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Champions League History

The UEFA Champions League is the premiere club competition in Europe and was launched a month after UEFA’s first-ever Congress, held in Vienna on March 2, 1955. At the time, many of the UEFA’s founders were more interested in establishing a national team competition. But the French sports daily, L’Equipe and its editor, Gabriel Hanot, were championing the idea of a European-wide club competition. Hanot, together with his colleague Jacques Ferran, designed a challenge tournament that would be played on Wednesday nights under floodlights. The tournament was initiated by L’Equpe and didn’t stipulate that the participating teams had to be champions of their country. Instead, clubs were invited to participate based on their fan appeal.  

Representatives of 16 clubs competed on April 2nd and April 3rd, 1955. That same year the L”Equipe rules were unanimously approved. The first-ever European Cup (as it was then called) was played in Lisbon, and Sporting Clube de Portugal was held to a 3-3 draw by FK Partizan. In Belgrade, FK Partizan won the return leg 5-2 to advance to the next round of competition.

The early days of the European Cup were dominated by Real Madrid CF, which won the first five finals. Since then, other clubs have enjoyed similar runs in the competition, with AFC Ajax and FC Bayern Munchen both completing three consecutive wins. However, no single club has been able to claim long-term domination. Ajax waited 22 years to add a fourth title to their 1970s wins; Madrid’s win in 1998 was their first in 32 years; and Bayern’s success in Milan in 2001 ended a 26-year wait for a fourth win.

A major change in the competition came in the 1992/1993 season, when the UEFA Champions League added a group phase to the traditional knock-out elements. With the popularity of the group phase, the competition has grown to 32 teams, with matches taking place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays across Europe.

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