The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European
women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body
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 ...
.
The competition was first played in 2001–02 under the name ''UEFA Women's Cup'', and renamed the Champions League for the 2009–10 edition. The most significant changes in 2009 were the inclusion of runners-up from the top eight ranked nations, a one-off final as opposed to the two-legged finals in previous years, and – until
2018
Events January
* January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency.
* January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...
– playing the final in the same city as the men's
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 ...
final. In the 2021–22 season, the competition proper included a group stage for the first time in the Women's Champions League era, which will evolve into a league phase from the 2025–26 season onward.
Lyon
Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...
is the most successful club in the competition's history, winning the title eight times, including five consecutive titles from 2016 to 2020.
Arsenal are the current defending champions, having beaten
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 c ...
in the
2025 final.
Format
UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009)
For the tournament's first three editions, a preliminary round was first played to reduce teams to 32. Starting in the second season, this stage grouped teams into mini-tournaments of four teams, whose winners advanced to the second qualifying round, sometimes called the group stage. The group stage was eight groups of four, each group held as a round-robin in a single country, whose winners advanced to the quarter-finals.
From the
2004–05 season, the first qualifying stage was expanded to 9 groups of 4, again playing a round-robin in a single location. Seven teams got a bye to the group stage. (in
2007–08, it was 10 groups of 4, advancing winners plus one runner-up, with 5 teams getting a bye). The group stage was then played among only 16 teams in four groups of four, each group in a single host country, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the quarter-finals.
The knock-out rounds were played as two-legged home-and-home matches, including the final (except for the first final).
Champions League (2009–2021)
On 11 December 2008, UEFA announced that the competition would be reformatted and renamed to the UEFA Women's Champions League beginning with the
2009–10 season. As in the men's game, the new tournament aimed to include runners-up of the top women's football leagues in Europe.
The competition was opened to the champions of all 55 UEFA associations that had a qualifying women's league. Due to the varying participation, the number of teams playing the qualifying round changed from year to year. Numbers were based on three principles:
* Qualifying rounds are contested by groups of 4 teams.
* Group winners, plus the smallest possible number of runners-up, qualify for the Round of 32.
* Teams from the top associations would enter directly into the Round of 32.
Competition from the Round of 32 onwards would be in the form of home-and-home pairings using the away goals rule, except for the single-legged final.
Minor adjustments
When the new format was initially announced, the eight top countries according to the
UEFA league coefficient were awarded two places in the league,
with runners-up participating in the qualifying rounds.
For the
2011–12 tournament, the runners-up from the top eight nations instead qualified directly to the round of 32. For the five years under this format, seven nations remained in the top eight:
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
,
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
,
Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...
,
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, and
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
. A different nation provided the eighth runners-up in each of the five years:
Iceland
Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
,
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
,
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
, and
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
.
The tournament was expanded for the
2016–17 season, with the runners-up from nations 9–12 in UEFA league coefficient also qualifying. For the first three years under this format, the four nations in these slots were Czech Republic, Austria,
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, and Norway. For the
2019–20 season,
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 ...
replaced Norway, and for the
final season under this format, Norway,
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...
, and
The Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
replaced Russia, Scotland, and Austria in the top 12.
In all 11 editions of the competition under this general format, qualifying rounds consisted of between 7 and 10 groups-of-4, advancing qualifying-group winners plus 0-2 top-ranked runners-up, varying year to year based on team counts. The number of teams entering at the round of 32 also varied slightly, between 20 and 25.
The
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
forced a slight restructuring of the 2019–20 and 2020–21 competitions. At the start of the pandemic the round of 16 had been completed; the quarter-finals and on were delayed and eventually played as single-legged matches in the summer of 2020. The qualifying rounds of the 2020–21 competition switched to single-legged matches, with 20 pairings of teams in the first round and 10 pairings in the second round, the winners joining 22 top teams in the round of 32, which was normal from that point on aside from most matches being played behind closed doors.
Champions League (2021–2025)
On 4 December 2019, a new format was announced starting with the 2021–22 season. The top six associations entered three teams, associations ranked 7–16 entered two, and the remaining associations entered one. The competition is restructured to appear more similar to the men's CL format, with a double-round-robin group stage, and two paths through the qualifiers (a champions path and a non-champions path) for teams that do not automatically qualify for the group stage. UEFA also centralized the media rights from the group stage onward.
* Qualification takes place in two rounds: a First Round of 3- or 4-team mini-tournaments with single elimination brackets, and a Second Round of two-legged matches. Each of these rounds is split into two simultaneous paths based on how teams qualified:
** The Champions path consists of the champions from the associations ranked 8-50. 7 teams advance.
** The League path consists of the runners-up from the top 16 associations and third-place teams from the top 6 associations. 5 teams advance.
* The Group stage includes four teams qualifying directly: the defending UWCL champions and the champions from the top 3 associations. It is played in four groups of four, each advancing two teams to two-legged quarterfinals.
Champions League (2025–present)
On 4 December 2023, a new format was announced starting with the 2025–26 season.
The top seven associations enter three teams, associations ranked 8–17 enter two, and the remaining associations enter one. The competition is restructured to appear more similar to the men's CL format, with a
Swiss-system 'league phase' consisting of 6 games against 6 different opponents (3 home and 3 away), and two paths (a champions path and a non-champions path) for teams that do not automatically qualify for the league stage.
* Qualification takes place in two separate paths of up to three rounds.
