The Champions League, formally known as the UEFA Champions League since the 1992-93 season, is a tournament for European football’s national champion clubs. The competition is the world’s most prestigious club tournament and one of the largest in soccer history, despite only being open to teams from the top tier of each nation’s league system, plus a select number of second-, third-, and fourth-place clubs.
Until the 2024-25 season, thirty-two qualified clubs played in a group stage, with a randomized draw assigning them to one of eight groups of four teams. Each team played its opponents twice in a double round-robin, earning three points for a win and one point for a tie. The top two teams in each group advanced to the knockout phase, with a series of tiebreaking criteria applied as necessary.
Starting in the 2024-25 season, a new format introduced a so-called league phase that replaced the group stage. In the league phase, the thirty-six qualified teams are ranked and placed into four seeding pots to determine their matchups. Each team plays its opponents twice in a double round-robin, with home and away games scheduled.
The top two teams from each of the six leagues advance to the quarterfinals and semifinals, where the winner advances to the final. Since its inception, the tournament has been dominated by Real Madrid, which won five titles in the first seven editions and a total of fifteen (including the competition’s predecessor, the European Cup). Paris Saint-Germain won its first title last year to join this elite company, with both clubs sharing the record for most titles won by a single club in the competition’s history.