Champions League

Introduced in 1955 greatest, premier, challenging "club competition", hosted annually by the “Union of European Football Associations” (UEFA), championship-level European clubs compete in this league, and is club football's ultimate test — “UEFA Champions League”. Politically and religiously impartial, UEFA is a society that is registered in the Swiss Civil Code's company register. Nyon, Switzerland serves as the company's headquarters.

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Originally called the “Coupe des Clubs Champions Européens”, or simply the European Cup, it was first held in 1955 and was exclusively open to the domestic league champions of Europe. The winner was regarded as the European club champion.

The “Champions League” anthem and starball logo, which were introduced in 1992, became instantly popular and guaranteed that everyone would recognise the new format for the “European Cup”. However, during the competition’s first season, the event does not officially use the UEFA prefix in its name; instead, the name “Champions League” is used to emphasise the group stage.

The governing and administrative organisation for European football is the UEFA. It is made up of 55 member associations, each of which is in charge of overseeing football in its own nation.

Teams will play eight games in the new league phase (previous group stage) under the revised new format. They will now play matches against eight different teams, half of which they will play at home and the other half away, as opposed to their previous schedule of three opponents twice, home and away. The teams will be seeded into four pots based on initial rankings in order to choose the eight opposition. Next, two opponents from each of these pots will be picked to play each team, with one match taking place at home and one away.

Champions League Stats -

Some of the major points of “European Club Finance and Investment Landscape” report (in Feb 2024) are:

Record, Europe’s 700+ “top-division” (first-tier) clubs’ aggregate revenue of €24 billion were announced in 2022, up 13% from 2021 and 4% from 2019 pre-pandemic levels. Top-division clubs usually play at the highest level of the “football league” system in their respective nation. The combined total wages of the “top division” clubs in Europe were reported as €16.9 billion in 2022. The term “wages” includes all employee costs for playing personnel in addition to technical and administrative staff.
The “English clubs” (ranked first) recorded almost €6.5 billion revenue in 2022. Spain ranked second. English clubs reported aggregate wages of more than €4.3bn in 2022. FC Barcelona (€639 million), Paris Saint-Germain Féminine (€617 million), Manchester City FC (€554 million), Real Madrid CF (€453 million), and Liverpool F.C. (€429 million) posted the higher spent in wage bills.
The average revenue of an English Premier League club is 5 times that of the moderate club in Russia, which is rated sixth, and 12 times that of the moderate club in Belgium, which is placed tenth.
In 2022, the total assets of “top-division” clubs climbed by 10%, reaching €45.1 billion from €41.1 In recent times, clubs have experienced a notable increase in their collective liabilities, despite their asset bases growing, recorded an almost 10% increase in the total debt levels of the clubs for 2022.
By the end of 2023, only 88 “top-tier” clubs (12%) possessed their stadium outright; the remaining 62 (8%) said their stadium belonged to the club or to another company in the group. Further, state or municipal authorities held 64% of the stadiums of top-division clubs, with other private groups controlling the remaining 16%. 18% of stadiums are included as an asset on the club’s financial sheet.
100% of the stadiums in Türkiye, Albania, Luxembourg, San Marino, Israel and Gibraltar are owned by the state or municipality. Spain boasts the largest stadium in Europe, with a maximum seating capacity of 99,354 people. 37 major stadium developments have been completed in Turkey over the past ten years as of 2024.
Among all top-division clubs for which adequate ownership data is available, over half (51%) are privately owned at the moment. Over 90% of these situations involve limited companies (like limited liability companies or joint stock firms) or “individual ownership of the clubs”. All clubs are categorised as associations or foundations in Andorra, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Faroe Islands, Estonia, Iceland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Malta, Norway, and San Marino.
7 of the 15 “foreign takeovers” of top-division clubs in 2023 were US investors, demonstrating their willingness to put money into European teams.
All told, multi-club ownership at the domestic level is expressly prohibited or restricted by law in 39 of UEFA’s 55 member nations.
The UEFA Intelligence Centre found that 74% of all multi-club investment groups have shares in no more than 3 clubs, and 58% have stakes in just 2. With 44 multi-club investment organisations having their roots in the US, US-based investors have been the main drivers of the multi-club investing movement.
17 clubs in England have multi-club investment relationships or cross-ownership. All clubs in France, Italy, Scotland, Greece and Gibraltar are privately owned.
8 takeovers or ownership transfers have occurred in Italy since 2020.
60% of all “top-division” (first-tier) clubs receive their kits from the top five kit manufacturers, and 75% come from the top ten, indicating a definite market concentration amid a small number of companies. The top five kit manufacturers are Adidas, Nike, Macron, Joma and Puma.

