The Champions League is the prestigious European club football tournament organized by UEFA between the national champions of major European soccer (football) associations. The tournament was started in 1955 as the European Champion Clubs’ Cup and changed its name to the UEFA Champions League in 1992. It is currently the most prestigious competition in world football, with teams earning entry through success in their national leagues as well as a separate qualifying tournament.
From the 2024-25 season the format was changed to abandon the group stage and have all participating clubs ranked in a single table based on their UEFA coefficient, with home-and-away matches against the other teams in each pot. The knockout phase will continue to have two-legged quarterfinals and semi-finals, followed by the traditional one-legged final.
Since the first Champions League tournament in 1977-78, the competition has been dominated by Spanish clubs with Real Madrid and Barcelona winning the most titles, followed by Bayern Munich, Juventus and Ajax. English clubs were able to break this dominance during the 1970s and 80s, with Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest winning in 1979-80 and Liverpool in 1978-79 and 1980-81.
In addition to sporting criteria, all clubs must be licensed by their national association to participate in the Champions League. This license is granted if the club meets certain stadium, infrastructure and finance requirements. This system allows the best club in each nation to compete with the best from the rest of Europe for the honor to lift the trophy and be considered the world’s best team.