Every sport has its premier domestic competition—the one every team dreams of winning.
In football, it's the Super Bowl; in basketball, it's the NBA title. In soccer, while there are several major tournaments, the ultimate prize every European club craves is the UEFA Champions League.
Formerly known as the European Cup, the Champions League is European soccer’s premier club competition, where the continent’s biggest and best teams battle for continental glory—and bragging rights—year after year.
Here, we break down everything you need to know about the competition, including its history, evolution in the modern era, and its structure—which underwent significant changes ahead of the 2024–25 edition.
The Origins of the Champions League
The Champions League first began in the 1955-56 season as the European Cup.
Conceived by Gabriel Hanot, the editor of the French soccer magazine L'Equipe, the tournament was inspired by the success of the Championship of Champions—a continental club competition in South America.
In its inaugural season, just 16 clubs participated, with Real Madrid—led by the legendary Alfredo Di Stéfano, who would later be named honorary president of Los Blancos, and Paco Gento—emerging victorious, defeating French side Stade de Reims in the final.
Real Madrid would go on to win the next four editions of the tournament—a streak that remains unbeaten—before Benfica brought an end to their reign of glory in the 1960-61 season.
Over the next 30 years, a further 17 teams, including Liverpool, FC Barcelona, Ajax, and AC Milan, would go on to lift the trophy, before the tournament was rebranded to what we know today as the Champions League.
The Transition to the Champions League
The European Cup was renamed the Champions League in the 1992-93 season, but the name change wasn’t just cosmetic—it also marked a new era for the competition, with structural changes that would forever alter the landscape of club competitions on a global scale.
By introducing a group stage to what was previously just a tight knockout tournament, more teams than ever were allowed to compete, significantly expanding the competition’s size and reach, attracting new fans from different countries across the continent to help grow the tournament's popularity.
The change also prompted sponsors to invest heavily, which, in turn, allowed the tournament to improve and expand further in the years to come, solidifying the Champions League as the most prestigious and lucrative club soccer competition in the world—a model that other confederations would later emulate.
In the inaugural Champions League season, with 32 teams, French side Marseille emerged as a shock winner, defeating four-time winners AC Milan 1-0 in the final, thanks to a goal from defender Basile Boli.
This new structure would—with the addition of a round of 16 phase in 2003––remain in place for the next 31 seasons, until it underwent another major change in the 2024-25 edition.
The Structure of the Champions League
The 2024-25 season marked a significant overhaul of the Champions League format, moving away from the traditional group stage structure—where 32 teams were split into eight groups of four––and introducing a new, expanded league phase with 36 teams.
This revamped league phase is inspired by the Swiss model, often used in chess, and doesn't require every team to face every other team. Instead, the 36 participants play eight matches against eight different opponents—four at home and four away. The matchups are determined through a seeded draw before the tournament begins.
But the changes didn't stop at the league phase; the knockout rounds were also restructured.
Instead of 16 teams progressing directly to the round of 16, only the top eight teams from the league phase automatically advance. The remaining eight spots are determined through a playoff round, where teams finishing 9th to 24th face off in two-legged ties, with the winners securing a place in the last 16.
After this, the tournament follows the traditional knockout format, with teams competing in two-legged ties from the round of 16 to the semifinals. If the aggregate score is tied, extra time and penalties determine the winner before the final showdown between the last two teams standing.
Iconic Moments in Champions League History
From incredible comebacks to unlikely triumphs and stunning goals, the Champions League has seen countless iconic moments.
Take Liverpool's unforgettable comeback against Barcelona in the 2019 semifinals, where they overturned a 3-0 deficit from the first leg at the Camp Nou, winning 4-0 at Anfield. Divock Origi famously scored the decisive goal, tapping in a quick corner taken by Trent Alexander-Arnold that caught Barca’s defense off guard.
🧠 Genius from Trent Alexander-Arnold
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) May 13, 2019
❄️ Cool finish by Divock Origi
👌 What a way to complete THAT comeback!#UCL | @LFC pic.twitter.com/mnz5oSF11q
Then there’s the remarkable story of Sheriff Tiraspol in 2021, who in their debut Champions League campaign, stunned the world by beating Real Madrid 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabéu.
But perhaps the most iconic moment in recent history came from Zinedine Zidane in the 2002 final against Bayer Leverkusen, when he scored a brilliant left-footed volley (allegedly his weaker foot, but we can’t be sure). And who could forget Gareth Bale’s stunning overhead kick in the 2018 final against Liverpool? Picking between his and Zidane's strike is like choosing between the red pill and the blue pill in "The Matrix"—whichever you choose, you'll always wonder about the other.
The Most Successful Clubs & Players in Champions League History
Real Madrid is by far the most successful club in the history of the Champions League, having lifted the trophy a record 15 times since the competition’s inception in 1955-56.
A total of 22 other clubs have also won the prestigious title—some multiple times, others just once.
Here’s a full list of every team to have won the Champions League, along with the number of times they've been crowned champions:
When it comes to individual achievements, only five players in Champions League history have managed to win the competition six times.
The first was Spanish legend Paco Gento, who claimed five consecutive titles with Real Madrid between 1956 and 1960, before adding a sixth in 1966. Decades later, three of his fellow Madridistas—Luka Modrić, Dani Carvajal, and Nacho Fernández—joined him by winning six titles during the club’s modern golden era (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022, and 2024).
Completing this exclusive group is Toni Kroos, who captured five Champions League crowns with Madrid after winning his first with Bayern Munich back in 2013.
Not far behind are 15 players, including Cristiano Ronaldo, who have won the Champions League five times. Meanwhile, 14 others, including Lionel Messi, have claimed the prestigious trophy four times.
Below is the full list of players with the most Champions League victories.
Fun Facts About the Champions League
1. The Champions League anthem was composed by English composer Tony Britten in 1992, drawing inspiration from George Frideric Handel's "Zadok the Priest," which was originally written for the coronation of King George II in 1727.
2. Cristiano Ronaldo is the Champions Leagues' all-time leading goalscorer with 140 goals.
3. The fastest goal in Champions League history was scored by Roy Makaay of Bayern Munich. He found the back of the net just 10.12 seconds into the match against Real Madrid in the 2007-08 season.
4. Real Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stefano scored in five consecutive finals between 1956 and 1960, all of which Los Blancos won.
5. The only time three players from the same club each scored 10 or more goals in a single Champions League campaign was in 2017-18, when Liverpool's Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino, and Sadio Mané achieved the feat.
6. The last decade in which Carlo Ancelotti did not lift the Champions League title as either a player or a manager was the 1970s.
7. After leading Benfica to two consecutive European Cup titles in 1961 and 1962, Béla Guttmann left the club following a dispute over a pay rise. Upon leaving, he allegedly cursed the club, declaring that Benfica would not win another European title for 100 years. Since then, Benfica have reached several European finals—but have lost every single one.
8. Nottingham Forest are the only club in soccer history with more European Cups (2) than national championships (1).
9. Celtic are the only team in Champions League history to win the final with a squad made up entirely of homegrown players, defeating Inter Milan with a team composed solely of Scotsmen in 1967.
10. Helmuth Duckadam saved four consecutive penalties against Barcelona in the 1986 final to clinch the title for Steaua Bucharest.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as What Is the Champions League? A Detailed Look at Its History and Formation.