UEFA Champions League Quiz

UEFA Champions League: A Detailed Summary

• The UEFA Champions League is an annual club association football competition organized by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs.

• 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 introduced in 1955 as the Coupe des Clubs Champions Européens and was initially a straight knockout tournament open only to the champions of Europe's domestic leagues.

• 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 1997–98 season.

• 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 eight group winners and eight runners-up proceed to the knockout phase that culminates with the final match in late May or early June.

• Spanish clubs have the highest number of victories (19 wins), followed by England (14 wins) and Italy (12 wins).

• Real Madrid is the most successful club in the tournament's history, having won it 14 times, including the first five seasons and also five of the last nine.

• The UEFA Champions League anthem, officially titled simply as "Champions League", was written by Tony Britten and is an adaptation of George Frideric Handel's 1727 anthem Zadok the Priest.

• The anthem's chorus is played before each UEFA Champions League game as the two teams are lined up, as well as at the beginning and end of television broadcasts of the matches.

• The UEFA Champions League begins with a double round-robin group stage of 32 teams, which since the 2009–10 season is preceded by two qualification 'streams' for teams that do not receive direct entry to the tournament proper.

• Four of the remaining six qualifying places are granted to the winners of a six-round qualifying tournament between the remaining 43 or 44 national champions, within which those champions from associations with higher coefficients receive byes to later rounds.

• In addition to sporting criteria, any club must be licensed by its national association to participate in the Champions League.UEFA Champions League: Format, Distribution, Prizes, and Records

• Between 1999 and 2008, no differentiation was made between champions and non-champions in qualification, with the 16 top-ranked teams spread across the biggest domestic leagues qualifying directly for the tournament group stage.

• In 2005, UEFA gave special dispensation for Liverpool to enter the Champions League, giving England five qualifiers, and subsequently ruled that the defending champions qualify for the competition the following year regardless of their domestic league placing.

• In 2015–16, the winners of the previous season's UEFA Europa League would qualify for the UEFA Champions League, entering at least the play-off round, and entering the group stage if the berth reserved for the Champions League title holders was not used.

• The tournament proper begins with a group stage of 32 teams, divided into eight groups of four, with each team playing six group stage games, meeting the other three teams in its group home and away in a round-robin format.

• For the next stage – the last 16 – the winning team from one group plays against the runners-up from another group, and teams from the same association may not be drawn against each other.

• The winning team is presented with the European Champion Clubs' Cup, the current version of which has been awarded since 1967, and the current trophy is 74 cm (29 in) tall and made of silver, weighing 11 kg (24 lb).

• As of 2021–22, the fixed amount of prize money paid to participating clubs is €15.25 million, and a large part of the distributed revenue from the UEFA Champions League is linked to the "market pool".

• The tournament's main sponsors for the 2021–24 cycle are Gazprom, PepsiCo, Mastercard, and Heineken.

• The final of the tournament has been, in recent years, the most-watched annual sporting event in the world, with the final of the 2012–13 tournament drawing approximately 360 million television viewers.

• Real Madrid has won the tournament the most times (13), followed by AC Milan (7), and Liverpool and Bayern Munich (6 each).

• Spain has won the tournament the most times (18), followed by England (13), Italy (12), and Germany (8).

• Cristiano Ronaldo has scored the most goals in the tournament (135), followed by Lionel Messi (120) and Robert Lewandowski (73).

• Starting from the 2021–22 edition, UEFA introduced the UEFA Champions League Player of the Season award and the UEFA Champions League Young Player of the Season award.