Home / Sport / Soccer / UEFA Champions League

Name

UEFA Champions League

Badge

Poster

Established
1955 (70 years old)

First Recorded Event
1992-08-19

Current Season
2025-2026

Level Above

Level Below

Sport
Sport Icon

Soccer

Location
Europe

Gender
Male

TV Rights
US - CBS Sports [2020-2024]
US (Español) - Univision [2021-2024]

Logo

Upcoming
22 Jul	Viktoria	5:00pm	Servette
22 Jul	Pafos	5:00pm	Maccabi T
22 Jul	Rangers	6:45pm	Panathina
22 Jul	Shkëndij	6:00pm	FCSB
22 Jul	RFS	5:00pm	Malmo FF
22 Jul	FC Copenh	5:00pm	Drita
22 Jul	Ħamrun S	5:00pm	Dynamo Ky
22 Jul	KuPS	3:00pm	Kairat Al
22 Jul	Noah	4:00pm	Ferencvá
22 Jul	Lincoln R	4:00pm	Crvena Zv
Results
16 Jul	Dinamo Mi	2 - 2	Ludogoret
16 Jul	Linfield	1 - 1	Shelbourn
15 Jul	Malmo FF	3 - 1	Iberia 19
15 Jul	RFS	1 - 0	Levadia T
15 Jul	Ħamrun S	2 - 0	Žalgiris
15 Jul	Kairat Al	2 - 0	Olimpija
15 Jul	Shkëndij	2 - 1	The New S
15 Jul	Differdan	2 - 3	Drita
15 Jul	Lincoln R	1 - 0	Víkingur
15 Jul	Milsami O	0 - 0	KuPS

Description

The UEFA Champions League is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs. It is one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world and the most prestigious club competition in European football, played by the national league champions (and, for some nations, one or more runners-up) of the strongest UEFA national associations. The UEFA Champions League final is the most watched annual sporting event worldwide. The final of the 2012–13 tournament had the highest TV ratings to date, drawing 360 million television viewers.

Introduced in 1992, the competition replaced the European Champion Clubs' Cup, or simply European Cup, which had run since 1955, adding a group stage to the competition and allowing multiple entrants from certain countries. The pre-1992 competition was initially a straight knockout tournament open only to the champion club of each country. During the 1990s, the format was expanded, incorporating a round-robin group stage to include clubs that finished runner-up of some nations' top-level league. While most of Europe's national leagues can still only enter their national league champion, Europe's strongest national leagues now provide up to five teams for the competition. Clubs that finish next-in-line in each nation's top level league, having not qualified for the UEFA Champions League competition, are eligible for the next-level UEFA Europa League competition.

In its present format, the UEFA Champions League begins in late June with four knockout qualifying rounds and a play-off round. The 6 surviving teams enter the group stage, joining 26 teams qualified in advance. The 32 teams are drawn into eight groups of four teams and play each other in a double round-robin system. The eight group winners and eight runners-up proceed to the knockout phase that culminates with the final match in May. The winner of the UEFA Champions League qualifies for the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.

Real Madrid is the most successful club in the competition's history, having won the tournament 13 times, including its first five seasons. Spanish clubs have accumulated the highest number of victories (18 wins), followed by England and Italy (12 wins apiece). England has the largest number of winning teams, with five clubs having won the title. The competition has been won by 22 clubs, 12 of which have won it more than once. The reigning champions are Real Madrid, who secured their 13th title in the competition after defeating Liverpool 3–1 in the 2018 final. Thus, they became the first team in the UEFA Champions League era to win the title for three years in a row.

Seasons

Teams

Ajax	Arsenal	Atalanta	Athletic Bilbao
Atlético Madrid	Barcelona	Basel	Bayer Leverkusen
Bayern Munich	Benfica	Bodø/Glimt	Borussia Dortmund
Brann	Breiðablik	Budućnost Podg	Celtic
Chelsea	Club Brugge	Crvena Zvezda	Differdange 03
Dinamo Minsk	Drita	Dynamo Kyiv	Egnatia
Eintracht Frankfu	FC Copenhagen	FCSB	Fenerbahçe
Ferencváros	Feyenoord	Galatasaray	Ħamrun Spartan
Iberia 1999	Inter Club d'Es	Inter Milan	Juventus
Kairat Almaty	KuPS	Lech Poznań	Levadia Tallinn
Lincoln Red Imp	Linfield	Liverpool	Ludogorets Razg
Maccabi Tel Avi	Malmo FF	Manchester City	Marseille
Milsami Orhei	Monaco	Napoli	Newcastle United
Nice	Noah	Olimpija Ljublj	Olympiacos
Pafos	Panathinaikos	Paris SG	PSV Eindhoven
Qarabağ	Rangers	Real Madrid	Red Bull Salzbu
RFS	Rijeka	Servette	Shelbourne
Shkëndija	Slavia Prague	Slovan Bratisla	Sporting CP
Sturm Graz	The New Saints	Tottenham Hotspur	Union Saint-Gil
Víkingur Gøta	Viktoria Plzeň	Villarreal	Virtus
Žalgiris Vilni	Zrinjski Mostar