The UEFA Champions League is the premier European club competition for European professional football clubs. Founded in 1955, the competition was known as the European Cup until 1992, when it was revamped to include a group stage and a knockout phase. Real Madrid won the first four editions, establishing the tournament as one of the most important sporting events on the continent.
The 2024-25 season marked the start of an overhaul, replacing the group stage with a league phase. The top eight teams advance to the round of sixteen, where they are ranked according to their performance in league phase play and then placed into one of four seeding pots for the knockout phase playoffs. A draw system determines matchups, and each team plays eight different opponents over the course of the league phase, with a combination of home and away games.
During the league phase, if a match ends in a tie, extra time is played and, if necessary, penalty shootouts are used to decide the winner. At the end of the league phase, clubs with the highest aggregate goals advance to the quarterfinals, semifinals and final, which are both played as single two-legged matches on a Saturday.
Five of the thirty-two qualified teams are automatically promoted to the Champions League, while the remaining thirteen enter through a three-round qualifying process. The first qualifying round takes place between national champions, while the second and third rounds are open to the best runners-up in each of UEFA’s tiers.