French founder
Although many founding members of UEFA were more interested in establishing national team competitions, the French sports daily L 'Equipe and their then editor Gabriel Hanno advocated all-European club competitions. Hanot and his colleague Jacques Ferran designed a blueprint for the Challenge Tournament, which will be held under floodlights on Wednesday.
Sports record
The tournament sponsored by L'Equipe doesn't stipulate that the participating teams must be champions in their country, but they invited the clubs that they think are the most attractive to fans. Representatives of 16 club were invited to attend the meeting on April 2nd and 3rd, and the uniform rules were unanimously adopted. The first European Champions Cup was held in Lisbon, and the Portuguese sports club was tied by FK guerrillas 3-3. Yugoslavia won the second round 5-2 in Belgrade and advanced to the next round.
Madrid has the advantage.
Real Madrid immediately turned the tournament into their own competition by winning the first five finals. Since then, other clubs have also achieved fruitful results in the competition. AFC Ajax and Bayern Munich have both won three consecutive championships. However, no club can claim long-term rule. Ajax waited for 22 years to add a fourth champion to the hat trick won in the early 1970s. The victory of Madrid 1998 was their first victory in 32 years. Bayern's 200/Kloc-0 penalty in Milan was successful, ending the 26-year wait for their fourth success.
Liverpool's success
Liverpool Football Club's four victories between 1977 and 1984 deserve special mention, because the English club won four trophies with a fundamentally different team. The European origin of the Red Army shone again in 2005, when they fell behind 3-0 and beat AC Milan in a penalty shoot-out, which was probably the most exciting and unforgettable final in the game.
List of honorees
Real Madrid and AC Milan are the most successful teams in the European Champions League, winning the game three times. Madrid is also the most successful team, winning 9 championships, followed by Milan 7 times, Liverpool 5 times, Bayern and Ajax 4 times each. Madrid also holds the final appearance record, 12. Milan's success in the 2002/ 03 season was achieved after marathon 19 games, from the third qualifying round to the penalty shoot-out victory over Juventus in the final.
Competitive change
The main turning point in the evolution of the competition occurred in the 1992/93 season, when the European Champions League, in addition to the traditional knockout stage, also included the group stage, which was officially opened after the pilot round robin last season. The popularity of the group stage witnessed the development of the competition from 8 teams to 32 teams, and the competition was held on Tuesdays and Wednesdays all over Europe.