champions league

 

The UEFA Champions League ( officially the UEFA Champions League ), also known as the European Cup , is the most prestigious international club football tournament in Europe . Organized by its continental governing body , UEFA ,  it has been contested annually since its inception in the 1955–56 season , and its final is the most-watched sporting event in the world, with an estimated audience of between 350 and 400 million viewers. ^[

Created at the initiative of the newspaper L'Équipe under the name 

European Champion Clubs' Cup (in French , Coupe des Clubs Champions Européens ),  and designed to determine the best club on the continent, it was initially rejected by UEFA. However, after discussions with FIFA and various clubs, still in their formative stages, the European governing body gave its approval and became its organizer. Initially a knockout tournament, in 1992 the competition was restructured, incorporating for the first time a league or group stage format as a preliminary step to the knockout phase. Consequently, it was renamed with its current name for the 1992–93 edition , thus consolidating this format. ^[ 8 ] Originally, the champions of the national leagues qualified for participation in the tournament, but in 1997 the runners-up also began to participate, and in 1999 , those ranked up to fourth place, depending on the UEFA coefficient of each league,  those with the lowest coefficient having to go through a preliminary phase.