The matches will be for the individual finals each separately be drawn (since the 2012/13 season and the semi-finals ), where in the second round to meet the group winners and runners-up on the first latter enjoy home advantage. Failing to meet in the last sixteen teams that have already taken in the first round each other or belong to the same football association. From the quarter- finals, these restrictions no longer apply.

The winners will be determined in the final by adding the goals from round-trip game. Is it then a tie, winner is the team that has scored more away goals in this pairing. There is also still a tie after that, the return leg will be extended by two halves of 15 minutes. In the last instance the penalty shootout decides.

Endgame

The final is played on a square, the UEFA defines more than one year prior to the competition. As a venue only stadiums are permitted, which were classified by UEFA as stadium category 4. In the final, there is no return; It is possibly also terminated by extra time and penalties. 1974 there was a repeat match between Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid as the first game ended with 1:1 after extra time and penalty shootout was not then introduced for a final match.

Most often ( seven times ) the final was previously in London's Wembley Stadium instead ( five times in the old as well as two newly built in 2007 stadium) and the King Baudouin stadium in Brussels, in the latter but only because of the repetition of the game in 1974. Five finals were held in Paris held, two at the Stade de France and three in the Parc des Princes. Four times a team was the final in their own stadium dispute, Real Madrid (1957 ) and Inter Milan (1965 ) were able to take advantage of this, the AS Roma (1984) and Bayern Munich (2012 ), however, lost in their own stadium. The fourth home playoff is the first since the name change to "Champions League". Eight times could a team in a stadium of their own country meet in the final, Stade Reims ( in the first final in Paris), FC Barcelona (1986 in Seville) and Manchester United (2011 at Wembley Stadium ) this advantage could not use. Especially " spicy " are certainly the most wins in the league stages of the competitors, especially of Ajax Amsterdam at the stadium of Feyenoord and Borussia Dortmund at the stadium of FC Bayern Munich.

Finals with two teams from the same country, there have been four times: Season 1999/ 00 Real Madrid against Valencia CF in St. Denis (France ), 2002 /03 AC Milan against Juventus in Manchester, 2007/ 08 Manchester United vs Chelsea FC in Moscow and 2012/13 Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern Munich in London. Most finals were held with eight sweeps in Italy, in Rome four times, three times in Milan and one in Bari.

Background

Trophy

From 1956 to 1966 the respective winner yet another trophy was presented as a date, the strong the Cup four years later than European Nations' Cup inaugural football championship resembled in appearance. As Real Madrid triumphed in 1966 for the sixth time, it was decided to permanently handed over to the former trophy to the people of Madrid and create a new trophy. Since the year 1967 designed by Swiss designer Jürg Stadelmann and produced by the silverware workshop Koch & Bergfeld in Bremen trophy will be presented. Celtic won in 1967 as the first team the new trophy. The trophy is 62 cm high. By 2008, the rule was that the current title holder was awarded the original trophy for one year. Shortly before the final the following year the original was returned to the UEFA and replaced by a replica, which was ten percent smaller. Since the 1968/69 season, the rule was that if a club had won the competition three consecutive times or five times, the winner was allowed to keep the original permanent. So were in the past Real Madrid (1966 still the old Cup ), Ajax Amsterdam ( 1973), Bayern Munich (1976 ), AC Milan (1994) and most recently in 2005, Liverpool FC the respective original. Since 2006, the now sixth copy is passed, which in the form of the to 2005 passed trophy is different, now that the handles or grips are more strongly bent inwards, so that the cup looks a bit slimmer.

On the new cup all title winners are engraved for the first time. Since 2009, the original trophy, which is used for the trophy presentation remains permanently in the possession of UEFA. The winner will receive immediately after the finale a full size replica, the winner trophy and the UEFA Champions League. A club which has won the trophy three consecutive times or five times overall will receive future instead of the original statue, a special mark of recognition. Then begins the count for this club again from scratch.

Punish

After three yellow cards a player is automatically suspended for the next game, then after every two additional ( after the fifth, after the seventh, etc.). A dismissal has a barrier of at least one game result, the Control and Disciplinary Committee of UEFA may decide on an aggravation of the penalty. These rules apply to all competitions, so even when changing from Champions League Europa League.

