The European Cup

The European cup was the premier competition for club sides within Europe from it’s inception in 1955 until it’s replacement by the Champions League in the 1992 -1993 Season.

The European cup was originally the idea of a French journalist Gabriel Hanot, who at the time was editor for L’Equipe, a French daily sports newspaper, he was prompted to suggest the competition after the British Press had declared Wolverhampton Wanderers, an English team as Champions of the World, after they had won a series of friendly matches against foreign competition.

The idea was for the winners of each national league to play in a two leg format, home and away, the winner being the team that had scored the most goals and then progressing to the next stage until ultimately only 2 clubs remained to play for the European Champion Clubs’ Cup, shortened to the European Cup.

The winners of the first European cup were Real Madrid and they won the trophy in 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959 & 1960, and to date have the most wins of any European side a total of 9.

Spain has in fact provided the majority of winners for the trophy a total of 12, the other 3 wins by Barcelona, next in line is England & Italy each country has provided the winner on 11 occasions and the most successful sides are Liverpool from England and Milan from Italy.

The final between Milan and Liverpool is probably the most memorable of recent finals in the 2004 – 2005 Liverpool Trailing 3-0 at half-time in Istanbul, managed to level the game in the second half with three goals in seven minutes and after extra time manged to Win on penalties!

The Champions league is now one of the most attractive sporting events in the world, drawing huge television audiences from around the planet and attracting massive amounts of money for TV rights and Sponsors.

Currently the champion’s league is sponsored by Ford, Sony, Heineken, MasterCard and Vodafone, and with the influx of money, UEFA awards €3 million to each team that qualifies for the UEFA Champions League, plus €2.4 million for participating in the Group stage. A Group stage win is worth €600,000 and a draw is worth €300,000.

UEFA in addition pays each quarter finalist €2.5 million, €3 million for each semi-finalist, €4 million for the runners-up and €7 million for the winners, so participation is a lucrative revenue source for Europe’s top clubs.

Prior to the inception of the Champions league, one team managed to win the European cup, without being champions of their country, Nottingham Forest under the management of Brian Clough won the trophy in 1979, however failed to win the English League, as winners of the European Cup they were automatically entered again and managed to secure the trophy for a second time in 1980