Soccer (Football)
What Is the Champions League? Everything You Need to Know
Learn how the Champions League competition came to be, and what to expect from a typical Champions League campaign.
The UEFA Champions League is the biggest competition in European club soccer. More than 700 squads in Europe’s top-flight leagues vie for about 80 spots to compete and set themselves apart as the best soccer club in Europe.
The Champions League is a very intense and exciting competition, with managers racking their brains on squad changes like Jesse Marsch, and new heroes like David Raum making a name for themselves at seemingly every match. Winning the Champions League doesn’t just grant you bragging rights over your cross-town rivals or even your country; you rule as the top club across the entire UEFA system. Real Madrid are the kings of this tournament, having the most championships (14) and appearances in the Final (17).
Jesse Marsch
© Markus Berger / Red Bull Content Pool
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01
History of the Champions League
The Champions League began as the ‘European Cup’ during the 1955-56 season, featuring 16 clubs, each from a different country. Over the next few seasons, the European Cup expanded, bringing in more teams from more nations, until it reached 36 clubs by the 1960 campaign.
The European Cup changed its name to the ‘Champions League’ by the 1992-93 campaign. During these years the competition began with 32 clubs split into eight groups of four. The groups fought to advance into another group stage, with 16 clubs split into four groups of four. By the 2003-04 campaign, a new format was implemented and remains in play today. Below we’ll explain the current Champions League format.
02
How the Champions League Works
Key Changes to the Champions League Format for the 2023/24 Season
- Expanded Team Participation: The number of teams has increased from 32 to 36, allowing more clubs to compete at Europe's highest level since 2022.
- Single League Format: Replacing the traditional group stage, all teams now compete in a single league. Each club plays eight matches against eight different opponents (four at home and four away), introducing a more diverse range of matchups.
- Qualification Adjustments: The top eight teams in the league phase automatically advance to the Round of 16. Teams ranked 9th to 24th enter a two-legged playoff to secure their spots in the knockout stages, adding a new layer of competition for progression.
- Additional Fixtures: With the new format, teams reaching the Round of 16 will have played at least 10 matches, compared to six in the previous structure, increasing the overall number of games in the tournament
- Allocation of Extra Slots: The additional four slots are distributed to:
- One club from the country ranked fifth in UEFA's national association rankings.
- The domestic champion with the highest club coefficient among those not automatically qualified.
- Two clubs based on the collective performance of their associations in European competitions during the previous season.
Group Stage
UEFA Champions League, group stage, Red Bull Salzburg vs Lokomotiv Moscow
© GEPA pictures / Red Bull Content Pool
In this year’s Champions League, there were a total of 78 clubs in the field. With 36 slots available for the group stage, 26 went to clubs like RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg who automatically qualified for the group stage by finishing high enough in their league campaigns from the previous season. For the remaining six group stage spots, the other 52 clubs compete in a knockout-style tournament of their own during the summer to secure a spot.
Once the 36 teams were established, the field was split into four pots of eight clubs. The previous Champions League winners, the Europa League winners, and the winners of the top seven leagues go in pot one (Real Madrid won both their league and the Champions League last year, so the number remains at eight).
Pot 2, 3, and 4 are ordered by the UEFA club coefficient of each team. The UEFA coefficient is a ranking system used to evaluate the performance of European clubs in UEFA international competitions, so the eight highest-ranked teams go into Pot 2, the next-highest in Pot 3, and the eight lowest-ranked teams in Pot 4. One team from each pot is drawn into a group.
UEFA Champions League match against SSC Neapel in Salzburg, Austria
© Markus Berger / Red Bull Content Pool
Each team plays six matches in the group stage, one home game, and one road game against the other three teams in their group. The point system is standard: three points for a win, one for a draw, and none for a loss. The top two teams in a group advance to the next round of the competition, while the third-place team moves down to the Europa League. The fourth-place team is eliminated from European competition.
Knockout Rounds
The top two teams from every group qualify for the knockout rounds. It starts with the Round of 16, with every winner of a group playing against a runner-up from a different group and from a different country. The eight winners are drawn against the eight second-place finishers.
