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Live UEFA Europa League – there’s nothing easier than watching live football online. You don’t need any extra hardware to start watching UEFA Europa League online – just your PC or laptop and internet connection. You are literally minutes away from turning your PC into live Football TV.

The UEFA Europa League (UEFA Cup) is one of the greatest and most respected tournaments in all of European football. It began in 1971 as a replacement to the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, a tournament established to promote international trade fairs. Initially friendly matches were held between teams located in cities that held trade fairs. Out of these friendly matches a more regular and competitive tournament grew.

The UEFA Europa League evolved from the UEFA Cup, which itself was conceived by Switzerland’s Ernst Thommen who, along with Italy’s Ottorino Barrasi and England’s Sir Stanley Rous, later FIFA President, created a tournament for representative sides from European cities that regularly held trade fairs.

Forerunner
This forerunner to the UEFA Cup, the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, was founded on 18 April 1955, two weeks after the founding of the European Champion Clubs’ Cup. The first Fairs Cup involved teams from Barcelona, Basle, Birmingham, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Lausanne, Leipzig, London, Milan and Zagreb. The original tournament lasted three years, with matches timed to coincide with trade fairs. Barcelona, using players purely from FC Barcelona, beat a London representative side 8-2 on aggregate in the final.

Club Involvement
For the second tournament the organisers reverted to club participation but the teams still had to come from cities staging trade fairs. Sixteen clubs took part in the 1958-60 tournament, after which it was staged on an annual basis. By 1962 the number of entrants had risen to 32; there are now over 100. In its early years, teams from southern Europe dominated, notably Barcelona, who won it three times, and Valencia CF who won it twice. In 1968 Leeds United AFC became the first northern European club to win the trophy, heralding a run of six successive wins by English sides.

Name Change
The fifth of these was in 1971/72, won by Tottenham Hotspur FC, and the first to be known as the UEFA Cup. The change of name was recognition of the fact the competition was now run by UEFA and no longer associated with the trade fairs. During the 1970s German, Dutch, Belgian and Swedish sides began to successfully compete with the English and between 1968 and 1984 only one team from the south – Juventus in 1977 – managed to disrupt the dominance of the northern Europeans.

Italian Success
But following back-to-back victories by Real Madrid CF in the mid-1980s, Italian clubs took control in the 1990s. Starting with SSC Napoli’s victory in 1989, Italian sides won the UEFA Cup eight times in eleven seasons, with FC Internazionale Milano winning it three times, before Galatasaray AŞ claimed it as Turkey’s first European club prize in 2000. With the exception of 1964 and 1965, the final had, like the previous rounds, always been a two-legged, affair. The format changed permanently to a one-tie final in 1998 when Inter beat S.S. Lazio 3-0 at the Parc des Princes in Paris. Inter, Juventus and Liverpool share the record of three UEFA Cup final successes apiece.

Competitions Merge
From 1999/00, domestic cup winners also qualified for the UEFA Cup after the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup was disbanded. In addition, clubs eliminated from the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League and the eight third-placed finishers at the end of the group stage of the same competition entered the competition. A group stage was introduced for the first time in 2004/05 involving 40 teams playing four games.

UEFA Europa League
On 26 September 2008, the UEFA Executive Committee decided that from 2009/10 the competition would become the UEFA Europa League. This reflected a change to the format previously agreed, with the group stage expanding to 48 clubs, who would play six matches on a home-and-away format similar to the UEFA Champions League.

Bertoni Trophy
The trophy itself, which weighs 15kg and is silver on a yellow marble plinth, was designed and crafted by the Bertoni workshops in Milan for the 1972 final. It has no handles, its beauty lying in its simplicity. Just above the plinth, a group of players seem to be jostling for the ball. In fact they are supporting the octagonal cup which is emblazoned with the UEFA emblem.

