UEFA Champions League
UEFA Champions League
Union OF European Football Association (UEFA) Champions League is a tournament that is organized for the top division European clubs. It is one of the most reputed leagues in the world and the most prestigious club competition in European football. The champions leagues start in late June with a preclusive round, three qualifyings, and a play-off round. This league is organized between 79+ teams and ends up qualifying six teams that will join the group stage with 26 other teams qualified in advance. Ultimately, 32 teams play in a group of four, with the eight winners and eight runners-up proceeding to the knockout phase, culminating in the final match to be held in late May or early June. It is worth noting that Spanish clubs have the most victories (19 wins), followed by English clubs with 14 wins and Italian clubs with 12 wins. Until now, 22 clubs have won the title. Real Madrid has won most of the tournament's titles by 14 wins, including the first five consecutive wins of the season. Real Madrid is the current year's champions by defeating Liverpool in 2022.
History
During what was called the 1895 World Championship, English Champion Sunderland defeated Scottish champion Hearts by 5-3, the first match between the champions of two European Leagues. The first tournament was named as Champions Cup, the completion held between Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was the First Pan European Tournament. Gabriel Hanot was the one who proposed the continent-wide tournament in 1948. Hanot somehow managed to put the such tournament into practice by 1955. It was more profoundly known as the European champions club cup.
Beginning
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In 1955-1956, first European Cup took place in which 16 teams participated in which some were invited.
AC Milan (Italy),
AGF Aarhus (Denmark),
Anderlecht (Belgium),
Djurgården (Sweden),
Gwardia Warszawa (Poland),
Hibernian (Scotland),
PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands),
Rapid Wien (Austria),
Real Madrid (Spain),
Rot-Weiss Essen (West Germany),
Saarbrücken (Saar),
Servette (Switzerland),
Sporting CP (Portugal),
Stade de Reims (France),
Vörös Lobogó (Hungary)
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The first-ever goal was made by João Baptista Martins of Sporting CP in the European Cup. Spanish Sqaud took the first cup by 4-3 after which five consecutive cups were upheld by Real Madrid
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Manchester United become the first English squad to win the European cup in the season 1967-68 by beating Benifica in the finals by 4-1.
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Ajax was the first Dutch team to reach to the finals but couldn't win it losing it to AC Milan by 4-1 in the season 1968-69. The first Dutch winners were seen in the 1969-70 season, Feyenoord, a Rotterdam based club who knocked out the defending champions, Milan in the second round before winning the European cup by defeating Celtic in the finals.
Anthem of the league
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The anthem of the UEFA champions league was written by Tony Britten, and is an alteration of George Frideric Handel's 1727 anthem Zadok the Priest. The song was performed by London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and sung by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. The lyrics contain of three languages English, German and French which is used by UEFA. The song is played each and every time before the European league match begins when teams line-up before the match.
Format of the Tournament
In the UEFA Champions League, 32 teams compete in a double round-robin group stage, which is preceded by two qualifying 'streams' for the team that does not receive direct entry to the tournament and the two streams are divided into the teams that qualified by winning their league championship and those that are qualified by finishing second and third in their national championships.
The Tournament is begun with 32 teams divided into 8 groups of four. Clubs from the same nations are not drawn into same group, each team has to play 6b group stage games meeting in round robin format. Teams from the same association are not drawn against each other when the winners of one group play the runners-up from the other group. Followed by the quarter-finals in February and finals to be played in May.
Trophy
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The trophy was designed by Jurg Stadlemann, a jeweler from Bern, Switzerland. In the 1966, the original trophy was given to Real Madrid for their six consecutive wins. The cup cost somewhere around 10,000 swiss francs. In 2008, the UEFA called out for the Trophy, and after that official trophy is remained with them and a replica is awarded to the teams.
And if we talk about price money as of 2021- 2022; a fixed amount of prize money is given to the clubs-
- Play-off round: €5,000,000
- The base fee for group stage: €15,640,000
- Group match victory: €2,800,000
- Group match draw: €900,000
- Round of 16: €9,600,000
- Quarter-finals: €10,600,000
- Semi-finals: €12,500,000
- Runners-up: €15,500,000
- Champions: €20,000,000
These prizes are apart from the shares of the qualifying round and the play-off round of the market pool.
