Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Summer of Sports: These Are The Champions...

BY DC CUEVA

If Super Sports Saturday of May 2, 2015 was any indication, then we are in one of the best times of the year for sports fans. Postseason is ongoing in the NBA and NHL, baseball is starting to hit its stride, the NFL just had its Draft, horse racing's Triple Crown is once again taking shape, and boxing is bigger than ever. And on the horizon is the traditional Summer of Sports with not only those events, but also major golf and tennis, big UFC fights and the world championships & Grand Prix seasons in Olympic sports as preparations for Rio 2016 approach the "one year to go" marker.
   For fans of soccer - football or futbol outside anglophone North America, this is the best time of the year. The domestic European league seasons have reached their conclusion, and the annual international summer soccer tournaments have arrived. This year in the post-men's World Cup summer of 2015, the FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada and the Copa America in South America will take center stage starting this weekend, along with the FIFA Under-20 World Cup currently ongoing in New Zealand. And while playoff fever sets in for those in arenas in North America, it's Cup Fever that has spread throughout the continents, with the finals of the cup competitions to be played at the end of the season.

Outside of the FIFA World Cup, the English Premier League and Spain's La Liga, it has become the most followed football competition in the world. It has one of the most prestigious prizes in all of sports, and is the epitome of soccer at its very best. Elite clubs from all over the continent that is at the heart of the world game play every year over an entire season to find who is the best club in all of Europe. It culminates with the sport's equivalent of the Super Bowl: an event watched by more people than any other annual sporting event, exceeding that of America's biggest unofficial national holiday.
   The UEFA Champions League is the blue-riband event of European football, where the best clubs in Europe compete on a stage unlike any other in soccer. Organized by the governing body of the sport in Europe, the Union of European Football Associations, it's become a phenomenon that has seen the continent's greatest teams and many of the world's biggest players play under the lights. It brings together countries both big & small in a season-long competition mirroring that of national team competitions comprising of qualifying, group play and knockout matches, all leading up to a beginning of summer final match in Europe's greatest stadiums.
   And when you hear the operatic theme music play at the beginning of matches when the players walk onto the pitch, you know it is the best atmosphere in all of sports. And the ones who emerge as the one receive glory and a financial windfall, but most importantly, the title of being Europe's best.


HISTORY
Like the English Premier League, the UEFA Champions League in its current form was born in 1992. But its lineage spreads all the way back to the first half of the 20th century, when numerous club competitions were held as far back as the '20s between various clubs were held. It wasn't until the early '50s when French sportswriter Gabriel Hanot at L'Équipe proposed the idea of a European club competition with staying power. And after Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Stan Cullis declared his team "Champions of the World" after several friendly wins that decade, Hanot finally convinced UEFA to adopt his idea. That blueprint would be of a continental club challenge competition that plays on Wednesday nights under floodlights, at midweek during the domestic league seasons. Thus, in 1955 in Paris, the European Champion Clubs' Cup, or European Cup for short, was born.
   The earlier incarnation of the European Cup was just simply a straight knockout tournament and only for champion clubs of each country, though they also considered teams that they felt had the greatest appeal among fans. That first season in '55-56 saw Italy's Milan, Spain's Real Madrid, PSV Eindhoven from the Netherlands and 13 other countries participate; however teams from Great Britain did not take part that first year. Portugal's Sporting CP and Yugoslavia's Partizan played the first Euro Cup match that September (a 3-3 draw), while Real Madrid and France's Stade de Reims made it to the final with the Spaniards winning 4-3 for the first of what would be five straight European Cup titles, a record that still stands 65 years later.
   The format would stay unchanged in the decades that would follow, as clubs from Italy, Britain, the Netherlands and Germany would take their turns lifting the Big Ears. Then in the mid-'70s, two teams would dominate the Euro Cup: German Bundlesliga side Bayern Munich would celebrate a three-peat from 1974-76, then English team Liverpool would win four titles in '77, '78, '81 and '84, part of a British run of dominance that also included Aston Villa's crowning moment in '82.
   Liverpool, however, would be at the heart of the moment that would change English football and brought to light the serious issue to hooliganism. In 1985 when they were beaten 1-0 to Juventus in Brussels, 39 Juventus fans died when Liverpool fans fought them during a fight inside the stadium. The penalty was harsh: a five-year ban from European competition for English clubs, and six years for Liverpool. The severe sanctions would have long-term consequences on English soccer as it set the nation back on the European stage and caused despair for fans in the original footballing nation.
   With England out, other clubs were given the opportunity to take the greatest stage in European football as clubs from Romania, Portugal and the Netherlands hoisted the Cup in the years after the disaster. In 1989, Milan won their first European Cup in twenty years, then went back-to-back the following year as the Dutch trio of Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Riijkaard led the Serie A side. In '91, Yugoslav champs Red Star Belgrade upset French champs Marseille in a shootout, then in '92 the first seeds of what would become a new European competition were planted in the last year of the European Cup name, as the quarter-finals became a two-group league format. Barcelona would take the 1992 title, with Johan Cruyff becoming the 3rd to win a Euro Cup as player and coach.

