UEFA Champions League live online is the only chance for you to never miss you club’s game. You can watch live Champions League football streams whether you are at home or at work, or on the way. No extra hardware needed, no ridiculous monthly or per game fees – turn on your laptop, connect to the Internet and plunge into live UEFA Champions League football.

The Champions League competition is one of, if not the, most prestigious competitions in all of sports. There are many best in the world competitions that pit country against country, but only one that puts the greatest league champions against each other. The battle for the European Champions Clubs’ Cup has had a storied history and has featured some of the greatest matches of all time. There have been ten different countries to win the Champions League, with Italy, Spain, and Germany tied at the top with eleven wins each. The best way to see what the cup means and how important it is to all the teams in Europe is to look at how teams qualify.

Qualification for the UEFA Champions League

Qualification for the cup is awarded on a nation by nation basis. Depending on how successful a country is and what their UEFA coefficient is will determine how many teams they get to send to the UEFA Cup. Ranks one through three will get four Champions League teams. Four through six will get three teams for this league as well, and countries ranked seven through fifteen get two teams each and associations ranked sixteen or lower get one position. The determination of what teams get into the Champions league is determined by the individual countries with it usually being awarded to the top team in the top flight league. It can get complicated between the Champions League and the Europa League, but the Champions league is by far the most prestigious league.

For the most part teams that finish from 1st to 4th in the top leagues will advance to the UEFA Champions league. This final ranking spot will also determine whether or not a team has to play in the group stage. Teams that do not have automatic berths into the group stage will have to play through various qualification rounds. In addition to that, because of the high level of competition in the top football leagues it is possible, and has happened in the past, that a previous winner may not even qualify for the cup the following year. There is some flexibility in the rules for placing teams and in these cases exceptions have been made and teams allowed to enter the competition that normally would not have been there.

The competition begins with three preliminary knockout rounds. These knockout rounds slowly whittle the competing field down to the twenty two teams that compete in the group stage. This is the fairest way to give all the teams from around the world a fair shot at getting into the tournament without putting undue stress on the top teams. It is no ones best interest to Real Madrid blow out some team from Turkey, however the team from Turkey should be able to earn the right to play in the final.

Past Champions of the Champions League

Real Madrid currently has the most titles in the Champions League with nine. They are followed by AC Milan who has seven titles. These teams have also been runners up many times over. These are the powerhouse teams that will continue to be big players in the tournament for years to come. While this is interesting to many people, perhaps some of the greatest triumphs have been by the unexpected heroes, the teams that no one thought could win it all.

Perhaps the most famous and unlikely was the Football Club from Steaua Bucuresti, a Romanian team. They hold the distinction of being the only Eastern European team to win the championship. You may think that they were a flash in the pan, but they did very well in the tournament the year prior. One huge advantage for Steaua Bucharest was that there were not English clubs in the cup that year because of the ban from European competition after the Heysel Stadium disaster. With Manchester United, Liverpool, and Everton not being present the way was much easier for a smaller club to rise up and knock off one of the bigger things.

One of the other things that Steaua Bucharest had going for them was an outstanding goaltender, Helmuth Duckadam. The final came down to a shootout and was able to save all four of Barcelona’s penalty shots to win the cup for his squad.

Stories like the one about Helmuth Duckadam and Steaua Bucharest are not unique to the Champions League. Each and every year there is a story of a great team rising from nothing to go on to compete against the big clubs and make a run at the championship. If you look at the history of the finals and different group play match ups it tells a story of giants fighting David, with many times the small teams coming on top against amazing odds.

What the Champions Cup Means

The Champions League, Champion of the Champions

If you are unfamiliar with UEFA, then it is hard to really describe what this tournament is all about. Imagine your favourite sport being played in every country you can think of with all the champions from the different leagues meeting to play for one championship. No matter what your sport is, you can probably see how something like this would be exciting. Over the years some of the greatest match ups have been between powerhouses of great leagues. Seeing Real Madrid go against Manchester united, or Barcelona against Juventus is what this trophy and league are all about. In order to get in you need to be a Champion and when you win you are the Champion of the Champions. There is nothing else in the world that compares with this.

Related contents:

1. UEFA Europa League
2. Scottish Premier League
3. Italian Serie A

Italian Serie A live online is the only chance for you to never miss you club’s game. You can watch live Serie A football streams whether you are at home or at work, or on the way. No extra hardware needed, no ridiculous monthly or per game fees – turn on your laptop, connect to the Internet and plunge into live Italian football.

