UEFA Champions League 2023/24 - Betting Odds, History, Tournament Format and More

Date: 2023.09.19 - 2024.06.01
Venue for Final: Wembley Stadium, London, England

UEFA Champions League is the biggest club football competition, featuring the top 32 football clubs from Europe to decide the ultimate winner of club football in Europe. With a rich history of values and traditions, the competition is as good as it ever gets.

2023/24 Betting Odds:

The odds for winning this year's edition of the UEFA Champions League fancy Manchester City, who won it last year and seem to be on top of the club football world at the moment, having also won the league as well as the cup in England.

With the edition of Harry Kane as their striker, Bayern Munich look that much more dangerous.

And then there is of course Real Madrid.

Here is what the betting odds looked like shortly after the Group Stage draw:

Source: Bet365
Time Stamp: September 1st, 2023 0:48 am EST
Odds Subject to Change

Man City +200
Bayern Munich +550
Real Madrid +800
Arsenal +1000
Barcelona +1400
PSG +1600
Man Utd +2000
Newcastle +2500
Napoli +2500
Inter Milan +2500
Atletico Madrid +2500
AC Milan +4000
Borussia Dortmund +5000
...

How refreshing to see Arsenal and Newcastle in the mix this year.

Let's see how things play out.


2023 Winners:

Manchester City won the UCL for the first time by beating Inter Milan in the final, with the score of 1-0. The game took place at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey.

-

The tournament preliminary rounds start on June 27th, 2023. The tournament group stage starts on September 19th and the knockout rounds on February 13th, 2024. The final will take place at Wembley Stadium in London on June 1st, 2024.

This is the eight time the city of London is hosting the event final.

The draw for the tournament group stage takes place on August 31st, 2023.


History:

The inaugural edition of the UEFA Champions League was held in 1955. Back then, the competition was named European Cup, which featured 16 football teams from Italy, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden, Poland, Scotland, Yugoslavia, Netherlands, Austria, Spain, West Germany, Saar, Switzerland, Portugal, France, and Hungary.

Real Madrid from Spain had emerged as the undisputed winner of the European Cup.



Trophy:

The UEFA Champions League trophy is one of the most prestigious and recognizable awards in the sport of football. It is awarded annually to the team that wins the UEFA Champions League, Europe's most prestigious club football tournament.

The trophy is made of silver and stands 73.5 centimeters tall, weighing approximately 7.5 kilograms. The design consists of a large cup with big handles, a lid, and a stylized body. The words 'Champions League' along with the UEFA logo are engraved on the body of the trophy.



Format:

UEFA Champions League follows a double round-robin group stage format which is followed by double-legged knockout matches and a single-legged final.


Teams and Groups:

Thirty-two teams in the UEFA Champions League are divided into 8 groups of 4 teams each. The teams in a group play each other twice (double round robin) in home and away matches. The top two teams from each group qualify for the round of 16. These are followed by the quarterfinals, semi-finals, and the ultimate final.


Draws:

The much-anticipated UEFA Champions League Draws determine team divisions in groups and the fixtures in knockout stages.


Qualification:

Out of the 32 teams, 26 teams directly qualify for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League, while 6 teams compete in the qualification round to make their way to the main competition.


4 Teams from the English Premier League qualify for the UEFA Champions League on the basis of their rankings on the English Premier League Table. The top three sides on the premier league table qualify directly for the group stage, while the fourth side competes in the qualification round of the Champions League.

The same format is followed for the Spanish league, LA Liga, and the German league Bundesliga.

Serie A is the premier football competition in Italy, and the top three teams from the league qualify for the UEFA Champions League. Among them, the top two sides qualify directly for the group stage, while the third-ranked team competes in the qualifiers.

Just like Serie A, three teams qualify from France’s Ligue 1 and Portugal’s Liga Portugal.

Teams from other European Leagues are decided on the basis of UEFA’s list of associations and UEFA Coefficient.


Relegation to Europa League:

While the top two teams from each UCL group qualify for the knockouts, the third-placed team in each group is relegated to Europa League. Thus, 8 teams from UEFA Champions League play in the Europa League once their campaign gets over in UCL.


Past Winners:

Real Madrid:

Real Madrid has been the most successful club in the UEFA Champions League history, with a record 14 titles. They have been dominating UCL since its inaugural edition, as they won the first five editions of the competition. They are also the defending champions of UCL and are scheduled to play their round of 16 matches against Liverpool following winter break.

Real Madrid won their UCL titles in 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1966, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2022.

AC Milan:

AC Milan has been the second most successful UCL team with 7 titles. Their titles came in 1963, 1969, 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003, and 2007.

Bayern Munich and Liverpool:

Both Bayern Munich and Liverpool have won 6 UCL titles each. Bayern won their titles in 1974, 1975, 1976, 2001, 2013, and 2020 while Liverpool recorded their championships in 1977, 1978, 1981, 1984, 2005, and 2019.

FC Barcelona:

Barcelona won 5 Champions League Titles in 1992, 2006, 2009, 2011, and 2015. In recent years, they have not tasted much success and recently got relegated to the Europa League.


Individual Records:

Among players, Cristiano Ronaldo leads the records with the most appearances (183) and most goals (140) in the UEFA Champions League history. He is followed by Lionel Messi with 129 goals in 163 UCL matches. Messi is the third most-capped player in the league’s history.

UEFA Player of the Season:

UEFA introduced the prestigious UCL player of the season award for the 2021-22 season. Manchester City midfielder Rodri is the 2022/23 winner. Karim Benzema from Real Madrid won the prize in the 2021-22 season.