Finances

For the season 2012/ 13, the premiums for the participating teams were distributed as follows: Each national champion who did not reach the group stage, got under the solidarity system 200,000 euros. In addition, given all clubs who competed in one of the three qualifying rounds, 140,000 euros, provided they did not qualify for the group stage. For reaching the group stage, each of the 32 clubs got 8,600,000 euros. For each of the six group matches 1,000,000 euros were paid out for a win and € 500,000 for a draw. For the knockout phase, the teams receive an extra 3.5 million euros, the eight quarter- finalists each conceded more 3.900.000 € and the four semi-finalists per 4,900,000 euros. The losing finalist received 6,500,000 euros, the title of winner of 10,500,000 euros. At best, an association could thus recorded premiums of 37.4 million euros. However, since the introduction of competition in 1955 succeeded so far no club to win all its games.

In addition, each club received for each home and away game a certain share of the television money, which are fed with a total budget of 409.6 million euros, which will be paid by the sender, who has acquired the television rights in the country the home club. The height of this TV revenue varies greatly depending on the nationality of the home club.

ZDF bought for Germany in 2012, the television rights, according to a media report for 54 million euros. The station does not specify the amount of the expenditure.

Label

The marketing of the brand name " UEFA Champions League " and, in particular, the television and advertising rights are, by the "TEAM Television Event And Media Marketing AG "based in Lucerne. The information released from the income from marketing premiums are an important source of income of the top football clubs in Europe. Meanwhile, nearly all of Tuesday's Champions League matches are broadcast in European pay - TV, while the games are on view from Wednesday on free TV. SF and two ORF transferred only German-language public broadcaster also on Tuesday games since 2005. In Germany are currently the pay-TV rights to Sky. The free-TV rights holds the ZDF, the transmitter must usually show only the Wednesday game, apart from the "follow - your - team " rule in the knockout rounds.

Anthem

The anthem of the Champions League was by Georg Friedrich Handel's Zadok The Priest arranged free of Tony Britten from the Coronation Anthems. Britten was given in 1992 by the UEFA commissioned to arrange the music in Handel's style, taking as a model the beginning of Handel's Zadok The Priest. The piece was played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chorus sung in the three official UEFA languages ​​English, French and German. The anthem is played before the game at the stadium and at the beginning and end of television broadcasts, but only the chorus. The complete three-minute anthem contains the well-known chorus, two short verses. The anthem has been published nowhere commercially. The text reads:

Ce sont les meilleures équipes, you are the very best teams, The main event, The Masters, The Best, Les grandes équipes, The champions.

Une grande reunion, a great sporting event, The main event, Ils sont les meilleures, you are the best thesis are the champions, The Masters, The Best, Les grandes équipes, The champions.

The Masters, The Best, Les grandes équipes, The champions.

In the official TV opening sequence of the text is sung modified:

Ce sont les meilleurs, you 're the best proposition are the Champions, The Masters, The Best, Les grandes équipes, The champions.

Sponsors

Current major sponsors of the UEFA Champions League are:

• Ford
• Heineken
• MasterCard
• Gazprom
• PlayStation
• Unicredit
• HTC Corporation

Adidas provides as a by- sponsor the official match ball and the officials' clothing. In addition to sponsor Konami Pro Evolution Soccer delivers with the official Champions League video game.

UEFA Champions League Ceremony

The winner of the UEFA Champions League final will be announced immediately after the decision of the finals at the stadium on the official UEFA Champions League Ceremony. The losing team will initially awarded silver medals for each player. The successful team will receive gold medals. The Champions League trophy is then presented by the UEFA President to the captain of the winning team. The Official UEFA Champions League confetti is fired at the moment handing over the trophy to the Champions League winning team. The confetti is collected after the end of the ceremony and sent to registered fans across Europe.

Statistics

Rankings

The most successful club in the history of the European Cup is Real Madrid, which was able to win a total of nine title wins. Especially in the early history of European competitions the "white ballet" by Alfredo Di Stéfano and Ferenc Puskás was virtually unbeatable; Only the first five sweeps of the European Cup of Champions won by the Spaniards. After the sixth success from 1966, however, the club had to wait until 1998 to again enter into this competition as the winner. Something was resistant AC Milan, who could ever win two of his seven titles in the 1960s, the 1990s and the 2000s and again in the 1980s, won the competition. Apart from Real Madrid, which also holds the record of wins in a row with five wins from 1956 to 1960, could also Ajax Amsterdam and FC Bayern Munich defend the title successfully several times. Ajax won it from 1971 to 1973, Bavaria ensued between 1974 and 1976. Last time AC Milan succeeded in 1990, the successful defense of the title.