** The Champions path consists of the domestic champions from associations ranked seventh or below as well as the previous season's second competition winner with 4 teams advancing to the league stage. The first and second rounds are played as series of four-team mini-tournaments while the third round is played as two-legged ties.
** The League path consists of domestic runners-up from associations ranked fourth to seventeenth and domestic third-placed teams from associations ranked first to seventh. A second round is played as a series of four-team mini-tournaments, while the third round is played as two-legged ties.
** Losers from the third round ties and runners-up and third-placed teams in the second round mini-tournaments will transfer to the
UEFA Women's Europa Cup, while fourth-placed teams in the second round mini-tournaments and all losers from the first round mini-tournaments will be eliminated.
* The League phase consists of nine teams qualifying directly: The defending champions, domestic champions from the associations ranked sixth or higher as well as the domestic runners-up from the top two associations.
** The top four teams from the league phase will advance to the quarter-finals while teams ranked fifth to twelfth will qualify to a knockout play-off round. The remaining six teams are eliminated.
Prize money
Prize-money was awarded for a first time in 2010, when both finalists received money. In 2011 the payments were extended to losing semi- and quarter-finalists. In these earlier years, teams sometimes complained about the sum, which did not cover costs for some longer trips. The
2021–22 Women's Champions League introduced a 16-team group stage to the competition, and with it a vastly expanded prize pool of €100M total. Of that pool, €10M (23%) would be used for solidarity payments to non-participating clubs of participating countries, to provide funding for development. €22M (29%) would be reserved for the qualifying rounds (some of which is travel subsidies for clubs traveling long distances), and the $68M remainder (48%) would be for clubs reaching the group stage and later.
For the main portion of the competition, UEFA announced that each group-stage participant would receive a minimum of €400,000 (about five times as much as Round of 16 participants received in previous editions). The winner of the tournament could earn up to €12M million (depending on its results in the group stage). As of the 2023–24 competition, the prize-money structure for the competition proper is as follows:
*€1,000,000 base allocation for each group-stage team
*€100,000 per win in the group stage, and €50,000 per draw
*€50,000 bonus for winning their group
*€200,000 for qualification for the quarter-finals
*€480,000 for qualification for the semi-finals
*€700,000 for the runner-up
*€2,000,000 for the winning team
This is in addition to any money teams may receive for participating in the qualifying rounds, and each stage's prize is cumulative. These amounts remain the same as those for the 2021–22 and 2022–23 competitions.
After the conclusion of the group stage, some additional amounts held in reserve may be distributed depending on the competition's financial performance, and how many drawn matches there were in the group stage.
Sponsorship
Until the 2015–18 cycle, UEFA Women's Champions League used to have the same sponsors 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 ...
. Since 2018, women's football competitions such as the Champions League have separate sponsors. The tournament has centralised rights: in the group stage, only some assets and the official ball are centralised, while in knock-out rounds, UEFA started allowing only a few club sponsors, alongside the ones who are official.
As of 2024, official sponsors are:
*
Adidas
*
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...
*
EA Sports FC
''EA Sports FC'' is a football video game franchise developed by EA Vancouver and EA Romania and published by EA Sports. It serves as the direct successor to their former ''FIFA'' series, which was discontinued following the termination of EA ...
*
Euronics
*
Grifols
*
Heineken
*
Hublot
*
Just Eat Takeaway
*
PepsiCo
*
PlayStation
is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...
*
Visa
Records and statistics
Winners
By nation
During the first Champions League era with no group stage (2009–2021), only one team from a nation outside the top two of France and Germany won the title:
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 c ...
in 2021. Three teams from nations outside the top two nations finished runner-up:
Tyresö in 2014,
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 c ...
in 2019 and
Chelsea in 2021. Also during that era, only two teams from a nation outside the top four (then France, Germany, Sweden, and England) ever made the semi-finals:
Brøndby in 2015 and Barcelona in four of the last five years under that format.
Top scorers by tournament
The top scorer award is given to the player who scores the most goals in the competition. Up until the introduction of the Champions League Group Stage it included the qualifying rounds. Since 2021–22, only goals from the group stage onwards count towards the award.
Iceland's
Margrét Lára Vidarsdóttir has won the award three times.
Ada Hegerberg holds the record for most goals in a season.
All-time top scorers
Bold players still active.
Awards
Player of the Season
Starting from the 2021–22 edition, UEFA introduced the UEFA Women's Champions League Player of the Season award.
The jury is composed of the coaches of the clubs that participated in the group stage of the competition, as well as journalists selected by the
European Sports Media (ESM) group.
Young Player of the Season
In the same season, UEFA also introduced the UEFA Women's Champions League Young Player of the Season award.
International broadcasters
Gallery
File:UEFA-Women's Cup Final 2005 at Potsdam 5.jpg, 2005 champions
File:Coba-arena-ffm007.jpg, 2008 final
File:Coba-arena-ffm055.jpg, 2008 final score
File:Coba-arena-uefa-women-1.ffc-2008.jpg, 2008 champions
File:UEFA Womens Champions League finale 2012.JPG, 2012 final
See also
*
FIFA Women's Club World Cup
**
AFC Women's Champions League
**
CAF Women's Champions League
**
CONCACAF W Champions Cup
**
Copa Libertadores Femenina
**
OFC Women's Champions League
*
Italian women's football clubs in international competitions
References
External links
*
*
{{Portal bar, Sports, Women's association football, Europe
Women's Champions League
Women's association football competitions in Europe
Recurring sporting events established in 2001
Multi-national association football leagues in Europe
2001 establishments in Europe
Multi-national professional sports leagues