Continental club football
The UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League is the top club competition in European football. It is contested by 36 clubs from across the continent, with qualifying rounds beginning in summer and the main league phase running from September to January before the knockout rounds decide the champions in late May or early June.
What the Champions League is
The Champions League is UEFA's flagship club competition and the highest level of European club football.
The competition brings together 36 clubs in the league phase, with the strongest leagues providing several teams each and smaller leagues usually entering their champions through qualifying. Most clubs qualify through their finishing positions in their domestic leagues the previous season, although the stage they enter depends on UEFA's access list.
The tournament has been UEFA's flagship competition since it was launched in 1955, originally as the European Cup. It was rebranded as the UEFA Champions League for the 1992/93 season, after the competition had begun to adopt a group-stage format. The format was reshaped again in 2024 with the move to a single league phase replacing the traditional group stage.
The league phase
The Champions League now begins with a single league phase rather than a group stage.
All 36 clubs are placed into one combined league for the first phase of the competition. Each team plays eight different opponents — four at home and four away — drawn from a seeded pot system that ensures a mix of stronger and weaker teams in every team's fixtures. Three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a defeat, exactly as in any domestic league.
At the end of the eight league-phase matches, all 36 teams are ranked in a single combined table. The top eight teams progress directly to the round of 16. Teams ranked from ninth to twenty-fourth go into a two-legged knockout play-off to decide the other eight places in the round of 16. The bottom twelve teams — those ranked 25th to 36th — are eliminated from European football altogether for that season.
The knockout stage
From the round of 16 onwards the competition is a two-legged knockout, with a single-match final.
Round of 16 to semi-finals
All ties are played over two legs, one at each team's home ground. The team scoring more goals across both matches go through. If the aggregate score is level after both legs, the tie is settled with extra time at the end of the second leg, and then a penalty shoot-out if needed.
The final
The final is a single match held at a neutral venue chosen by UEFA in advance. If the final is level after 90 minutes, extra time and then a penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winners. The final is played in late May or early June, depending on the season's schedule.
Seeding through the knockout
The bracket is shaped by each team's league-phase finishing position. Higher-ranked teams receive seeding advantages in the knockout play-offs and round of 16, and league-phase ranking can also affect the order of home and away legs in later rounds.
No away goals rule
UEFA abolished the away goals rule in 2021. A goal scored away from home now counts the same as a goal scored at home, so an aggregate score that ends level always goes to extra time, regardless of where the goals were scored.
When the Champions League takes place
The competition runs across most of the European football season.
Qualifying rounds for the lower-ranked entrants start in early July, well before most domestic seasons begin. The main league phase is played across eight midweek match nights between September and the end of January, with two matches per team per month on average. The knockout play-offs are played in February, the round of 16 usually follows in March, and the quarter-finals and semi-finals are played in April and early May. The final is usually held in late May or early June, after the European domestic seasons have ended.
Most Champions League matches are played in midweek, usually on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so they fit around regular weekend league fixtures. In the current format, one league-phase matchweek can also include Thursday fixtures, while the final is played as a weekend showpiece.
How clubs qualify
Almost every Champions League place is decided by how clubs perform in their national league the previous season.
The number of places each country receives is set by UEFA's country coefficient — a ranking based on how the country's clubs have performed in continental competition over the past five seasons. The highest-ranked associations receive several league-phase places, with the top four associations usually allocated four standard places each before any extra performance spots or access-list rebalancing are applied. Smaller leagues get one place each, awarded to the national champions.
The Champions League winners and Europa League winners also qualify for the next season's Champions League regardless of their league positions. This means Champions League holders can defend their title without finishing in top-four spots in their domestic leagues. Two further places are awarded each year through UEFA's league performance rankings — the top two countries in the previous season's European competitions get an extra Champions League place each.
What clubs qualify for
Champions League success leads on to several further competitions.
The Champions League winners move into intercontinental club football. They play in the next FIFA Intercontinental Cup, an annual short tournament that pits the European champions against the winners of the other confederations. They also qualify for the next four-yearly FIFA Club World Cup, the 32-team tournament that decides global club champions.
Closer to home, the Champions League winners play the Europa League winners in the UEFA Super Cup the following August — a one-off match held at a neutral venue that opens the new European season.
The most successful clubs
As of the 2025/26 final, a small group of clubs has dominated the competition across its history.
Real Madrid
The most successful club in the competition, with 15 titles. Real Madrid's domination began at the very start — they won the first five European Cups between 1956 and 1960, and have continued to win regularly into the modern era, including a run of four titles in five years between 2014 and 2018.
AC Milan
Seven titles, including dominant Italian sides in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and again in 2003 and 2007. Milan are the second-most successful club in the competition's history.
Bayern Munich and Liverpool
Six titles each. Bayern's wins span from the mid-1970s to 2020, including three in a row in 1974, 1975 and 1976. Liverpool's six come across the late 1970s and 1980s and again in 2005 and 2019.
Barcelona
Five titles, with their first European Cup win coming in 1992 and four more Champions League-era victories since then. Barcelona became one of the defining clubs of the modern competition, especially through their 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2015-winning sides.
Multiple winners since 1992
In the Champions League era, Real Madrid lead the way, followed by Barcelona, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain as multiple winners. One-time winners in the modern era include Marseille, Ajax, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund, Porto, Internazionale and Manchester City. Only two clubs have successfully defended the title in the Champions League era: Real Madrid, who won three in a row from 2016 to 2018, and Paris Saint-Germain, who retained it in 2026.
Spain and England lead the country count
Spanish clubs have won the competition more than any other country's clubs, followed by English and Italian clubs. The all-time list also shows how different eras have been shaped by different leagues, from Spanish dominance at the start to Italian, English, Dutch, German and later Spanish success. France has climbed the list more recently, its titles now shared between two clubs, while the wider picture shows that no single country has ever kept a lasting grip on the trophy as leadership has passed from one league to the next.
A short history
The Champions League has grown from a 16-team European knockout tournament into the most prestigious club competition in European football.
The European Cup was launched in 1955 as a knockout competition for leading clubs from across Europe. Its first edition was a 16-team invitational tournament, before the competition became established as a contest mainly between national champions and the holders. Real Madrid won the first five editions, with Alfredo Di Stéfano scoring in each of those five finals.
The competition changed significantly in the early 1990s. A group stage was introduced shortly before the European Cup was rebranded as the Champions League in 1992, giving the tournament a more regular league-and-knockout structure. From the late 1990s onwards, UEFA gradually allowed more than one club from the strongest domestic leagues to enter, moving the competition away from a champions-only format.
Another major change came in 2024, when the traditional group stage was replaced by the current league phase. Clubs now compete in a single league table before the knockout rounds begin. Although the format has changed many times, the central idea has remained the same: Europe’s leading clubs compete across the season to produce European champions.
Women's and youth versions
UEFA runs a parallel set of Champions League competitions in the women's game and at junior level.
The UEFA Women's Champions League is the equivalent competition for women's club football. Launched in 2001 as the UEFA Women's Cup and renamed in 2009, it runs alongside the men's competition through the season. UEFA also runs the UEFA Youth League, an under-19 competition that includes a Champions League path for the youth teams of clubs in the men's Champions League league phase, alongside a domestic champions path for youth title winners from across UEFA's member associations.
What to read next
From the Champions League, the natural next steps are the other UEFA competitions or the level above.