Examining current developments in European football, UEFA has issued its “European Club Talent and Competition Landscape” report with a new style in 2023. Among the report’s main points are:

“English Premier League” clubs now have “Saudi Arabian” clubs as their second main net investor.
In Europe, 51% of the entire transfer spending (by value) went towards players who were 23 years of age or younger. Typically, while discussing transfer activity, spending levels are mentioned, particularly when discussing financial analysis. Just 12% of Turkish teams’ spending went towards younger players, while 26% went towards players who were 29 years of age or older.
70 of the players who were in the “top 100” summer 2023 “transfers by value” were right-footed, while 22 were left-footed.
The number of players that teams field in their domestic league season is a reflection of how they use their squads. Turkish clubs (32.8) and Ukrainian clubs (32.4) fielded the largest average numbers of players at the top end of the 2022–2023 spectrum; Hungary (32.3), Portugal (32.3), and Greece (32.2) all displayed high averages.
The average number of replacements/substitutions per team in the top 20 leagues for 2022–2023 is 3. In 2022–2023 the average minutes played in the top 20 leagues was 97.7.
At 736 top-tier clubs in Europe, 1,209 head coaches oversaw top teams at some point throughout the season (counting does not include caretaker managers who have been in their roles for fewer than 30 days). Cyprus and Serbia had the greatest number of “head coach dismissals” (32 and 31) in 2022–2023 among the top-tier leagues, followed by Romania (29), Bulgaria (25), and Kazakhstan (24). The average tenure of a top-tier head coach in 2022–2023 is 3 years.
On average, 71% of head coaches who oversaw teams in 2022–2023 were doing so domestically while they were employed. 80% of coaches who had played professional football in the past were defenders or midfielders, indicating that having expertise in these positions on the field is a must for having a successful coaching career.
736 coaches started the 2022–2023 season as head coaches; 35 is the average age at first job appointment; 52% of coaches started their careers in this position immediately, while other coaches held assistant or other technical roles for a while.
Based on sporting excellence, European club football allows for both upward and downward mobility between various leagues through promotion and rejection. There are now only 734 top-tier places, yet throughout the past ten years, 1,264 different clubs have competed in the top-tier of their domestic league. Teams in the top-divisions of European football compete for 3 different races: one to win the championship, one to qualify for the “UEFA Club Competition”, and one to stay in the top-divisions and escape rejection.
The UEFA Champions League, Europa League, Europa Conference League, and Super Cup are the 4 club competitions that are organised by the UEFA. With the exception of the smallest national associations, league football is broken down into league tiers. With one first- and second-tier league every third tier, most domestic league systems expand into regional leagues at the third tier. In just 15 seasons, “Luton Town FC” progressed from playing non-league football to premier football; they have shown league mobility.
Almost 734 clubs will play in the “top-division” (first-tier) of domestic football leagues in Europe starting from 2024. The total number of top-division matches slated for 2023–2024 is 12,245. Further, in the UEFA Club Competition football, almost 240 clubs will participate. Over the past ten years, 562 different clubs have participated in the UEFA Club Competition
Of particular note is the French “Ligue 1”, which now has 18 teams instead of 20—the first such reduction in a “Big 5” league’s clubs in 20 years. The “Premier League” in England, “La Liga” in Spain, “Bundesliga” in Germany, “Serie A” in Italy, and “Ligue 1” in France make up the “Big 5.”
Now, by now at clubs in the “English Premier League”, the average transfer fee for players arriving reached a new high of €18.7 million. In order to sign new players (i.e., to acquire new players through transfers), a club has to pay another club a “transfer fee”. If loans, players without contracts, and free agents are taken out, this average increases to €26.0m.

The following are some of the main ideas in the “The European Club Footballing Landscape (ECFL)” paper from 2022:

Europe’s top-divisions frequently place direct restrictions on the hiring of foreign players. By this time, 13 leagues regulated the use of non-EU players, and 17 leagues prohibited the use of non-nationals. The number of non-national or non-EU players that a club “can register in its squad”, “can be included on the 18-player match sheet“, “can be deployed during a match”, or “can be on the field at any one time” may be restricted, depending on the league. In England, clubs may find it challenging to sign non-EU players due to limitations on the issue of work permits.
At this point, the “players” average contract duration for all senior teams at Premier League clubs was approximately 33.5 months; however, when only the “first 11” players were considered, this figure increased to 4 months. The players who have the greatest market prices (estimated by the UEFA Intelligence Centre) are referred to as the “first 11”, as opposed to the players who are most frequently chosen.
By now, the aggregate social media following of the top 20 players in Europe’s top-divisions is over 9 billion, which is 50% more than that of the top 20 teams. Only 5 of the top 20 clubs—Manchester United FC, Paris Saint-Germain FC, AC Milan, Club Atlético de Madrid, and AS Roma—have a larger social media following than their most well-known player.
This time around, there are 377 men’s top-division clubs with a women’s section/team. Domestic club licencing requirements in several nations mandate that all men’s top-division clubs have women’s youth teams. The 16 teams in the Women’s Champions League have a combined following of 16.4 million on Facebook and 15.6 million on Instagram.
For the past ten years, teams in England (with a margin of +15%), Germany (plus 12%), and Spain (plus 8%) have all produced “operating profits”. This is because more TV rights have made it possible for clubs to better keep them; thanks to domestic and UEFA financial controls.

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