In that fall of 1992, the UEFA Champions League as it is taken for granted now began when UEFA and TEAM Marketing AG partnered to rechristen the competition under the new name, along with marketing and TV rights, and a new league format that brought it to the next level. Marseille made up for their '91 loss by winning the first Champions League title and becoming the first French team to lift the Big Ears. But a match fixing scandal, including the club chairman burning the club's financial books, led the club to a spiral-down collapse including the stripping of their French Ligue 1 title and a ban from European play, though they kept their Euro title.

   Milan, Juventus, Dutch side AFC Ajax, German team Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid would win the next several titles in the '90s. In 1997, UEFA extended invitations to runners-up of top European leagues to compete in group play in an effort to enhance the quality of the competition and allowing other big league teams to play on the big stage. Then in 1999, a classic final pitted Bayern Munich against Manchester United, both seeking to complete the Treble of winning the Champions League, their domestic league and top cup competition in the same season. With United down 2-1 in stoppage time, two substitutes - Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, scored two goals in those three added minutes to snatch the European title in dramatic fashion, on the 90th birthday of MANU great Sir Matt Busby, and add to their previous 1968 European Cup triumph.
   The new millennium would see UEFA expand the Champions League format even further in granting the top six nations up to four entries in the competition. Real Madrid would win two UCL titles in three years in 2000 and 2002 (Bayern Munich would make up for their '99 collapse with a 2001 final win), followed by Milan winning again and Porto surprising to win the '04 title under manager Jose Mourinho - later head man at Chelsea. A classic 2005 final went into a shootout and Steven Gerrard and Liverpool beat Milan despite the Italians scoring 52 seconds into the match, giving Liverpool their 5th title and keeping the trophy. Spain returned to the top as Barcelona won the 2006 final, which also saw the first red card given in a European final; then Milan won their 7th European crown a year later.
   The 2008 final became the first all-English affair and as it was for Liverpool in 2005, it went down to penalties in Moscow, and United survived to regain the title. United's chance at back-to-back titles came up short a year later in Rome as Barcelona became the first Spanish team to compete the UCL/La Liga/Copa De Rey treble. Jose Mourinho would again manage a Champions League winning side when he coached Italian side Internazionale to wins over Barcelona, Lyon and Beyern en route to the title. Then in 2011 in a '09 final rematch, Barcelona beat Manchester United once again this time at Wembley for their 3rd title in six seasons. Chelsea finally got the monkey off their back in 2012 in coming from behind to beat Bayern Munich on penalties, then Bayern came back the next year in the first all-German European final with a late 89th minute goal to complete their own treble. And last year, down 1-0 in injury time to their crosstown rivals, Real Madrid scored four straight goals to defeat Atletico Madrid, 4-1 A.E.T. to claim their 10th European Cup/UCL title, a record among all clubs.