Related contents:

1. UEFA Champions League
2. Scottish Premier League
3. English Premier League

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

The SPL was founded in 1998 and formed out of the Scottish Football League. The older Scottish Football League has been in existence since 1890 and has had a host of different divisions and teams. Clubs were frequently promoted and demoted at the end of the season. In the mid 70s the Scottish Football league set up a structure of three divisions – the Premier Division, the First Division, and the Second Division. The configuration stayed in place until 1994 when the Third Division was added. In 1998 the clubs in the Premier Division decided to follow the successful example of the English Premier League and form their own wholly separate league. As with the English Premier League, the motivating factor for this decision was money. League sponsorship money was evenly dived amongst all leagues in the Scottish Football league, something the top teams in the SFL did not agree with. It was decided that the top 10 teams from the Premier Division in the SFL would break off and form the Scottish Premier League. These original 10 teams were enlarged to 12, the current number of clubs, in the 2000/01 season.

Scottish Premier League Format

The promotion and demotion from the Scottish Football League to the Scottish Premier remained the same as it was between all divisions before the creation of the SPL. The 12th, or last, placed team in the premier league would be demoted to the Scottish First Division and replaced by the top finishing team from that league. This system had been in place for over a hundred years and worked well, although there were a few loopholes that some teams attempted to exploit. In 2003 Falkirk’s promotion was blocked thereby sparing Motherwell from being relegated. The same situation again occurred in 2004, however the league decided to alter the rules for promotion and relegation so that they were applied more fairly.

In its inception the league was sponsored by the Bank of Scotland, however that relationship was not renewed at the end of the 06/07 season. Instead, Clydesdale Bank took over sponsorship of the league and will do so at least through July of 2011.

The twelve teams in the league are required to play each other three times during the season. This can be either twice at home or twice away, but not three of either. Each teem is awarded three points for a win and one point for a draw with no points being awarded for a loss. At the end of the 33 games the teams are ranked by points, then goal differential, then goal for. The teams are then split into a top six and bottom six where each club will play a further five matches against those divisional opponents. After this is completed the bottom club is sent down to the Scottish First Division if the top team from that division meets the league’s qualifications for entry.

This basic structure and format forms the foundation of most of the principles within the league. Clubs compete hard not only for recognition within the league, but also to get a coveted spot within the UEFA champions league. Since the league was formed in 1998 it has slowly gained strength within UEFA rising from being ranked 26th during the inaugural season all the way to 10th as of 2008. Currently this means that two teams from the Scottish Premier League will qualify for the UEFA Champions League (usually those that finish first and second) as well as two for the UEFA Europa League (generally the 3rd and 4th placed teams). In addition if a team wins the Scottish Cup, the oldest national trophy in the world, and they have not made it into either league by their ranking they will be allowed to compete in the UEFA Europa League as a fifth team from the Scottish Premier and possibly Football leagues.

‘The Old Firm’ dominance

Since it began in 1998 only two teams have won the championship of the Scottish Premier League – Celtic and the Rangers. This long standing rivalry is referred to as the Old Firm and has its origins in a match from 1888. Between these two clubs 66 Scottish Cups and 93 Scottish League championships have been won. This rivalry is steeped in history and tradition with sectarianism being a primary focal point. The teams’ supporters and management have tried to move away from this relationship but old traditions die hard. Celtic is often backed traditionally by Irish Catholics and Irish Catholic supporters. The Rangers traditionally have been supported by the Protestant Loyalist community. This heated relationship has taken the rivalry of these two teams to a whole higher level. Recently however many have attempted to end the bigotry and hatred on both sides of the rivalry. Regardless of this, the two teams continue to dominate the Scottish Premier League and have some of the best football matches you will ever see. Passionate fans and play are the hallmarks of these competitions. The overall head to head record of matches between Celtic and the Rangers is very close, with a slight edge going to the Rangers. A total of all Scottish League, Scottish Cup, and League Cup matches gives a total of 152 wins for the Rangers, 137 wins for Celtic, with 92 draws. Celtic has begun to close the gap as of 2008 winning the last championship.

As you can see the Scottish Premier League is steeped in a history and tradition that dates back to the 19th century. Long standing rivalries will continue to dominate this league with a higher level of play as revenues increase. The league however will have to stay competitive it wishes to stay in business, as outside of the two dominant teams it can be difficult to maintain a football club.

Related contents:

1. UEFA Europa League
2. English Premier League
3. UEFA Champions League

Watch live Spanish Liga online – never miss live La Liga game again. Depend on Sat or Cable TV providers no more – turn your PC into Football TV. Watch all Spanish La Liga games live online from the comfort of your home.

