UEFA Champions League

The premier event in European football, the idea behind this tournament is that the league champions of each country are placed in a cup competition, the winner of the tournament is then named the champion of Europeann football. Unfortunately this used to be the case when it was the European Cup, but money and revenue got in the way and now its generally the richest clubs rather than the champions, so we have the crazy situation where English clubs actually provide 4 entrants while some countries champions have to enter qualifying rounds to even be placed in the third round. We are in the current situation where four English clubs seem to contest at ...  Read the complete review

The Champions league is the most well known and recognised european club football competition in World football. It begins in July before the start of the season usually in qualifying rounds with clubs from various countries in Europe contesting to make it into the group stages.16 teams who are succesful in the qualifying stages join 16 seeded teams in the group stage, in which there are eight groups with four teams in each. The eight group winners and eight runners-up enter the final knockout phase, which ends with the final match in May. In the group stages each team plays the other -1 match at home and 1 away. The top two teams in each group go through to ...  Read the complete review

The Champions League is the pinnacle of club football around the world and every year provides some brilliant football. Since 2005 there has been an English club in the final every year which has seen Liverpool and Manchester United both winning it. The last 2 years has even seen 3 of the 4 semi-finals were English, which makes you wonder how we do so badly as a national side. The competition starts in July as many lowly teams from around Europe try to get through the three qualifying rounds before getting to the group stage. From there it can often be a little frustrating that the same sides dominate the groups and therefore you have to wait until February when the ...  Read the complete review

Before Wednesday night, the last time I proudly watched Manchester United (my team) win the Champions League was when I was living in Miami with a beautiful Dutch girl with legs as long as my dreams back then. With an ice cold beer clamping my other palm and the sound of the ocean waves crashing on to the deserted beach it's fair to say I was in heaven. This time around I was in chilly Northampton with a not so chilly beer in one hand and a remote in the other, and the obvious temptation-knowing how dull these games can be early on-to flash over to the other channels in a TV packed night. With no Skyplus I was going to have to miss my favorite history show, Dan ...  Read the complete review

Originally founded in 1955 as Europe's premiere football competition, the European Cup as it was known then was renamed the UEFA Champions League in 1992. Whilst the competition sees 76 teams from all over the continent enter, since 1997 the CL has been operating under different guidelines that mean being the champions of your country does not mean you shall receive instant qualification and rather bigger name teams will enter the competition automatically ahead of those domestic champions of lesser footballing nations. This rule allows four Champions League places in the English Premiership, and only in 2005 did controversy begin to surround this as Liverpool won the ...  Read the complete review