The two clubs face off in two matches against each other, one at each club’s home field. After the two matches, the team leading on aggregate or in the total number of goals scored is deemed the winner. If there is an aggregate tie after full time of the second leg, then the game proceeds to a 30-minute extra time period. If the game is still tied after that, then it moves on to a penalty shootout. This system is employed during the Round of 16, quarterfinals and semifinals.
UEFA Champions League match against FC Red Bull Salzburg and SSC Neapel
© Markus Berger / Red Bull Content Pool
The eight winners advance to the quarterfinals where they, again, go into another pool where clubs are drawn against each other. Since this draw counts for both the quarterfinals and the semifinals, from this point forward, teams from the same group and the same country can be drawn to face each other. The four winners from those two legs advance to the semifinals.
If two clubs from the same city are in the quarterfinals or the semifinals and are facing separate opponents, like Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid back in 2016, they can not play their home games within a day of each other. If one is playing at home, the other is playing on the road, and vice versa. The two winners from the semifinal round advance to the Champions League Final.
UEFA Champions League match against KRC Genk at Red Bull Arena in Salzburg
© Markus Berger / Red Bull Content Pool
The Final
The host facility for the Champions League Final is often determined years in advance - currently, the host venues for the finals have been decided up to 2025. Because it’s planned so far in advance, there have been some instances where the final was held at a participating club’s home stadium. This last occurred in 2012 when Bayern Munich faced off against Chelsea at Allianz Arena in Munich.
Unlike the previous three knockout rounds, the Champions League Final is a one-off match.
If the final match is tied after 90 minutes, then it follows the same design we outlined earlier. The final will enter a 30-minute extra time period, and if the tie has not been broken, it moves on to a penalty shootout.
03
Tiebreakers
UEFA Champions League, Red Bull Salzburg vs Lokomotiv Moscow
© GEPA pictures / Red Bull Content Pool
Over the course of such a long competition, there are bound to be some ties that need to be broken. We already talked about how ties are broken in the knockout rounds, but this is a breakdown of what happens if two or more clubs are tied during the group stages.
- Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams: If Team A beat Team B twice, then Team A would win this tiebreaker because they accumulated more points during their head-to-head matches (6) than Team B did (0).
- Goal difference in head-to-head matches: Team A and Team B both won a game against each other, but Team A won by 2-0 and Team B won by 3-0. Team B would win this tiebreaker because they scored more goals than Team A in their head-to-head matches.
- Goals scored in head-to-head matches: Whoever scores the most goals in games involving the tied teams wins the tiebreaker. (Only applies to ties of three or more clubs)
- Break the tie and reapply: If, after the third tiebreaker, a subset of the original set of tied teams is still tied, that subset exclusively is taken back through the first three tiebreakers. (Only applies to ties of three or more clubs)
- Goal difference in all group stage matches: If Team A had a goal differential of +2 and Team B had a goal differential of +4, then Team B would win the tiebreaker.
- Goals scored in all group stage matches: If Team A scored 10 goals in the group and Team B scored seven goals in the group, then Team A would win the tiebreaker.
- Goals scored in all away group stage matches: If Team A scored four goals in their three road games but Team B scored seven, then Team B would win the tiebreaker.
- Total number of wins in the group: If Team A won two games and Team B won none, then Team A would win the tiebreaker.
- Total number of away wins in the group: If Team A won one game on the road, and Team B won two, then Team B would win the tiebreaker.
- Disciplinary points: A yellow card is worth one point, while a second yellow card and a direct red card is worth three points. Whoever has the lowest number of disciplinary points wins the tiebreaker.
- UEFA coefficient: Whichever team has the higher UEFA coefficient wins the tiebreaker.
The Champions League is the premier international soccer competition in Europe. It’s a competition among some of the best soccer clubs the world has to offer. It takes more than talented stars like André Silva and Mohamed Simakan to win; it also takes heart and a little bit of luck.