The Serie A or Lega Calcio Serie A TIM is the highest tier of football in the Italian system. It has been in existence since 1898 however in the early years it had a much different format than that of today. In these early years the league was grouped by regions and was pretty loosely organized with every team competing to be recognized as the best in the country. In 1922 the league began play as a unified competition. From there the league has grown into one of the most respected around the world. Today you can find many of the top footballers playing on Italian teams.

The Best of Italian Football

There are many features of the league that separate it from others throughout the world. Whether it is the individual teams or league itself, there are many things that make Serie A continually rank as one of the most popular and most competitive football leagues in the world. The structure for the league is very similar to that of the English Football League where each team plays the other twice in a season. One match is played at home and one match away for a total of 38 matches per season. These matches are played in two halves of the season with each half being exactly the same except for a reversal of the location. At the end of the season the three lowest placed teams are relegated to Serie B with three teams being promoted. Currently there are twenty teams in the league, but this will be pulled back to 18 in 2010. There have been as many as 25 teams and as little as 16 during the history of organized Serie A play. The league currently ranks in the top three of UEFA qualifying leagues and as such can send four teams to the Champions League.

In the history of Serie A there have been three teams that have dominated the league: Juventus, Milan, and Internazionale. Of these three teams Juventus is the only one to have earned two golden stars. The other two have won the honour of being able to wear one. The Golden Stars were first able to be worn in 1958 when it was introduced to show which sides had won ten or more championships. Juventus was the first to earn the honour, followed by Internazionale and Milan. Each of these three teams has a tradition and history that dates back to before the turn of the 20th century.

Juventus

Juventus Football Club, or just Juventus for short, was founded in 1897. They currently play out of Turin, Italy and have spent their entire existence except for one season in the top division. Recently the team has come on some hard times but if their past success is any way to predict the future they should do quite well. In total the club has captured 51 official trophies. Forty of these come from play in Italy with the other eleven coming from victories in international competition. Because of this Juventus has by far the largest fan base in all of Italy. The team’s dominance started early and they had won two championships before the 1930s. This decade saw the club capture a remarkable five championships in a row. All told they have captured the championship twenty nine times with the last one coming in 2005-06. In addition they have been the runners up nineteen times, meaning that in the modern history of the league they have been either runner up or champion forty seven times. They had one championship before 1922 in 1905, but since the modern league was formed they have completely dominated.

AC Milan

Milan, or AC Milan, is the second most popular team in Serie A. This team was formed in 1899 and like Juventus has a rich history of dominance in the top league. Aside from a fifty year period from the turn of the twentieth century onward, AC Milan has been at the forefront of Italian football. Their last championship came in 2003-04, although they were runners up the following year. It took the club only two years from being formed to win their first Italian league championship. They followed this up by winning championships again in 1906 and 1907. After winning these championships a dark period began in the history of the AC Milan football club. An internal disagreement led to a significant reduction in the competitive quality of the team and they did not win any domestic titles until 1950-51. After this though the team took off and has risen from mediocrity to become one of the most successful and recognized football clubs the world around. Their success in the Serie A carried over into international competition as well with AC Milan capturing an amazing seven UEFA Champions League titles.

Inter Milan

The third of the big three, Internazional, was founded in 1908. They are the only team to spend the entirety of their existence in Serie A. While not as successful as AC Milan or Juventus, the team has had many victories that would make teams around the world envious. The streak of staying in the top flight is one that makes the fans of the club most proud. Not only are they now the only team in Italian Serie A to have played every season in the top flight, the also hold the longest run of any club throughout the top leagues in the world. Internazional has captured sixteen Serie A titles and been runners up fourteen times. In addition to that they have won the UEFA Champions League twice remarkably by retaining the title for consecutive seasons in 1963-64 and 1964-65.

These three teams are really only the tip of the iceberg for Serie A. Football is a passion in Italy and the fans bring this with strength to the all of the matches in the top league. The hallmarks of this league are football at the highest level with some of the greatest stars today. Any of the teams from Serie A that qualify for international competition put fear into the hearts of their opponents. If you are looking for football played with skill and passion look no farther than the top flight of Italian football, Serie A.

Related contents:

1. Italian Serie A Fixtures
2. UEFA Champions League
3. Spanish La Liga