Since its beginning in 1992, Champions League has been the most prestigious club competition in European football. The tournament, created by French sports journalist François Hanot, is contested by the champions (and in some cases one or more runners-up) of the top national leagues of the member nations of the Union of European Football Associations.
The first tournaments of the competition were purely knockout; however, in 1960, UEFA doubled the number of teams and introduced group stage play in the tournament’s structure. The revamped tournament was renamed UEFA Champions League to reflect the new format and expansion of teams. The tournament has been won by some of the biggest clubs in the world, from Johan Cruyff to Lionel Messi.
In the league phase of Champions League, all thirty-two qualified teams are grouped into eight groups of four teams each. A randomized draw divides the teams into groups and a coefficient-based seeding system ensures that each team plays opponents of a similar competitive level. In a round-robin format, each team plays the other teams in its group twice: once at home and once on the road. Teams earn three points for a win and one point for a tie.
During the league phase, the top teams advance to the round of sixteen automatically. The next eight highest-ranked teams compete in a knockout phase playoff, in which they are paired against a team placed seventeenth through twenty-fourth with the home leg of the quarterfinals and semi-finals being played at the highest-ranked club’s stadium.