Champions League is the pinnacle of club soccer, one that has seen a number of dramatic moments and even more remarkable achievements over its rich history. It is a competition that has helped to steer billions of euros in prize money, global broadcast rights and sponsorship deals to the highest earners in world football.
It was born in the heart of the 1950s, a creation that emerged from the imagination of visionaries. Gabriel Hanot, editor of the French newspaper L’Equipe and his colleague Jacques Ferran were looking for a competition that could showcase the best clubs in Europe beyond their domestic leagues.
That competition is now known as UEFA Champions League and has become the most coveted trophy in world football. It can be held permanently by a team if it wins five or three times in a row and has become almost as revered as the FIFA World Cup trophy.
In its current form, 32 teams are divided into eight groups of four and the top two in each group progress to the knockout stage. There, the field is whittled down through a round of 16, quarterfinals and semifinals (both two legged) until a single game final takes place at a stadium selected prior to the tournament draw.
The group phase is played through the autumn, while the knockout stages begin after a winter break. During the group phase, the teams are placed into separate groups via a random draw and teams from the same country cannot be drawn against each other. In the quarterfinals and semifinals, however, a draw is made that does not take into account associations (with the exception of the first leg).