The short answer is that the UEFA Champions League is the club championship of Europe, and probably, therefore, the most prestigious football competition in the world other than the World Cup.

Also, somewhat strangely, it’s not a league; it’s a tournament. But before we explain more, let’s cover a little history.

For a little background, it helps to understand how the world of football is organized. It’s all run by FIFA, an international crime syndicate that “governs” world football — sort of like how the Corleone Family sold olive oil. FIFA, much of whose leadership is under indictment in the US, is divided into regions, and within each region there are three big competitions:

• A qualifying tournament to send some countries to the World Cup every four years.
• A nation vs. nation tournament for the regional championship; an example is the Copa America in South America.
• A tournament for clubs within that region, held each year.

What we all call the Champions League is the third of those for UEFA, the European region of FIFA.

A little reference for our US readers: The US is part of the FIFA region CONCACAF, which we won’t even try to translate because nobody else does. Within that, we have World Cup qualifying, the Gold Cup tournament of nations every odd year, and the CONCACAF Champions League, which has been won by US teams exactly three times in 50+ years. Usually a Mexican team wins it.

This video explains all of that, as well:

Who Qualifies for the Champions League?

In the old days you just had to win your national league. But then TV came along said, “Ya know, more teams means more games, which means more money.” So now the smaller countries — based on some mysterious FIFA “co-efficient” system that no one understands — all get one entry, and the bigger nations get several.

England, for example, gets four Champions League slots, which means the top four teams in the Premier League go into the next year’s Champions League. This is simply referred to as “Getting into Europe,” and it means a ton of money — from television, ticket sales and merchandise sales. It also helps a club sign bigger players who want to play in the Champions League.

By the way, teams #5 and #6 in England go into the second-rate European competition, the Europa League, and #7 goes into the new UEFA Europa Conference League. It’s actually more confusing than that, but we’ll spare you the details here.

Part of the trophy case at Manchester United, three-time European champions.

Structure of the Champions League

The “group stage” structure of the Champions League has been totally redone starting with the 2024-25 season. Now instead of groups of 4 teams, there will be one large league and teams will be awarded points based on their results in this league. End placements in this league will determine where teams will be placed in the Knockout Stage. You can read more about these format changes here.

When the League stage is over, next up are the Knockout Rounds. The top 8 teams from the League Round will automatically move on, while the remaining spots will be filled following a playoff round. There will then be a random draw to determine matchups. The exception is that, at this stage, no two teams from the same country will be drawn against each other.

Away-Goals Rule in the Champions League?

In the past, these Knockout Stage ties were decided by total (aggregate) goals, with the first tiebreaker being “away goals,” i.e. goals scored at the other team’s home ground. However, starting with the 2021-22 competition, the away goals rule has been replaced by two 15-minute periods of extra time then penalty kicks if necessary.

After this round, which gets you down to the quarterfinals, it’s all random as to who plays whom. Each round is the same until the Final is played, generally in late May in front of a massive crowd of corporate tycoons and FIFA dons and wiseguys. Oh, and a handful of fans from each club.

Real Madrid have won this thing more often than anyone else: 15 times. Liverpool, with six, lead England in European titles, something they like to remind Manchester United (three titles) of with a few different songs.

UEFA Champions League Recent Results and Schedules

Real Madrid are the current champions (again), having beat Borussia Dortmund in the 2024 final, 2-0 in London.

Here are the dates for the 2024-25 Champions League. The final will be played May 31, 2025, at Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany.

You can watch it all on Paramount+ in the US:

Watch soccer, including the Champions League, on Paramount+

Why to Watch the Champions League

For fans, watching the Champions League offers probably the highest-level soccer played anywhere in the world. Several European leagues compete to be considered the best in the world, but if you take the best of all those and make them play games with all the stakes on the line, you get drama and intensity and attention like nowhere else.

The World Cup exceeds it for drama and pageantry and worldwide attention, but those teams only practice together for a few weeks. These Champions League clubs, packed with international stars who represent their country, play together all year, taking their game to a whole different level.

All of this — the history, the level of play, the intensity, the attention, the glamour — make the Champions League, for most people, the very apex of soccer watching.

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