NEED TO KNOW...
The UCL campaign begins with 77 total teams from all members of the UEFA Confederation, all with a shot at being the one in the springtime. But the action kicks off in mid-July during the European club offseason with three knockout qualifying rounds and a playoff round. The ten teams who emerge out of the late-summer qualifying will then enter the group stage. Awaiting them are the 22 other teams who qualified in advance by virtue of being either a league champion, or depending upon how strong the country is in continental club play, finishing 2nd, 3rd or 4th in the previous season of their respective domestic league.
   It's the UEFA Coefficient that determines which countries receive anywhere from four to only one entry per country to take part in the entire season. The rankings are determined by how a nation performed in the five previous seasons of Champions League or Europa League play. The higher a country is ranked on the coefficient, the more clubs will be represented in Europe, and the fewer rounds of qualifying a given member association must compete in before entering the group phase. The top three countries in the Coefficient are granted the maximum four, while those ranked 4-6 get three, the rest in the top 15 two, and only one for all other nations. For the 2014-15 season, Spain, England and Germany received four spots; followed by Italy, Portugal and France with three; and Russia and the Netherlands among those getting two UCL spots.
   The ten qualifying places are determined by two separate multi-round qualifying tournaments. Five spots are given to winners of a 4-round qualifying tournament among the 38-39 remaining national champions which includes byes to champs with higher association coefficients. The other bids are given to those who win a 2-round tournament among the 15 non-league champion clubs in the Top 15. Plus, any club who wants to play in the UCL must be licensed by their national association by meeting certain stadium, infrastructure and finance requirements.
   Liverpool in 2006 became the first team to make the group stage after playing in all 3 qualifying rounds, and also were given special exemption to play a year earlier after not finishing in the EPL Top 4 but were defending champions; giving England an unusual 5 entries. New policy now is that if a UCL winner finishes outside their domestic Top 4, they would qualify for next season and not the 4th place team, who goes into the Europa League instead.

After all the qualifying matches take place, then comes the tournament proper that takes place over the course of an NFL season, from September to December. Like the FIFA World Cup, it all begins with the group stage of 32 teams, all divided into eight groups of four in the draw with seeding involved. However, as has historically been the case with NCAA March Madness, UEFA will ensure that teams not from the same nation can't be drawn into groups together. All eight groups play a double round-robin with the 3-1-0 win-draw-loss points system and six overall games. The winners and runners up from each group advance to the next round, while the 3rd-place team enters the Europa League.
   Then after a month's break, the action goes into the Knockout phase in February with the round of 16, again with another draw. The winners of one group play against the runners-up of another group, and once again teams from the same country may not be drawn versus one another in this round. Of course, the eight winning teams proceed into the quarterfinals, where it becomes totally random with no association protection. Unlike the World Cup, all matches in the round of 16 and the quarterfinals, and both semi-finals are played in a two-legged format with one match at one's stadium and the other the next week at the other's ground. This also utilizes the away goals rule, where if the aggregate score of the two matches are tied at the end of the 2nd leg, then the team who scores more goals at their opponent's stadium progresses. If that is also tied, then it goes into the usual procedure of 30 full minutes of extra time and a penalty shootout.

So again, to put this into a nutshell, here's the format once again...
- Tournament begins with the First Qualifying Round with 8 teams featuring 6 champions from associations ranked 47th to 54th.
- Those winners advance to the 34-team Second Qualifying Round with 30 champions from those nations ranked 16-46 with the exception of Liechtenstein, which doesn't have a league system.
- The 17 winners from the 2nd QL join the three champions of associations 13-15 in a champions bracket of the Third Qualifying Round, while 9 runners-up from associations ranked 7th-15th and 1 3rd place team from association 6 in the non-champions round,
- And for the Playoff Round: the 10 winners from the champions bracket play for the right to join the group phase. The 5 non-champion winners from 3rd QR play the two 3rd place teams from the 4th & 5th ranked nations, three 4th place teams from the Top 3 nations and, if necessary, the previous season's Europa League champion. And all of those winners advance to the Group Phase.
- For the Group Phase: those 10 qualifying round survivors join the 12 champions from the Top 12 nations, six runners-up from the Top 6, the three 3rd place teams from the Top 3 and the defending Champions League champion for six games of double round-robin league play in the fall.
- And the winners and runners-up from the group stage advance to the Knockout phase for two-legged matches in the round of 16, quarters and semifinals. And it all leads to that Saturday in May or June, where in the end, the victors go the spoils.



