The UEFA Champions League is the most prestigious European club football tournament, held annually under the auspices of UEFA.
The person who first proposed the creation of the Champions League was journalist Gabriel Hanot. The idea was to determine the strongest club in Europe. But the change of name was followed by other changes.
The new system changed the format from a knockout system to a group stage, and the Champions League anthem and emblem were also introduced. With the change of name and regulations, a new branch in the history of the competition began.
The tournament begins with four qualification rounds. Upon completion of each, one team is eliminated from each playing pair. After the final qualification stage, the remaining teams advance to the group stage, where they are joined by teams that qualified directly.
The draw divides the teams into eight groups of four teams each, and the dates of home and away matches are announced. Each team plays two matches against the teams in its group; a win awards three points; a draw gives each team one point; a loss gives the losing team no points.
After the group stage, the clubs finishing in the top two positions in their groups advance to the knockout round. They are then divided into pairs by a draw, the process of which is broadcast worldwide. The reason for such transparency is the desire to avoid rumors of cheating at this stage of the tournament. For example, cheating could involve deliberately pairing opponents that are favorable to a particular club.
Each pair of teams, as in the group stage, plays two matches. The winning clubs advance to the next stage of the tournament, where another draw is held.
The quarter-finals are followed by the semi-finals, in which four teams remain. Only two teams reach the final, where they play a single match at a neutral stadium (the venue is chosen before the tournament and specially prepared for the match).
The two teams eliminated in the semi-finals do not play a match for third place.
For first place in the tournament, the winning team receives a reward of several million euros and the Champions League trophy, which is popularly called "big ears" (it got this name because of two large handles by which the cup is lifted – their curve resembles ears).
The winning club can keep the trophy for ten months. As a memento, they are given a reduced-size replica. But there is an exception to this rule: a club that wins the tournament five times in a row may keep the original trophy. The only club in the history of the tournament to achieve this is Real Madrid. Its collection includes one original cup and ten reduced-size replicas. In total, the great club has 11 trophies – and this is a record number of wins in the Champions League.
The sponsors of the tournament are many prestigious companies from around the world. Among them are Nissan, MasterCard, PlayStation. These are the main sponsors of the Champions League. The total number of sponsors exceeds a dozen major companies from around the world.
More details about news and interesting facts related to the Champions League can be found on the website of the company "Football 24": https://football24.ua/ru/liga_chempionov_championat_tag50824/. And we only note that the top scorer in the Champions League is Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo – he played 125 matches in this tournament, scoring 93 goals.