Live Champions League Football

The History Of The Champions League

Formerly known as the European Cup, the Live Champions League football of UEFA was inaugurated in the year 1955. This concept of tournament was initially suggested by French sports journalist and editor of the L'Equipe daily newspaper -Gabriel Hanot. This tournament was conceived as a continental competition for the winners of the European national football leagues, and was known as the European Champion Club's Cup or the European Cup.

Competition Concept

The competition concept began in 1955-56, in which one has to use a two-leg knockout format. In this format, the teams would play in two matches and will play one at home and another one somewhere outside. The team with high score will qualify for the next round of the competition. The entry was however, allowed to the teams who won their national league championships along with the current European Cup holder. This system of qualification continued till 1992. During the 1992-93 season of the tournament, the game was renamed to UEFA Champions League and in 1997-98, the eligibility expanded to include the best performing runner-ups too, as per UEFA's coefficient ranking list.

The Football League System

In this coefficient system put forward by UEFA, a team which finishes second in the Spanish La Liga would also have a chance and would be more deserving of the place in the Champions League, than the team who finished first. As a result of this concept, the system got restructured in order to force weaker teams of national champions leagues o participate and be qualified for the group stages. The stronger national runner ups would automatically get places in the main tournament.

Different Stages

Live Champions League Football tournaments involve several stages. Presently, it commences in the mid week of July, has 3 heats as the knockout qualifying rounds. There are 16 qualifying teams which will join the 16 seeded ones in a stage group manner. There will be 8 group champions and 8 runner-ups who will make an entry into the final knockout round and this will conclude with the final and the last match to be held in the month of May. History shows that in the previous period, only the champions of the respective national leagues could participate in the competition, but this rule got changed in 1992 and the runners were also allowed to compete in the competition.

The Live Champions League football of UEFA is a seasonal club football competition which is organized by UEFA since 1955 and is played by the most successful football clubs in Europe. The European Champion Club's Cup is the prize, which is considered to be one of the most prestigious club trophies in the field of sports. However, it is to be noted that UEFA Champions League is different from UEFA Cup and Cup Winner's Cup, of which the former is less prestigious and the latter is of a redundant league.

The Champions League Finals

One of the most important matches of the season is the Champions League in the European Club football. The stadium that hosts the final is selected by UEFA two years prior to the scheduled match date. The winning team in the Live Champions League football gets the trophy at the awards ceremony and returns it to UEFA headquarters 2 months prior to the following year's final match. In return, UEFA gives the winners a scaled down replica of the trophy to be kept permanently and the winning team is free to make replicas of the trophy as long as they are marked as replicas and are not larger than 80 percent of the actual trophy size. Further, the current competition rules provide that the actual trophy is to be permanently awarded to a team which wins three or five consecutive years in all.

UEFA Badge Of Honour

There are total 5 clubs who have been awarded the UEFA Badge of honor and has the right to keep the trophy in permanent basis. These five teams include Real Madrid, Ajax, Bayern Munich, AC Milan and Liverpool.

•  Real Madrid got this award for winning the first five competitions from the period of 1956 to 1960 and again in 1966, 98, the year of 2000 and even in 2002.

•  Ajax for winning consecutively in 1971 – 73 and in 1995.

•  Bayern Munich for winning in 1974 to 76 and in 2001.

•  AC Milan for winning for the fifth time in 1994 and in 2003 and 2007.

•  Liverpool for winning five times of the European Cup in 1977,78,81,84 and ultimately in 2005.

Current holders Of The UEFA Champions League Trophy

The Current holders of the UEFA Champion League Trophy are AC Milan who won the game by beating Liverpool FC by 2-1 in Athens, Greece, at the Olympic Stadium. This competition was held in the year 2007 in May 23 rd . Further, Moscow will be hosting the next and its foremost European Cup final for the season of 2007-08.

Financing The League

UEFA Champions League is one such high profitable competition for the clubs which reaches the group stage. This Live Champions League football match distributes part of its revenue from television deals held between such clubs. Such clubs make extra money from the ticket sales, merchandising, corporate hospitality and many more. For instance, in 2004-05, the payment for the competition ranged from 3.8 million euros to 30.6 million euros between Sparta Prague and Liverpool. UEFA estimates the money to be provided to the 32 participants of the 2005-06 group stage at 430 million euros.

Sponsors Of The League

Furthermore, the Live Champions League football has around six official sponsors and the traditional is the Ford motor Company who has been sponsoring the competition since the inception of its concept. The Club kits include one shirt sponsored as the English Premier League.