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UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club football competition organized by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the best team in Europe. It is the most prestigious club competition in European football, played by the national league champions (and, for some nations, one or more runners-up) of the strongest UEFA national associations.

Introduced in 1955 as the European champions clubs’ cup, more commonly known as the European Cup, it was initially a straight knockout tournament open only to the champion club of each national championship. The competition took on its current name in 1992, adding a round-robin group stage and allowing multiple entrants from certain countries.

It has since been expanded, and while most of Europe’s national leagues can still only enter their champion, the strongest leagues now provide up to five teams. Clubs that finish next-in-line in their national league, having not qualified for the Champions League, are eligible for the second-tier UEFA Europa League competition.

Beginning in 2021, UEFA will hold a third-tier completion called UEFA Europa League 2, which will be composed of teams not eligible for the UEFA Europa League. In its present format, the Champions League begins in late June with 2 preliminary rounds, 4 knockout qualifying rounds and a play-off round.

The 6 surviving teams enter the group stage, joining 26 teams qualified in advance. The 32 teams are drawn into eight groups of for teams and play each other in a double round-robin system. The eight group winners and eight runners-up proceed to the Knockout phase that culminates with the final match in late May or early June.

The winner of the Champions League qualifies for the following year’s Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. The competition has been won by 22 clubs, 12 of which have won it more than once. Real Madrid is the most successful club in the tournament’s history, having won it 13 times, including its first five seasons.

Liverpool are the reigning champions, having beaten Tottenham Hotspurs 2-0 in the 2019 final. Spanish clubs have the highest number of victory (18 wins), followed by England (13 wins) and Italy (12 wins). England has the largest number of winning teams, with five clubs having won the tittle

The Ballon d’Or (French pronunciation “Golden Ball”) is an annual football award presented by France Football. It has been awarded since 1956, although between 2010 and 2015, an agreement was made with FIFA and the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the year, and known as the FIFA Ballon d’Or.

However, the partnership ended in 2016 and the award was reverted back to Ballon d’Or, while FIFA also reverted to its own separate annual award (now named The Best FIFA Men’s Player). The Ballon d’Or award honours the male player deemed to have performed the best over the previous year, based on voting by football journalists.

Originally it was an award for the players from Europe. In 1995 the Ballon d’Or was expanded to include all players from any origin that have been active at European clubs. The award became global prize in 2007 with all professional footballers from around the world being eligible.

Stanley Matthews of Blackpool was the inaugural winner of the Ballon d’Or. Prior to 1995, the award was often known in English language as the European Footballer of the Year award. Milan’s George Weah, the only African recipient, became the first non-European to win the award. Ronaldo of Inter Milan became the first South American winner two years later.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have won the award a record of five times each. Three players have won the award three times each: Johan Cruyff of Ajax and Barcelona, Michel Platini of Juventus and Marco Van Basten of Milan. With seven awards each, Dutch, German and Portuguese players won the most Ballons d’Or.

Only Germany (1972) and the Netherlands (1988) took all three top spots in one year. Two Spanish clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid share top for employing the most winners, with eleven wins each. Between 2010 and 2015 inclusive, the award was emerged with a similar one, the FIFA World Player of the Year award, to create the FIFA Ballon d’Or, which was awarded to the world’s best male player before FIFA and France Football broke the merging agreement.

After 2011, UEFA created the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award to maintain the format of the original Ballon d’Or. Eight players (Bobby Charlton, Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Muller, Paolo Rossi, Zinedine Zidane, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Kaka) have won the FIFA World Cup, the European Cup/UEFA Champions League and the Ballon d’Or during their careers.

The origin of the African Cup dates from June 1956, when the creation of the Confederation of African Football was proposed during the third FIFA congress in Lisbon. There were immediate plans for a continental tournament to be held and, in February 1957, the first African Cup of Nations was held in Khartoum, Sudan.

There was no qualification for this tournament, the field being made up of the four founding nations of CAF (Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia and South Africa). South Africa’s insistence on selecting only white players for their squad due to its apartheid policy led to its disqualification, and as a consequence Ethiopia were handed a bye straight to the final.

Since then, the tournament has grown greatly, making it necessary to hold a qualifying tournament. The number of participants in the final tournament reached 16 in 1998 (16 teams were to compete in 1996 but Nigeria withdrew, reducing the fields to 15).

The same happened with Togo’s withdrawal in 2010, and until 2017, the format had been unchanged, with the sixteen teams being drawn into four groups of four teams each, with the top two teams advancing to a “knock-out” stage. On 20 July 2017, the Africa Cup of Nations was moved from January to June and expanded from 16 to 24 teams.

Egypt is the most successful nation in the cup’s history, winning the tournament a record of seven times (including when Egypt was known as the United Arab Republic between 1958 and 1961). Three different trophies have been awarded during the tournament’s history, with Ghana and Cameroon winning the two versions to keep after each of them won a tournament three times.

The current trophy was first awarded in 2002 and with Egypt winning it indefinitely after winning their unprecedented third consecutive title in 2010. As of 2013, the tournament was switched to being held in odd-numbered years so as not to clash with the FIFA World Cup

The premier League (often referred to as the English Premier League (EPL) outside England) is the top level of the English football league system contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football League (EFL). Seasons runs from August to May with each team playing 38 matches (playing all 19 other teams both home and away).

English Premier league was founded on 20^th February, 1992; 27 years ago. In the opening season of 1992/93, 22 clubs competed in the competition, with Brian Deane of Sheffield United scoring the first goal in what was known at that time as the FA premier League. The premier league is a corporation in which the member clubs act as shareholders.

The inaugural members of the Premier League were: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, Coventry City, Crystal Palace, Everton, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Oldham Athletic, Queens Park Rangers, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspurs, and Wimbledon.

At the end of each season, the bottom three clubs are relegated, with three promoted clubs from the Football League’s Championship replacing them. The only exception to this was in the 1994/95 season when the league decided to reduce the number of clubs to 20. As a result, Crystal palace joined Norwich, Leicester City and Ipswich being relegated from the premier league at the end of the season.

A total of 49 clubs have played in the Premier League since its inception, with Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspurs participating in every campaign to date. The premier league ranks second in the EUFA coefficients of leagues based on performances in European competitions over the past five seasons.

Forty-nine clubs have competed since the inception of the premier league in 1992. Six of them have won the title since then: Manchester united (13), Chelsea (5), Manchester City (4), Arsenal (3), Blackburn Rovers (1), Leicester City (1). The record of most points in a premier league season is 100, set by Manchester City in 2017-18.