Champions League : Part 1
Omar Mahmoud
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Okay, I have written A LOT about football. In my last issue, all the way back in April, I mentioned the UEFA Champions League (UCL). So, in this 2+ part series, I will be talking about the biggest annual sporting event in the world. This issue will be mostly about the premise of the tournament and the following one will be specifically about this year’s edition.
First of all, what is the Champions League?
The Champions League is exactly that; the champions and the best of all European leagues. Let me walk you through how the final tournament is decided. First, the title holders of the tournament qualify automatically for the group stage, regardless of their record in their league. Also, the Europa League (UEL) winners automatically qualify for the next year’s final tournament. Those 2 are added to 24 teams which qualified automatically because their league is higher ranked.
Here is what the breakdown looks like :
*These rankings may change year by year, but the same formula is always applied.
For the group stage, England, Spain, Germany and Italy each send 4 teams based on this ranking. France and Portugal send 2 to the group stage and 1 to the qualification, and then each of the Netherlands, Austria, Scotland and Serbia (not Russia, they’re banned) send their champions. These and the titleholders make up the 26 automatic slots. However, since Manchester City received the title holder and the league position spots, the next strongest league, Ukraine, sent their champion to the group stage instead of the qualification to keep the number the same. The rest is determined by a long qualification process that no one cares about, but here’s the wikipedia link if you want to read more. It should be noted that beginning next year, there will be a new format which I may go over in a future article as the date nears.
Group Stage Format
Basically the 32 qualified teams are placed in 8 pots. The previous season's title holders, and the champions of the first 6 leagues (7 if the champion won the UCL/UEL) are placed in Pot 1. The remaining teams are split over the other pots using the UEFA Club Coefficient, which is pretty much a strong algorithm used to give teams points and rank them by it. After that, a draw is done to determine the 8 groups. One team from each pot makes up the group. The rules are that no 2 teams from the same country can be drawn together.
After that, between September to December, the 4 teams played 6 games total in the group stage. The group stage is where teams are placed in groups and they play each other a set number of times, usually in a round robin, where everyone plays the other once. They get 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw and 0 for a loss. You might wonder: if it is 1 against each team (3 total) how is it 6? The answer is: actually, all European competitions are done where each team plays the others twice, once at home and once away. This applies to the group stage, where they play a double round-robin.
Knockout Stage
This then carries over to the Knockout Stage. It is very similar to the World Cup. The top 2 from each group go to the Round of 16, but the 3rd place here goes down to UEL, where there is a playoff to accommodate these 8 teams.
(last year’s knockout stage)
Right after the group stage in mid-December, another draw is conducted where teams from the same group or country can not be with each other. After the home and away ties in February and March, a 3rd and final draw is held to show the path for the rest of the tournament. The Quarter and Semi-Finals are held in April and May.
Final
After that, the final is held in late May or early June. The final is the only game in the entire season that is held in a neutral venue. This was selected a couple of years before by UEFA. This game is the pinnacle of the season and is the very last game of the European season. Everyone watches this game, regardless of whether their team is there or not. It is the highest-watched game of all year. Indeed, the 2023 UCL Final was watched by 150 million, while the next was the Super Bowl with 115. The record was 185 million in 2014.
Finally, to wrap up, here are the 32 teams for this edition.
So, there is the Champions League for you. I went over a lot, so next month I will focus more on this year’s edition, the favorites, talking points and, of course, key matches. I will also try to include a brief history lesson and some records and statistics. Stay tuned for that.
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