The UEFAChampions League is an annual international inter-club football competition between Europe's most successful clubs, regarded as the most prestigious club trophy in the sport.
Originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup, the competition began in 1955/56 using a two-leg knockout format where the teams would play two matches, one at home and one away, and the team with the highest overall score qualifying for the next round of the competition. Entry was restricted to the teams that won their national league championships.
The format and name were changed in 1992/93, and now the competition consists of three qualifying rounds, one stage of group competition (where teams play each other in the style of "home-and-away" or "regular season" competition), and then four rounds of knock-out finals. All qualifying round and knock-out ties are two-legged except the final, which is a single match played at a predetermined site.
Qualification for the competition is decided by teams placing in their domestic league championships on a quota system, with countries with stronger domestic leagues allocated more teams. Clubs that play in stronger domestic leagues also enter at later stages of the competition. For example, the three strongest domestic leagues, as rated by UEFA, place their champions and runners-up directly into the group phase, and their third-and fourth-place teams enter at the third qualifying round. There is one exception to this rule; the current Champions League titleholder automatically qualifies for the group stage, regardless of where it finished in its domestic league.
Formerly, the Cup Winners' Cup (between winners of the national cup competitions) was played, but national cup winners now play in the UEFA Cup (since 1999).
It has occasionally been noted that in order for the present name to be grammatical the spelling would have to be "Champions’ League".
Along the history of the competition there have been a lot of events which difficultly won't be forgotten. That spectacular Real Madrid with Di Stefano, Gento, Puskas; Eusebio and his Benfica; the success Bayern Munich of Beckenbauer, the imperial Ajax, the powerful Milan or the powerfull breathtaking F.C. Porto are the top examples. Also another hard to forget moment was in 1999 when Manchester United came from behind and scored two goals in the last five minutes to beat Bayern Muncih and pull off the historical triple of Domestic League-Domestic Cup-Champions League.
There also some sad moments. Two examples. First, the plane accident in which some Manchester United players died, breaking a marvellous team. Second, European Cup Final in Heysel, where approximately 30 Juventus supporters lost their lives.
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