The 1996–97 UEFA Champions League was the 42nd season of

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

's premier European club

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

tournament, the fifth since its rebranding as the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

, and the last that involved only clubs that were champions of their domestic leagues. Due to the

Bosman ruling ''Union Royale Belge des Sociétés de Football Association ASBL v Jean-Marc Bosman'' (1995) C-415/93 (known as the Bosman ruling) is a 1995 European Court of Justice decision concerning freedom of movement for workers, freedom of associati ...

, restrictions on foreign players in matchday squads were lifted from this season. The tournament was won by

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

in a 3–1 final victory against defending champions

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

. It was their only title in the tournament to date, and the first title for Germany since its reunification in 1990.

Association team allocation

24 teams entered the competition: the national champions of each of the top 23 nations in the UEFA coefficient rankings, and UEFA Champions League holders,

. The national champions of the associations ranked 1–7, plus the title holders, all received a bye to the group stage, while the national champions of the associations ranked 8–23 entered in the qualifying round. The remaining national champions from the associations ranked 24–48 were only allowed to participate in

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

Association ranking

For the 1996–97 UEFA Champions League, the associations were allocated places according to their 1996 UEFA association coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 1991–92 to 1995–96. Apart from the allocation based on the association coefficients, an association could have an additional team participating in the Champions League, as noted below: * – Additional berth for UEFA Champions League title holders

Distribution

Teams

Round and draw dates

The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws are held in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Qualifying round

The winners of each tie in the preliminary round entered the Champions League group stage, whilst the losers entered the

first round.

Group stage

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

Auxerre Auxerre ( , , Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Auchoirre'') is the capital (Prefectures in France, prefecture) of the Yonne Departments of France, department and the fourth-largest city in the Burgundy historical region southeast of Par ...

, Fenerbahçe, Rapid Wien and

Widzew Łódź RTS Widzew Łódź () is a Polish football (soccer), football club based in Łódź. The club was founded in 1910. Its official colours are red and white, hence their nicknames ''Czerwona Armia'' (Red Army) and ''Czerwono-biało-czerwoni'' (Red-wh ...

made their debut in the group stage. Italy became the first association to have two teams in the Champions League group stage.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Knockout stage

Bracket

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Top goalscorers

References

External links

1996–97 All matches – season at UEFA website

* All scorers 1996–97 UEFA Champions League (excluding qualifying round) according t
protocols UEFA
+ all scorer

1996/97 UEFA Champions League
– results and line-ups {{DEFAULTSORT:1996-97 UEFA Champions League UEFA Champions League seasons 1 1