European Club Competitions

History

For those asking the bigger question of “Who is the best team in Europe?” you should look no further than the Champions League.

Originally called the European Champion Clubs’ Cup (or European Cup), the tournament was a knockout tournament featuring the winners of the previous season’s European Leagues to determine the best club team in Europe. The first cup was held during the 1955-56 season and was won by Real Madrid (who proceeded to win 5 times in a row, a consecutive record that still stands). Real holds the title of most successful club as well, with 10 titles, A.C. Milan is second with 7 titles, followed by Barcelona, Bayern, and Liverpool with 5 each.

The Champions League has expanded since inauguration, taking the name Champions League in 1992 and eventually expanding past just inviting each League’s Champion. For most clubs, qualifying for the CL brings in a bigger revenue stream to spur the club’s growth. More on the Competition below.

The other major European Club Competition is the Europa League, known formerly as the UEFA Cup. The competition was founded in 1971, growing out of a previous competition to promote international trade fairs, evolving from city-wide teams to clubs and mostly referred to as a “Runners-Up Cup”. The first title was won by Tottenham Hotspur over the 1971-72 season. Sevilla holds the record for the most titles at 4.

The Last Major Competition to note is the UEFA Super Cup, which takes place between the previous winners of the Champions League and Europa League at the beginning of the new season. Barcelona (2014-15 CL Winner) beat Sevilla (2014-15 EL Winner) 5-4 at the beginning of this season (August). Both Barcelona and Milan hold the most titles since the competition began in 1972, with 5 each.

Competition Qualification

- Qualifying for a competition is entirely different from where a club enters the competition.
- Each league is given a number of qualification spots for the CL and EL. The number of spots does change based on the competition.
-Champions League
--At least 1 team per European League, but entrance point varies.
--Better Leagues gain more places. This is measured by a coefficient calculated over the last 5 years of European play. See UEFA Country Coefficient.
--Spain, Germany, and England have 4 qualifier spots apiece. Italy, Portugal, and France with 3 spots, 9 other countries with 2 spots.
--Controversy was made earlier this year as Italy’s coefficient nearly became large enough to overtake England’s 4th spot.
--Also, last year’s CL winners qualify, along with last year’s EL winners if they reach a certain point in their domestic league, will also qualify.
-Europa League
--3 Teams from each European League will qualify. Entrance point varies drastically based on the Country Coefficient, and some teams can qualify by winning their country’s domestic cup instead of placing high in their league.
--Teams that also lose in the Champions League will qualify for places throughout the Europa League. In particular note the following:
---Losing the Third Qualifying Rd of the Champions League puts you into a Group in Europa
---Placing Third in the CL Group Stage puts you into the Knockout Phase.
- Both Competitions don’t begin properly until the Group Stage.
-Teams play Home and Home matches against a randomly paired opponent (the random pairing is known as a “draw”)
--CL has three qualifying rounds, along with a final “Play-off round” that will usually include well known teams.
--EL has the same number of rounds, but a large number of teams losing teams from the Champions League will enter at various stages as well.
-As with most competitions, winning is good, but being in the Champions League is much more prestigious than the Europa League.

The Group Stage

If you’ve managed to stay with me for this long, congratulations! You’ve just reached the meat and potatoes of the Competitions. After all of this the teams that made it through the playoff rounds join the teams that did well in the tougher leagues for the Group Stage.

-In both competitions, the Group Stage involves six matches with the other three members of your group, hosting each at Home once and each on the Road once.
-Groups are four teams that will play against each other during this stage
-8 Champions League groups
-12 Europa League groups
-Group draws happen near the end of August.
-Teams are placed into Pots based on the league they won, or their club coefficient, then Groups are drawn randomly.
-Teams from the same country will never be placed in the same Group.
-The group stages take place from September-December, at the same time as domestic Leagues and Cups
-Champions League matches take place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays
-Europa League matches take place on the Thursdays of the same week.
-After the six games, the Top 2 teams of each group enter their competition’s Knockout Round.
-The third place team in each Champion’s League group enters the Europa League Knockout Round.

The Knockout Round

Finally, something we Americans can relate to. The knockout round is the traditional playoff we have in every other sport in the U.S. Each round of the Knockout tournament consists of a random draw to determine opponents, and then a single home game at each venue. A combined score from both games is used to determine the winner. Tiebreakers are settled first by the “Away Goals Rule”, where the team that score the most goals at the opponent’s venue is the winner. If the scores are still tied, teams play an extra 30 minutes. If the game is still tied, a Penalty Shootout determines the winner.

The Champions League has 16 teams playing four rounds. Games are played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. A single Final is played at a neutral location on a Saturday after the end of the domestic leagues and cups.

This year’s Champions League Final will be between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in Milan, Italy at the San Siro on May 28th. Both teams are massive rivals that met two years ago in Lisbon, with Real winning 4-1 in Extra Time.

The Europa League contains 32 teams and plays five rounds. Games are played on Thursdays matching the Champions League rounds (The CL’s first round is spread over the EL’s first two rounds). Teams play a single Final, held at a Neutral location different from the CL Final.

This year’s Europa League Final will be between Liverpool and Sevilla in Basel, Switzerland at St.Jakob-Park on May 18th. This is Sevilla’s third straight Final, having won the previous two Europa Leagues.

Hopefully this massive info dump helps you to better understand European Soccer a little better.