<font size=""4""><font color=""Red"">THE EUROPEAN CUP</font></font> The origins of the European Cup or -the European Champions Clubs Cup to give it's more precise name- came into being following a boast from the English press that the First Division champions Wolverhampton Wanderers(Wolves) were the best side in club football. This boastful claim came after Wolves beat Hungarian side Honved 3-2 in a friendly under the new floodlights at Molineux in 1954. It was also a knee jerk reaction from an English media still smarting after watching the English national side thrashed 6-3 and 7-1 by the Hungarian national side the previous year. These results finally buried the myth that the English were the best exponents of the game of football. The Wolves win, followed by a 4-0 win agaisnt Spartak Moscow again by Wolves, helped the English regain some confidence in their national game. The boasts from the English fell on deaf ears on the European continent, Gabriel Hanot, editor of French sports newspaper L'Equipe and a former French international player was particularly angered by the English claim. In response to the Daily Mail's comment that Wolves were the 'Best team in the world', Hanot suggested a European tournament based on a home and away leg basis to decide who really was the best club team in Europe. the competition was given a thumbs up in a meeting of 15 of Europe's top clubs on April 2nd. Within four weeks FIFA had confirmed the new tournament and handed the running of it to it's European subsidiary UEFA. The first match in the European Cup kicked off on the 4th September 1955 between Sporting Lisbon and Partizan Belgrade. A total of 16 different countries have teams represented in the inaugral year, England being a noticeable absentee, the FA refused to let Chelsea(the English champions) enter for fears that it would disrupt their domestic calendar. Their place was taken by Polish side Gwardia Warsaw. Although these were humble beginnings, 38,000 fans turned up to see the first final between Real Madrid and Reims and so the foundations were set for a tournament that would thrill and excite the Football world for the next 50 years. The amazing final of 1960 when Real Madrid run out 7-3 winners agaisnt Eintracht Frankfurt, is widely regarded as the best club football match ever. Other highlights inculded Celtic's shock win over Inter Milan in 1967 to become the first british side to win the tournament, the dominance of the Johan Cruyff inspired Ajax side of the early 1970's and the stranglehold English clubs had on the competition in the late 1970's and early 80's. If England was hostile to the competition in it's early years, ever since it has been greatly linked to the tournament ever since and not always for the happiest of reasons. For Manchester United and it's fans February 6th 1958 marks the darkest day in the clubs illustrious history after eight of the highly talented 'Busby Babes' side were tragically killed on a Munich airway on the way home after a 5-4 aggregate quarter-final win agaisnt Red Star Belgrade. Having stoppedto refuel, the snowy conditions caused two failed take off attempts and on the third the plane failed to gain altitude, hit a house and burst into flames. Roger Byrne, Geoff Bent, Mark Jones, David Pegg, Liam Whelan, Eddie Colman and Tommy Taylor died instantly, while the game's rising star Duncan Edwards passed away two weeks later. Manager Sir Matt Busby survived but it took him another ten years to rebuild his team into European champions. Yet the darkest moment in the competition's history came on May 25th, 1985 when drunken Liverpool 'fans' went on the rampage inside the Heysel stadium, Brussels, Belgium prior to the club's final appearance agaisnt Italian team Juventus. As the Italian supporters, who came under a hail of missiles and were faced with a simultaneous charge behind the goal, cowered in the corner of terrace Z, a wall gave way under the pressure and 39 people were crushed to death and hundreds injured. This act of barbarism brought shame on English football and more importantly, prompted UEFA to 'indefinitely' ban all English clubs from all European club tournaments. It would be another six years until the country was represented again in the European cup. On their return English teams teams would find themselves in a very different competition. With commercialism beginning to exert a much stronger infulence on the sport, the bigger clubs were looking for more financial revenue from the competition, while the breakdown of the former 'Eastern Block' meant more quality teams and therefore a more exploitable overall package had been created. In 1992 the format