After Chelsea won the “elite” European competition final over Manchester City, many new fans to football have a burning question. What is the UEFA Champions League?
We, here at LiveMatchUpdates, wish to induct newcomers to the football scene into arguably it’s most prominent regional competition.
We’re talking about none other than Champions League, that Chelsea just won (the 2020-21 campaign) and rightly celebrated madly over.
What Is the UEFA Champions League?
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL) is an annual club football competition amongst the countries of Europe.
It is organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) which has top-division European clubs competing under its wing.
It is one of the most prestigious football tournaments in the world. People even call it the most prestigious club competition in European football, after which comes Europa League.
(After this second-tier pan-European contest comes the Europa Conference League, which UEFA have just introduced.)
Across Europe, the national league champions of their national associations play the Champions League.
However, for some nations, one or more runners-up also qualify for participation. England, Italy, Spain, Germany, etc. can send up to five top-performing domestic clubs into the next season of UCL.
France have just won a fifth qualifying spot from Ligue 1 under a new UCL structure.
Let’s learn about the structure, the current as well as the new one, of the game, in more detail, below.
Rules/Format
The competition qualifies teams, via a double round-robin group stage, for a double-legged knockout fixtures, leading to a single-legged final.
32 teams enter the round-robin stage, which number UEFA may now change to a 36-team format from 2024 onward.
The traditional group stage concept of 32 teams has seen four teams compete in eight pools. From each group, the top two qualifying clubs enter the final 16.
Now, this structure will give way soon to a single league including 36 teams.
UEFA will likely also introduce a single league format to replace the group stage.
Each team will play 10 games home and away, with the top eight automatically qualifying for the last 16.
Those finishing between ninth and 24th, meanwhile, compete in two-legged play-offs to decide who else makes the knockout stage.
But the teams that finish lower than 24th will exit European competition completely.
Then, the last 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final will all continue as they already done according to the original format.
A new calendar, as yet undecided, will accommodate four additional matches but they will be played between September and January.
Finally, the Europa League and Conference League will also follow the same format as this new Champions League.
Champions League vs Super League – Which Would Offer the Best Football?
The now-failed Super League planned to usurp Europe’s most apparently elite competition, UEFA’s Champions League.
This begs the question, whether or not Super League replaced UCL, which of the two regional tournament formats would offer better football?
We think UCL, especially with it’s revised, more inclusive structure, would deliver fans the best football to watch.
