The
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
is a seasonal
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
competition established in 1955.
Prior to the
1992–93 season, the tournament was named the European Cup.
The UEFA Champions League is open to the league champions of all
UEFA
Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...
(Union of European Football Associations) member associations (except
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarchy ...
, which has no league competition), as well as to the clubs finishing from second to fourth position in the strongest leagues. Originally, only the champions of their respective national league and the defending champions of the competition were allowed to participate. However, this was changed in 1997 to allow the runners-up of the stronger leagues to compete as well, and again in 1999 when third and fourth-placed teams of the said leagues also became eligible. In the Champions League era, the defending champions of the competition did not automatically qualify until the rules were changed in 2005 to allow title holders
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
to enter the competition.
Teams that have won the UEFA Champions League three consecutive times, or five times overall, receive a
multiple-winner badge. Six teams have earned this privilege:
Real Madrid
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid.
Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...
,
Ajax
Ajax may refer to:
Greek mythology and tragedy
* Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea
* Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris
* ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...
,
Bayern Munich
Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...
,
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, Liverpool, and
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
. Until 2009, clubs that had earned that badge were allowed to keep the
European Champion Clubs' Cup
The European Champion Clubs' Cup, also known as Coupe des Clubs Champions Européens, or simply the European Cup, is a trophy awarded annually by UEFA to the football club that wins the UEFA Champions League. The competition in its older format ...
and a new one was commissioned; since 2009, the winning team each year has received a full-size replica of the trophy, while the original is retained by UEFA.
A total of 22 clubs have won the Champions League/European Cup. Real Madrid hold the record for the most victories, having won the competition fourteen times, including the inaugural edition. They have also won the competition the most consecutive times, with five straight titles from 1956 to 1960.
Juventus
Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...
have been runners-up the most times, losing seven finals.
Atlético Madrid
Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...
is the only team to reach three finals without having won the trophy while
Reims
Reims ( , , ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French department of Marne, and the 12th most populous city in France. The city lies northeast of Paris on the Vesle river, a tributary of the Aisne.
Founded by ...
and
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...
have finished as runners-up twice without winning. Spain has provided the most champions, with nineteen wins from two clubs.
England have produced fourteen winners from five clubs and Italy have produced twelve winners from three clubs. English teams were banned from the competition for five years following the
Heysel disaster
The Heysel Stadium disaster ( it, Strage dell'Heysel ; german: link=no, Katastrophe von Heysel ; french: Drame du Heysel ; nl, Heizeldrama ) was a crowd disaster that occurred on 29 May 1985 when mostly Juventus fans escaping from a breach by L ...
in 1985.
The current champions are Real Madrid, who beat Liverpool 1–0 in the
2022 final for a record-extending fourteenth title.
List of finals
* The "Season" column refers to the season the competition was held, and
wikilink
In computing, a hyperlink, or simply a link, is a digital reference to Data (computing), data that the user (computing), user can follow or be guided by point and click, clicking or touchscreen, tapping. A hyperlink points to a whole document ...
s to the article about that season.
* The wikilinks in the "Score" column point to the article about that season's final game.
Performances
By club
By nation
Teams from thirteen nations have been to a Champions League final, and teams from ten of those have won the competition. Since the 1995–96 season, other than Porto's win in 2003–04, the winners have come from one of only four nations – Spain (11), England (6), Germany (4) and Italy (4) – and other than Monaco in 2003–04 and Paris Saint-Germain in 2019–20, the runners-up have all come from the same four nations.
See also
*
*
List of UEFA Cup and Europa League finals
The UEFA Europa League, formerly the UEFA Cup, is an association football competition established in 1971 by UEFA. It is considered the second most important international competition for European clubs, after the UEFA Champions League. Clubs qu ...
*
List of UEFA Cup Winners' Cup finals
The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (called European Cup Winners' Cup prior to 1994–95) was a seasonal association football competition contested between member associations of European football's governing body, the Union of European Football Associat ...
*
List of UEFA Super Cup matches
The UEFA Super Cup is an annual association football match contested between the winners of the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. Established in 1972, it was contested between the winners of the European Cup (renamed the UEFA Champ ...
*
List of UEFA Europa Conference League finals
The UEFA Europa Conference League is a seasonal football competition established in 2021. It was envisaged as a way for UEFA to accommodate at least 34 of its national associations in group stage, in combination with the UEFA Champions League an ...
*
List of UEFA Intertoto Cup winners
The UEFA Intertoto Cup was a European association football competition, held during the summer for European clubs that have failed to qualify for either the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Cup. It provided "an alternative qualifying route i ...
*
List of UEFA Women's Cup and Women's Champions League finals
The UEFA Women's Champions League is a women's association football competition established in 2001. It is the only international competition for European women's football clubs. The competition is open to the league champions of all UEFA member a ...
Notes
References
{{featured list
UEFA Champions League
European Champion Clubs' Cup
European Cup and UEFA Champions League