MONEY AND THE PRIZES...AND THAT ANTHEM
Of course these days, television and sponsorship revenue drive professional soccer, and the UEFA Champions League is no exception. As is with the FIFA World Cup and its world championships, multinational corporations share sponsorship of Europe's biggest soccer spectacle. Since its 1992 inception, UEFA has capped the number of UCL sponsors to eight, giving them four advertising boards around the pitch (now in crystal-clear LED), logo placement on the interview boards, tickets for their various clients and, of course, maximum TV commercial exposure. MasterCard, Sony (with PlayStation and its Xperia mobile/tablet brand), Nissan, Russian gas company Gazprom, Italian banker UniCredit, HTC, Adidas and Heineken all serve as main sponsors. In Heineken's case, due to beer sponsorship being frowned upon in Europe, some parts of Spain and other parts of Europe, alternative non-alcoholic hoardings are used in place of the company logo. And only one sponsor is permitted on every jersey of the teams, other than for its manufacturer.
   As mentioned earlier, the competition has rapidly become one of the biggest sports television properties in the world, as it attracts not just a continent-wide TV audience but also worldwide as far as America and Australia. In recent years, the Final has overtaken the Super Bowl here in the U.S. as the most-watched annual sporting event in the world, with the 2013 all-German tilt being watched by a record 360 million viewers worldwide.
   Then, there's that anthem. The UEFA Champions League Anthem was written by Tony Britten, a British composer with an adaptation of a 1700's British Coronation anthem by Handel. He brought together London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestea and the Academy of St. Martin in the a Fields choir to perform it, integrating lyrics of the federation's three official languages: English, French and German. It is played in the background when the teams walk out onto the pitch before every UCL match, and is heard during all match broadcasts on television. And since 2009, it has been brought to the big stage of the UCL Final with it being performed live during the pre-match festivities, including by Andrea Bocelli in Rome in 2009. The full anthem lasts about 3 minutes and of course it gets fans' hearts racing, but it was only recently that it was officially made available commercially for the first time on iTunes.

Last but certainly not least, there's the prizes that await the team who emerges the winners once the final full-time whistle is blown. First, as in other major soccer competitions, the manager, officials and every player receive winner's gold medals; same to the runners-up who receive silver medals. Second, the prize money the teams split is not only good, it's a financial windfall: it ranges from €15,000,000 to the team that wins the title, all the way down to €200,000 for those who win in the 1st Qualifying Round in the summer. And that doesn't put into account the other prize money that comes from sponsors and TV, and the final winners share can easily draw into the €40,000,000 range. Plus, this gives top clubs freedom to attract the best players as well.
   But of course, the attention is paid to the prize the players dream of lifting when it's all over. Its official title is the European Champion Clubs' Cup, but it is known simply as "Big Ears" due to the long length of the trophy's handles. It stands 29 inches tall and weighs 16.5 lbs., and has been the symbol of European supremacy since 1967 when Real Madrid was allowed to keep the original trophy. It used to be that clubs who win the Champions League either five times overall or three years in a row would be given permanent possession of the trophy - Real Madrid, Ajax, Bayern Munich, Milan and Liverpool have earned that honor. But UEFA later changed that policy in keeping the Big Ears in its possession, but would grant teams both a full-sized replica and a special multiple-winner badge. A similar patch signifying the reigning title holders are also used by players on that team.
   It's that great moment that never gets old of a club making their way up those steps that takes them from the pitch through the spectators to the official box to receive their medals and to collect what they have looked to as one of two key goals: be the team that wins the UEFA Champions League Final and earn the right to lift the European Cup on that balcony with the world watching, the UCL anthem playing in the background and confetti raining down on the champions of Europe. It's a feeling so many teams and great players have enjoyed over the years, and it's one of the best moments in sports.


