Champions League

The Champions League is a competition of football among the various seasonal clubs. UEFA also known as Union of European Football Associations which is the managing body of European football organizes the Champions League. The Football club that wins the Champions League is awarded the most coveted trophy called the European Champion Club’s Cup. The foundation of the Champions League The tournament which was formerly called the ‘European Cup’ was initiated by a French sports journalist L’Equipe in the year 1955. The tournament was rechristened as the UEFA Champions League in 1992-93. This is a seasonal competition where Europe’s 32 clubs that are considered the best come together to compete in this tournament. The winners of the competition qualify to play against the winning team of South America’s ‘Copa Libertadores’ for the International Cup. The first team to win the European Cup was Real Madrid CF and ever since they have been winners of the league 8 times. They had consecutive victories from 1955-56 and 1959-60. Why is Champions League so special? The best domestic clubs of every country in Europe who are members of the UEFA are allowed to participate in the tournament. The only country to be barred is Liechtenstein because of the absence of a domestic league in their country. People are in frenzy when they go to watch players like Ronaldinho, Cristiano Ronado and several others in action. The Champions League is popular worldwide and is one major event that receives extensive media coverage. In the recent 2008 Champions League that was played in Moscow, for first time ever, the finalists were from the same country. It was Manchester United vs Chelsea and was won by Manchester United. The Game The Champions League is divided into the group stage, the qualifying stage and the knockout stage which has second round, the quarters round, the semis and the finals. The group stage has 4 teams divided into 8 groups. Each team has to play against the other 3 teams to be the qualified as the winner of the group. The knockout round has the first and the second teams of each group which are qualified to play this round. Each team needs to play twice, once at home ground and the other away at each stage till they reach the finals. The decision to fix the venue for the finals is taken by the UEFA two years prior to the main event. The introduction of the group stage helped the teams to understand the game plan and strategies of competing teams. Over the years the number of participating teams has gone up from 8 to 32.