of the competiton changed, the first and second rounds continued as normal, but the third round consisted of two mini leagues of four teams with the winners of each meeting in the final.The league format met widespread approval and guaranteed a cash windfall for those teams competing in the latter stages. During this period, the European Cup would again be tainted. This time the winners of the 1993 competition ,Marseille were found guilty of paying Dinamo Zagreb money for throwing matches. Marseille were banned, had their French league title stripped from them and were demoted to the French Second league as punishment, although despite the punishment it left many people with a bad taste in their mouth as teams that deserved a chance at winning the title were denied by the cheating of one team. UEFA Champions' League Realising that there more money to be generated, UEFA changed the format of the tournament again for the 1994-1995 season with the formation of the Champions' League. The holders and seven top seeded teams would progress to four league groups, each containing four clubs- the other clubs coming from a round of qualifing ties. AC Milan were the first winners of this new look tournament beating Barcelona 4-0 in the first tournament. As the seasons have passed and further changes have been implemented so that the highest placed finisher in certain leagues are guaranteed a place in the competiton, and such is the windfall that many teams rely on qualification to ensure financial stability, this can lead to disaster such as the recent Leeds United situation. The group stages expanded to eight first round groups and four second round groups but for the 2003-04 season the second group stage was dropped to avoid player exhaustion. Presently the UEFA Champions league is going from strength to strength and is maintaining it's posisition as the world's premier club competition. Previous Winners and Runners-up 1956: Real Madrid 4-3 Stade De Reims 1957: Real Madrid 2-0 Fiorentina 1958: Real Madrid 3-2 aet AC Milan 1959: Real Madrid 2-0 Stade De Reims 1960: Real Madrid 7-3 Eintracht Frankfurt 1961: Benfica 3-2 Barcelona 1962: Benfica 5.3 Real Madrid 1963: AC Milan 2-1 Benfica 1964: Inter Milan 3-1 Real Madrid 1965: Inter Milan 1-0 Benfica 1966: Real Madrid 2-1 Partizan Belgrade 1967: Celtic 2-1 Inter Milan 1968: Manchester United 4-1 aet Benfica 1969: AC Milan 4-1 Ajax 1970: Feyenoord 2-1 Celtic 1971: Ajax 2-0 Panathinaikos 1972: Ajax 2-0 Inter Milan 1973: Ajax 1-0 Juventus 1974: Bayern Munich 4-0 Atletico Madrid (Replay after 1-1 draw) 1975: Bayern Munich 2-0 Leeds United 1976: Bayern Munich 1-0 St. Etienne 1977: Liverpool 3-1 Borussia Monchengladbach 1978: Liverpool 1-0 Club Brugge 1979: Nottingham Forest 1-0 Malmo 1980: Nottingham Forest 1-0 Hamburg 1981: Liverpool 1-0 Real Madrid 1982: Aston Villa 1-0 Bayern Munich 1983: Hamburg 1-0 Juventus 1984: Liverpool 1-1 Roma (Liverpool won 4-2 on penalties) 1985: Juventus 1-0 Liverpool 1986: Steaua Bucharest 0-0 Barcelona (Steaua won 2-0 on penalties) 1987: Porto 2-1 Bayern Munich 1988: PSV Eindhoven 0-0 Benfica (PSV won 6-5 on penalties) 1989: AC Milan 4-0 Steaua Bucharest 1990: AC Milan 1-0 Benfica 1991: Red Star Belgrade 0-0 Marseille (Red Star won 5-3 on penalties) 1992: Barcelona 1-0 Sampdoria 1993: Marseille 1-0 AC Milan 1994: AC Milan 4-0 Barcelona 1995: Ajax 1-0 AC Milan 1996: Juventus 1-1 Ajax (Juventus won 4-2 on penalties) 1997: Borrussia Dortmund 3-1 Juventus 1998: Real Madrid 1-0 Juventus 1999: Manchester United 2-1 Bayern Munich 2000: Real Madrid 3-0 Valencia 2001: Bayern Munich 1-1 Valencia (Bayern won 5-4 on penalties) 2002: Real Madrid 2-1 Bayer Leverkusen 2003: AC Milan 0-0 Juventus (AC won 4-2 on penalties) 2004: Porto 3-0 Monaco 2005: Liverpool 3-3 AC Milan (Liverpool won 3-2 on penalties) 2006: FC Barcelona 2-1 Arsenal FC Most Wins 1st Real Madrid (9) = 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1966, 1998, 2000, 2002 2nd AC Milan (6) = 1963, 1969, 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003 =3rd Ajax (4) = 1971, 1972, 1973, 1995 =3rd Bayern Munich (4) = 1974, 1975, 1976, 2001 =3rd Liverpool (5) = 1977, 1978, 1981, 1984, 2005 =6th Benfica (2) = 1961, 1962 =6th Inter Milan (2) = 1964, 1965 =6th Juventus (2) = 1985, 1996 =6th Manchester United (2) = 1968, 1999 =6th Nottingham Forest (2) = 1979, 1980 =6th Porto (2) = 1987, 2004 =12th Barcelona (2) = 1992, 2006 =12th Aston Villa (1) = 1982 =12th Borrussia Dortmund (1) = 1997 =12th Celtic (1) = 1967 =12th Feyenoord (1) = 1970 =12th Hamburg (1) = 1983 =12th Marseille (1) = 1993 =12th PSV Eindhoven (1) = 1988 =12th Red Star Belgrade (1) = 1991 =12th Steaua Bucharest (1) = 1986
