INTRODUCTION Soccer or football as it is known almost everywhere else in the world is truly a universal game Nowhere is the play more competitive than in Europe Almost every European country has its own league and generally that league has several divisions A typical season lasts eight or nine months from late summer to mid spring Every team in each level plays all other teams in its level twice once at home and once on the other team's pitch At the end of the season the bottommost teams in one division are relegated moved down to the next lower division with the same number of topmost teams from that lower division promoted to replace them Such a system ensures that a high level of competition is maintained and that late season games between teams with losing records remain important as they seek to avoid relegation Individual countries also feature their own tournaments such as England's FA Cup and Spain's Copa del Rey In theory these tournaments allow almost any team the opportunity to win the championship but in reality the best clubs dominate the competition An assortment of European wide tournaments complement individual nations league and cup play The most prestigious is the Union of European Football Associations UEFA Champions League Known as the European Cup until Uniceff CET vnice
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1993 the Champions League is a tournament consisting of 32 teams drawn primarily from the highest finishers in the strongest national leagues Other teams can play their way into the tournament in preliminary rounds It originated in 1954 when the otherwise obscure Wolverhampton Wanderers of England defeated Honved the top rated Hungarian side prompting Wanderers manager Stan Cullis to declare his team Champions of the World Noted French soccer journalist Gabriel Hanot disagreed and helped organize a continent wide competition that began in 1956 The Champions League starts with eight four team pools which play two games with one another The top two teams from each pool begin a series of knockout rounds also contested on a two game basis The last two teams play a single championship game at a neutral site The tournament runs concurrently with league play beginning in September and concluding in May Teams that win their league their national cup and the Champions League during the same season are said to have won the Continental Treble almost certainly the most difficult feat in all of professional sports The winner of the Champions League is eligible for the FIFA Club World Cup an annual seven team tournament that originated in 2000 It also includes teams from the Americas and Caribbean Africa Asia Oceania and the host nation The other major European club championship is the UEFA Europa League founded in 1971 and known as the UEFA Cup until the 2009 10 season The winners of these two tournaments play for the UEFA Super Cup usually held in
Camp Nou stadium ALL TIME CHAMPIONS LEAGUE RECORDS OF THE TOP 10 CLUBS AS OF 2014 Winner Runner up Real Madrid Spain 10 3 AC Milan Italy 74 Bayern Munich Germany Liverpool England 5 2 Barcelona Spain Ajax Netherlands 4 2 Manchester United England Inter Milan Italy Benfica Portugal Juventus Italy N N w w A A un Un Un on N n n w n on a CONTINENTAL TREBLE WINNERS Celtic Scotland 1966 67 Ajax Netherlands 1971 72 PSV Netherlands 1987 88 Manchester United England 1998 99 Barcelona Spain 2008 09 Inter Milan Italy 2009 10 Bayern Munich Germany 2012 13
