The final stages of the Champions League are in full swing! The finals of this tournament get more than double the amount of views as the Superbowl (360 million versus 111 million, respectively). Despite the immense global popularity of the Champions League, it’s largely unknown to hockey-loving Canadians. In fact, many of our own adHOME’rs had never heard of the Champions League and had no idea which sport it was.
The UEFA Champions League is considered the best soccer event tournament in the world- even better than the FIFA World Cup. While the World Cup is held once every four years and is made up of teams based on nationality, the Champions League is a tournament made up of the top teams from the top leagues in the world (which all happen to be based in Europe). The teams are not restricted by nationality and play together year-round, allowing for a much higher caliber of soccer.
The top leagues in Europe are the English Premier League, France’s League 1, the Italian Seria A, the German Bundesliga and the Spanish La Liga.
UEFA uses an algorithm that takes into account how well the leagues are doing to determine how many teams each league is allowed to have in the tournament. The Premier League has recently been allowed to have their top four teams in the tournament. Germany’s Bundesliga and Spain’s La Liga also get to have their top four teams in the tournament, while, Italy’s Serie A and France’s Ligue 1 only get their top 3 teams. The other European soccer leagues are only permitted either one or two teams each.
What we really like about this tournament is their iconic anthem, which has been played before every match since the tournament first began in 1992.
And as if that weren’t catchy enough, we also can’t get enough of this quirky commercial by Heineken, the official sponsor of the Champions League. It features the now retired Carles Puyol, who maneuvers his way around an unreasonable bouncer.