The premier division of Spanish football is La Liga. La Liga BBVA was founded in 1929 and currently has 20 teams. The league has a long tradition and is one of the top leagues in Europe. Throughout the history of Spanish football La Liga has been traditionally in the top three teams for UEFA qualification. Spain currently sits at number two for the 2009-10 season after having held down the top spot for the 2008-09 season. This means that the top four teams from La Liga will play in the UEFA Champions league and compete for the Champion Clubs’ Cup, the most prestigious club award in all of European association football. How the La Liga came to the top and why they continue to stay there is an example of what many of the leagues around Europe aspire to be.

La Liga and El Classico, a Spanish Tradition

In the years leading up to the formation of La Liga Jose Maria Acha proposed the idea of forming a national Spanish football league. This sparked much debate over what teams and what format the league would be played in. Eventually a format that was amiable to all was decided on and the league began play. Of the original teams three have never been relegated to the second division. These teams have had success not only in the domestic league but in worldwide play as well. They are Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, and Athletic Bilbao. Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are two of the most famous football teams the world around and the history of those teams is well known by enthusiasts and avid fans alike.

History and Rise to Prominence of La Liga

The 1930s saw the play of the league upset by the Spanish Civil war. This did not however stop teams from competing as some teams opted to play in the Mediterranean League. The 1940s were equally as hard as World War II caused some serious disruptions in the league.

The 1950s saw La Liga begin to develop more into its current form with FC Barcelona and Real Madrid stepping to the forefront, with Real Madrid completely dominating the league from the 1960s through the early eighties. During this time Madrid won 14 championships and from 1961-1965 won an astounding five in a row. Real Madrid, along with FC Barcelona, are probably the two most successful teams in La Liga.

Famous Teams of La Liga

Real Madrid has been the most successful team in the league with 31 championships and 17 runners up awards. They are the current reigning champions of La Liga, having won consecutive titles in 2006-07 and 2007-08. Second behind them in total winners is FC Barcelona with 18 Championships and 22 second place finishes. They last held the trophy in 2005-06 and like Real Madrid claimed the award in consecutive years. Matches between these two teams are fierce and the rivalry is not only one between clubs but between cities as well. Matches between the two clubs are simply known as El Classico, a term that came about rather recently.

This rivalry extends beyond mere football and is seen as a clash of Catalan and Spanish nationalism. These two teams list over half of all the football fans in Spain as their supporters and when they meet everyone football fan in Spain and around the world wants to watch. The teams have met 157 times with Real Madrid holding a slight advantage over Barcelona. Currently the matches stand at 68 wins for Real Madrid, 59 for FC Barcelona and 30 draws. The goals for is also as close with Real Madrid scoring 260 against Barcelona’s 236. These matches include not only league play but international competition as well. The two teams have met in the Champions League on occasion and the 2002 semi final match between them was called the Match of the Century by the majority of Spanish media. There is nothing that really sums up the play in La Liga like the matches between these two teams. They intertwine cultural, politics, and sport into a rivalry that is almost unmatched the world around.

While both Real Madrid and FC Barcelona dominate La Liga, there are many other teams of importance and relevance in the league. One of the teams that have run to recent prominence has been Valencia. They have won six La Liga titles as well as many international awards including a UEFA Cup. In addition to this they reached the finals of the Champions League twice in a row in 2000 and 2001, losing to Real Madrid in 2000 and Bayern Munich in 2001. The team was founded in 1919 but has enjoyed much success recently. The teams all time low probably came in the 1980s when they were relegated to the second division. It took them a while to get back into La Liga, but in the 87-88 season the made their return and have managed to stay in the top division ever since. They earned their first title since the 1970-71 campaign in 2001-02 and have fully re-established themselves as a top tier team in La Liga.

Once of the most notable and impressive things about La Liga is the number of Spanish stars the league has had over the years. While they like other European top tier leagues have gone to other countries for talent, the majority of the best players in the league come from Spain. This is a testament to not only the quality of the top league, but also to all of the supporting football leagues around the country. It is very rare that you will find a set of football fans more passionate and more talented then the fans of Spain. La Liga is the ultimate representation of this.

Related contents:

1. Spanish La Liga Fixtures
2. UEFA Champions League
3. UEFA Europa League

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