UEFA Champions League
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League - formerly known as the European Cup - is an annual football competition for the top European clubs. It is the most prestigious trophy in European football and, although Arsenal reached the Final in 2006, they have never won it.
The tournament consists of several stages. It begins in mid-July with three knockout qualifying rounds. The 16 surviving teams join 16 seeded teams in the group stage, in which there are eight groups consisting of four teams each. Those teams play each other twice and the top two clubs from each group advance to the knockout stage, which ends with the final in May.
At present there is a seeding system used in the Champions League. Teams from the same country may not be drawn together in the group stage or the first knockout round. Group winners face group runners-up in the first knockout round but the draw is random from the Quarter-Finals onwards. The knockout ties are played over two legs but the Final is not.
