Champions League Format

The format of the Champions League has come round for the 2003-2004 season. The format has a qualifying competition, one group stage and a final knock-out, which brings 16 clubs down to just two who go into the final, which is held at a European venue at the end of the season.
The competition, which, was started in 19955-56 originally was played around a knock-out system.

But in the 1992-93 season the format was changed with three knockout rounds open the tournament then a group stage, which has two sets of four clubs playing each other home and away. The two group winners were playing in the final. For the 1993-94 season there was a similar format, but his had a two legged semi-final stage that would have the two clubs from both groups preceding the final.

For the 1994-95 season the Champions League was expanded again. This time it involved one preliminary round before the clubs were out into groups of four clubs. And it would still have the two top clubs in each group go into the knockout stage. This meant that a extra quarter-final round was needed. This came into existence in the 1997-98 season when the competition had two qualifying rounds as the group stages had six groups of four clubs.

Now the six group winners and the two best runners-up went into the knockout stages. Another change happened in the 1999-2000 season when another additional qualifying round was introduced so that two group stages, which would have 32 teams that have eight groups of four who play six games each.

This is done so that the competition is reduced to 16 teams for the second group stage, then the eight third placed teams would go into the third round of the UEFA Cup. With the eight teams that are left they would challenge the quarter-final round that is played over two legs. The winners now go into the semi-finals that were also played over two legs. Then out of the two semi finals, the two clubs to play in the final would be decided.
For the 2003-2004 there was a further change. This format kept the qualifying rounds along with the 32-team group stage.

But the winners and runners-up will then go into the first knockout round, and the third placed teams go into the UEFA Cup like before. Then from the first knockout rounds until the semi-finals the teams play the matches over two legs. Then finally the winner of the two semi-finals plays in the final, and is held in May as a single match.


In the knockout end, the clubs will play two matches against each other on a home and away basis, and whoever scores the biggest aggregate of goals go to the next round. If the teams have the same number of goals, the team which scores more goals away goes through. If not decided with that then extra time of two periods of 15 minutes is played after the second match. Even after extra time both teams score the same number of goals, then the away goals count double, i.e. the visiting teams goes through. Still if no goal is scored during extra time then the winner will be decided by penalty kicks.

For the final which is a single match if the scores are tied at the end of m=normal time, then the ‘silver goal’ rule, this came about at the end of the 2002-03 season applies. At the end of the 15 minutes and one team is in the lead then they will be the winners. But if after this time they are still tied then a second period of 15 minutes is to be played. And if the two teams are still locked together then penalty kicks will decide the winning team.