Where the Champions Play
Daniel Wise
Note: This is a soccer blog specifically targeted for casual fans and newcomers, and such I will try to keep it as layman friendly as possible. However, I may use some terminology in this article that’s soccer-specific. If you find yourself confused by some of the lingo used in this article, please refer to the running index of soccer terminology.
The UEFA Champions League Logo,
Image via Wikimedia Commons.
While the highest levels of soccer competition exude a sophisticated air of sportsmanship and competition, at the heart of soccer is the dream of every nerd ever. That dream is to say so-and-so is the best in the world. Whether it involves arguing about Jedi (Rey, fight me) or comic books (Batman, again fight me), a fan wants to be able to say their team is the best ever, The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is that dream realized for soccer fans who want the world to know that their club team is the best. It's a yearly competition that pits the top European clubs against each other in a multi-stage playoff competition that lasts from September to June. So with the 2019 UCL final coming up in a little over a month, here's a little primer to get you ready for it.
I’m going to write about the governing bodies of soccer in a future article, but let’s briefly back up a little bit for some context. The main governing body of Association Football (i.e. the leagues that compete in nations around the world) is FIFA or the International Federation of Association Football (Fédération Internationale de Football Association in French). Under FIFA are smaller federations that oversee the operation of leagues in specific regions around the world. In this case, UEFA stands for Union of European Football Associations. UEFA consists of 55 member associations within Europe. Only one country, Liechtenstein, does not compete in the UEFA Champions League because it does not organize a domestic league of club teams.
Essentially, 54 nations will send their top teams to qualify and compete in the Champions League. The way UEFA organizes it has a ranking system where nations are judged on a coefficient calculated by their overall performance in European competitions. Due to this coefficient ranking, the top leagues will send more teams to qualify for the Champions league than the lower leagues. There are additional stipulations for qualifying, but I’ll keep it as simple as possible for this article. If you’d like some additional information about the competitions qualifying format, visit the official UEFA website.
“When fans experience their favorite teams making it to the finals, their emotions take flight to the highest highs and lowest lows depending on the outcome. ”
Okay, so when the top 32 teams are eventually set in stone, eight groups consisting of four teams will compete in a round-robin style playoff. This round called the group stage will have the teams in each group face each other in a round-robin style playoff. Each team plays a game home and away and the points system works like it does in a regular season. Teams get 3 points for a win, 1 point each in a tie, and zero points for a loss. After all the teams play each other at home and away, the top two teams in terms of points will move on to the knock-out playoff round. There’s consolation for the third-place team of the group stage as they are sent to the knock-out round of a separate tournament called the Europa League, which is also organized by UEFA. Read more about it here.
Now that the field has been reduced to 16 teams, UEFA seeds them into a playoff bracket. This round is a double-elimination playoff where each team plays a game at home and away. The difference here is that the winner is determined by an aggregate score. So when Team A beats Team B 2-1 in the first game, Team B must score one more goal than Team A in game 2 to advance. In essence, if Team B wins game 2 3-1, Team B would advance to the round of eight on the score aggregate of 4-3. But there’s a super complicated tie-breaking rule called the away goals rule. It’s a complicated, arbitrary rule, but it’s liable to come up during the competition, and I don’t want to be yelled at for not mentioning it.
When the UEFA Champions League started in 1955 as the European Champion Clubs’ Cup, AKA the Eurpean Cup, it was just a simple knock-out tournament for champions of each nation’s respective club competition. Tie-breakers in the tournament have taken a few forms from a third game played on a neutral ground to a straight-up coin flip. Today, there’s an arbitrary rule that essentially counts an away goal as double. So for example, Team A wins at home 1-0 against Team B. But then loses to Team B in the away leg 1-2. With the aggregate score tied 2-2, Team A would automatically advance since they scored the away goal.
I’d be hard-pressed to name a competition outside of soccer that matches the pageantry and grandeur of the UEFA Champions League.
Image via Pixabay.
Eventually, of those 32 teams, 30 will be found wanting and two will face off in the ultimate test of wills in the championship match. The championship is a single game played on neutral ground and will follow a format close to how World Cup teams advance through that system. When teams are tied after 90 minutes, they will enter what’s called extra time. This is a new set of halves which are 15 minutes in length each. Those teams will then move on to a penalty kick shoot-out if there is no winner after 120 minutes. From there, it’s kill or be killed as each shot and save matters.
As of writing this post, we are in the thick of the knock-out tournament stage quarterfinals. The main story of the 2018-’19 Champions League is that England has put on a strong showing by having all four of its allocated teams reach the knock-out stage and the round of 16. These teams include Liverpool FC, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur. The surprises of the tournament include the eliminations of Bayern Munich of Germany’s Bundesliga, Real Madrid of Spain’s La Liga, and Paris Saint-Germain of France’s Ligue 1. If you’re a connoisseur of underdog teams, then Ajax is the one to root for this year. They survived an intense group stage and a first-round playoff against Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid. Their quarterfinal game is against Italian Serie A super club Juventus. Ajax tied the first game, so it’s imperative that they win their away match against Juventus.
Here’s a look at the 2018-’19 UCL Bracket as of 4/13/2019. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
There’s a ton of history behind the tournament, and my own soccer journey kicked off when I got to experience watching the 2008 Champions League final when I was studying in London. That was an incredibly influential game that helped me realize that soccer was a major deal outside of the United States. It was an intense experience as the two teams that competed were London’s Chelsea FC and Manchester United. When fans experience their favorite teams making it to the finals, their emotions take flight to the highest highs and lowest lows depending on the outcome. This year’s final is set to take place Saturday, June 1, 2019 in Madrid, Spain at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium. Now that you’ve had a crash course in understanding this massive tournament, I’ll be writing a few more articles about it between now and the final game. Thank you for reading. As always, live well and watch more soccer.