Five teams could win the title in their first participation: Real Madrid ( 1955/56, at the first discharge ), Inter Milan (1963 /64), Celtic Glasgow (1966 /67), Nottingham Forest ( 1978/79, according to the hitherto only English league title ) and Aston Villa (1981 /82).

Looking at a country rating, so have been able to win the competition Teams from ten countries. The clubs from Spain lead with 13 successes to read, closely followed by the Italian and English clubs, each with twelve tracks. Germany, with seven titles to rank 4 is followed by the Netherlands with six and Portugal with four wins.

Most games

(Updated: March 23, 2014)

The statistics of most operations in the main European club competition is led by players who were active after 1992 or; this can be explained especially by a new competition format, which leads to significantly more games per season than it was earlier in the discharge in pure knockout system the case. A leader in this statistic is the Welsh Ryan Giggs, who made his 145th game on October 2, 2013, and so the Spaniard overtook Raul. Raúl unleashed in the 2010/11 season in the jersey of FC Schalke 04 the long-standing leading Italian Paolo Maldini from. Maldini holds but with 19 games still the record with the most stakes in a season, as he stood on the pitch 2002/ 03 in every game of AC Milan from qualification to the finals. Ryan Giggs also holds with 20 participations the record for most appearances. Record winner of the National Champion Cup and Champions League, Francisco Gento, whose six -won title with Real Madrid until today are unmatched. They are followed Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Costacurta (both AC Milan ), José María Alfredo Di Stéfano and Zárraga (both Real Madrid ) with five.

In addition to the greatest offensive players of recent times many famous striker from the early days of European Cup competitions can be found in the statistics of the top scorers again. Leading the list of scorers is the Spanish striker Raul, who scored 66 of his 71 matches in the shirt of Real Madrid. Behind him followed the Argentine striker Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese attacker. From the time of the European Cup of Champions four of the most prominent footballers in Europe are represented by di Stéfano, Eusébio, Puskás and Müller. It is worth noting that seven of the 15 top scorers the shirt of Real Madrid wore or wear; alongside Raúl were or are also van Nistelrooy, di Stéfano, Morientes, Puskás, Cristiano Ronaldo and Benzema for the " Royal " is active.

Highest wins

Age Records

• The youngest player was used in the history of the Champions League, Celestine Babayaro is. He arrived on 13 November 1994 at the game of his club RSC Anderlecht at Steaua Bucharest (final result 1:1 ) is used and has been sent off in the 37th minute. In the game he was 16 years, 2 months and 26 days old.

• The oldest player who was used in the history of the Champions League, Marco Ballotta Lazio Rome, which was established on 11 December 2007 in the group match against Real Madrid and at that time 43 years and 253 days old. The oldest player in a Champions League final is Edwin van der Sar of Manchester United. He played the final 28 May 2011 over the full length. At the same time it was also the last game of his active career as a professional footballer. In the match against FC Barcelona (final result 1:3 ), he was 40 years and 211 days old.

The most successful coach

Only Bob Paisley won three times as a coach competition ( with Liverpool in 1977, 1978 and 1981); 15 more trainers won the title twice. Miguel Muñoz, Giovanni Trapattoni, Johan Cruyff, Carlo Ancelotti, Frank Rijkaard and Josep Guardiola won the title as a player and as a coach.

Only four coaches have managed with two different clubs to win the UEFA Champions League and its predecessor Competition: Ernst Happel with Feyenoord and Hamburger SV (1970 and 1983 ), Ottmar Hitzfeld with Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich (1997 and 2001), José Mourinho with FC Porto and Inter Milan (2004 and 2010) and Jupp Heynckes with Real Madrid and Bayern Munich (1998 and 2013).

Match ball

→ Main article: Adidas Finale

As a game ball season 2000/ 01 adidas balls with the name Adidas used Finale since the season. These have since the season 2001/02, an adapted specially for the Champions League design, so the stars of the Champions League logos adorn the ball with seasonal colors. Since the 2008 final of the ball of the final addition is saved with a different colored background, this 2008 silver and 2009 gold.

Clubs, did not win the competition as champions