Uefa European Champion League
Established the first time in 1955 as the Coupe des Clubs Champions Européens (French for European Champion Clubs' Cup), and commonly known as the European Cup, the UEFA Champions League is an annual club football competition which is organized by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs. The tournament format decides the competition winners through a round-robin group stage to qualify for a double-legged knockout format and a single-leg final. It is one of the most prestigious football 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 their national associations.
It was initially a straight knockout tournament open only to the champions of Europe's domestic leagues, with its winner reckoned as the European club champion. The competition took on its current name in 1992, adding a round-robin group stage in 1991 and allowing multiple entrants from certain countries since the 1997–1998 season. It has since been expanded, and while most of Europe's national leagues can still only enter their champion, the strongest leagues now provide up to four teams.
In its present format, the Champions League begins in late June with a preliminary round, three qualifying rounds and a play-off round, all played over two legs. The six 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 late May or early June. The winner of the Champions League qualifies for the following year's Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup.
Real Madrid, a Spanish club is the best championship collector of the tournament with a total of 13 championships so far. There have been 22 clubs all around Europe at least one time that got the championship.
The past statistic shows that over nearly 400 million viewers in over 200 countries watched the final match with a total cost of broadcasting rights at over 1.63 billion USD.