THE 2015 FINAL: JUVENTUS v. BARCELONA
This weekend, Berlin's legendary Olympic Stadium will play host to the 2015 UEFA Champions League Final on the same day that the FIFA Women's World Cup will kick off in Canada. For the very first time, the place Jesse Owens soared to four golds in 1936 and saw Italy lift the World Cup 70 years later will host the centerpiece annual event in world soccer. And there, Italian club Juventus and Spain powerhouse F.C. Barcelona will square off to become the champion of the 60th season of European football's biggest day.
   For Juventus, this is their chance to return the club to European glory after having just won their fourth straight Italian Serie A title (and 31st overall) and their tenth Coppa Italia title, as well as to shake away the memories of a match-fixing scandal that hit the club and Italian football after the country's 2006 triumph. For Barca, they have three of the world's greatest players in Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez, and they've just won both the La Liga title and the Copa Del Rey last week as well. They'll seek to keep the Big Ears in Spain, after it was one by their El Clasico rivals Real Madrid last year.
    For the team who wins on Saturday goes all the glory that comes with becoming champions of Europe. But more importantly, this will determine who will win the eighth European season treble since Gabriel Hanot's idea of a continental club competition became a reality. Scottish club Celtic, Dutch sides Ajax and PSV, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Italian side Internazionale and, yes, Barca in '09 have all won their domestic league, their top cup competition and the Euro Cup/UCL in the same season since Celtic's 1967 feat. An F.C. Barcelona win and they become the first club in European history to achieve the treble twice and solidify their place as one of the best teams, not only in world football but in all of sports. A Juventus upset and they become the eighth different club to achieve the triple crown and regain their place among the giants.
   The answer to that question will await is come in an iconic stadium at 20:45 (8:45 PM) Central European Time, which is 2:45PM Eastern on what will be a Super Soccer Saturday.



Make sure to follow my DC Social Network throughout the summer as I will be staying busy both here on DCBLOG and across my social media platforms. And with the next live tweets of MTV shows not coming until July, all the focus will be on the Summer of Sports.
- First, make sure to follow my secondary twitter account dedicated to live tweets, DCNOW at Twitter @DC408DxNow. There, you'll be front row center with yours truly to that Super Soccer Saturday this weekend with the UEFA Champions League Final in Berlin and the 1st matches of the FIFA Women's World Cup in Canada. Before that, the NBA Finals will tip off in Oakland tomorrow with the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers battle for the title with a star matchup between LeBron James and Stephen Curry. There's also the NHL Stanley Cup Final starting tonight with Chicago and Tampa Bay, and it's only the start with a load of big events throughout the sports world coming up.
DCBLOG will be devoting more and more of this site to covering the upcoming Summer of Sports. In addition to this Champions League post, I plan to finally bring you more posts on the world game right here throughout the Women's World Cup - posts that were planned for last year's event but weren't posted here back then. Posts on the NBA, golf's majors, Wimbledon, the Stanley Cup, poker and much more are planned here over the summer, so be sure to bookmark this site for unique sports coverage brought to you by this great sports fan.
- And if you're an MTV fan, after the WWC I'll be live tweeting season 4-B of Catfish, the revival of America's Best Dance Crew, season 6 of Teen Mom 2 and of course the VMA's. And as it's filming now in Hawaii, it all leads up to the fall's main event for me and some of my fellow MTV fans: Season 3 of Are You The One?. And fellow webcast hosts Andrew Kirk & Brian Cohen will join me to discuss the recent seasons of The Challenge and Real World on a special edition of DC FORUM coming soon.
- And don't forget to follow my primary Twitter handle @DC408Dxtr, my Instagram account also at the same handle, and at Tumblr at dc408dxtr.tumblr.com.

Thanks for checking out this look at the phenomenon that is the UEFA Champions League, all part of the Summer of Sports and just a few days away from Super Soccer Saturday with the Women's World Cup to kick off in Canada after we determine a champion in Germany. Again, make sure to join me for live tweets of both those games on DCNOW this Saturday along with the NBA Finals, Stanley Cup, Belmont Stakes and more in the coming days, along with plenty of blog coverage here
. Until then, thanks for reading, have fun, see you then and talk to you later.

- I AM DC

Acknowledgements: UEFA.com, Wikipedia: UEFA Champions League

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