OT: How does Champions League work?

Granatofan · Post by **Granatofan** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 2:29 pm

How many teams make it into Champions League. Is it just a tournament or a full fledged league? How many leagues participate and which ones?

Thanks,

Ted

TheMightyPuck · Post by **TheMightyPuck** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 2:35 pm

After qualifying 32 teams are drawn into 8 groups. The teams in the groups play each other twice (home and away) for a total of 6 games. The top 2 in each group advance to the knock out stages. Knock outs are home and away with an away goals tiebreaker until the final which is one game.

Granatofan · Post by **Granatofan** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 2:40 pm

Thanks Puck!

So of the 32 teams what does it take to qualify?

Ted

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 2:41 pm

Oh dear, now you are entering the dark realm of UEFA coefficients....

Basically, in UEFA's continuing quest to make soccer more complicated than any game involving 2 teams, 2 goals and 1 ball needs to be, they calculate the rating of each country based on past Euro club trophy performances.

Each nation is allocated a number of slots, so Spain, Italy, England, Germany have 4 each, which is the max.

These slots are divided into automatic slots (straight into the group phase for you !), and qualifying slots (there are 3 rounds of knockout matches, the surviving teams going into the groups).

Smaller countries get fewer slots, and usually only qualifying ones at that.

Don't get started on how the groups are drawn, I once watched the draw live, and no-one had a f**king clue what was going on.

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 2:44 pm

Here, check out the source:

http://www.uefa.com/competitions/ucl/Co ... index.html

There are links to the right that should delve more deeply.

Granatofan · Post by **Granatofan** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 2:56 pm

Thanks for the link

Ted

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 3:39 pm

Germany only gets 3 spots, although with the sucess of German teams last year and this year in Euro competition, I'm hoping for 4.

Granatofan · Post by **Granatofan** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 3:54 pm

Thanks Dave!