UEFA Champions League: Format, history, previous winners & how to watch

The UEFA Champions League is the premier competition in European club football, with the top sides battling it out on an annual basis to be crowned the best team on the continent.

UEFA Champions League 2024/25 key dates

The two-legged playoff matches will be played on August 20th & 21st 2024, and August 27th & 28th 2024.

The draw for the group stage will take place on August 29th 2024 and the group-stage fixtures will begin on September 17th 2024.

The group stage will finish with matchday eight on January 29th 2025, and the draw for the knockout play-off round will be made on January 31st 2025.

These two-legged fixtures will take place between February 11th and February 19th 2025, and will be followed by a draw for the knockout stage on February 21st 2025.

The knockout round matches will begin March 4th 2025, culminating in the UEFA Champions League final which is scheduled to take place at the Allianz Arena in Munich on May 31st 2025.

2024/25 UEFA Champions League teams

A total of 81 teams will take part in the UEFA Champions League, with 56 participating in the initial qualifying rounds. These sides involved in the early rounds will be those based in Uefa's lower-ranked associations with 14 of these aiming to reach the knockout play-off stage.

Seven of those qualifiers will join the main group to form a 36-team league phase for the main body of the competition.

2024/25 UEFA Champions League how to watch

British viewers can watch all UEFA Champions League matches from the group stage onwards on TNT Sports and Discovery+.

2024/25 UEFA Champions League format

The UEFA Champions League has been revamped for the 2024/25 season to broaden the amount of participants in the main league phase.

Three initial qualifying rounds will conclude with a knockout play-off stage in which 14 teams will battle it out for seven places in the league phase proper.

The league phase will take place over eight match days with fixtures compiled from an initial draw.

The top eight teams will automatically qualify for the knockout stage, while the teams finishing in 9th to 24th place will compete in a two-legged play-off to secure their path to the last 16.

The winners will join the top eight in that round. Meanwhile, teams who finish 25th or lower will be eliminated from all competitions, with no access to the 2024–25 Europa League.

More information on the new format of the UEFA Champions League.

UEFA Champions League history

The competition was first introduced ahead of the 1955/56 season, with Spanish giants Real Madrid winning the inaugural European Cup, beating French club Reims 4-3 in the final.

The competition remained in the same format for the next 36 years, with only the defending champions and winners of the previous season's domestic leagues eligible to play.

However, that all changed ahead of the 1992/93 season, as Uefa rebranded the competition, renaming it the UEFA Champions League and introducing a group stage rather than just the straight knockout format that had previously been used.

The new-look tournament starting from the 2024/25 season will see the introduction of a 36-team league phase, before a standard 16-team knockout stage.

UEFA Champions League previous winners

Real Madrid have won the competition 15 times, the most of any side, and their most recent triumph came with a 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 1st June 2024.

It was the Spanish side's sixth victory in 11 seasons and they have a perfect record of nine wins from nine finals in the UEFA Champions League era.

AC Milan are the second-most successful European side with seven titles, while Bayern Munich and Liverpool have both won the UEFA Champions League on six occasions.

Barcelona have five premier European crowns to their name and Ajax are next best on four.

You can see all the latest UEFA Champions League odds on our dedicated UEFA Champions League hub.