How does uefa work

The access list explains which teams including some national cup winners entered from which associations and in which rounds, as well as how clubs transferred from the other competitions. There are eight groups of four teams, followed by knockout round play-offs, the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. The eight group winners automatically go through to the last Additional knockout round play-offs will then be played before the round of 16 between the eight group runners-up and the third-ranked teams from the UEFA Europa League groups.

The matches of the two competitions are in principle equally split between the two time slots: CET no longer and CET. Two teams are drawn together for each round of the knockout phase, apart from the final. The teams play two matches, with each squad playing one match at home.

Each match is known as a "leg. The team that scores more goals over the two legs advances to the next round. If the aggregate score is level, the away - goals rule is applied. Therefore, the club that scores more goals away from home over the two legs advances. If away goals are also equal, then extra time an additional 30 minutes is played.

The away - goals rule is again applied after extra time. Therefore, if there are goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score is still level, the visiting team advances by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals are scored during extra time, the winners are decided by a penalty shootout.

In a penalty shootout, the team that scores more penalties in a frame of five attempts wins. If the two teams are still tied after five attempts, they continue to alternate players until one scores their penalty and the other does not.

In the final which is played as a single match in a neutral venue , if the score is level at the end of normal time, extra time is played. If the score is still level after extra time, the winner is decided by a penalty shootout. Watching from the UK? Real Madrid: 13 titles , , , , , , , , , , , , Bayern Munich: 5 titles , , , , Nottingham Forest: 2 titles , In England, the third team in the second-tier Championship plays sixth while fourth faces fifth in two-legged semi-finals, before a one-off final at Wembley to determine the third promoted team.

In Spain, both semi-finals and the final consist of two legs. In Italy, teams third through eighth in Serie B enter the play-offs. Fifth plays eighth and sixth hosts seventh over one leg. The winners then face a two-legged clash with either third or fourth, with the victors of those semi-finals contesting a two-legged final.

Similar patterns are found throughout the continent, and play-offs are usually seen as end-of-season highlights before the summer break. While the MLS Cup is what decides the league's champion at the end of the regular season and play-offs, European cup competitions are nothing to do with the domestic leagues. The limit of a league's involvement in a cup is often at what stage certain teams enter the draw, or who they can be drawn against.

National cups are predominantly run by the national association, who nowadays tend to no longer run the top domestic leagues. Below the third tier, regional associations organize leagues under the umbrella of the DFB.

The national cup holds great prestige for teams and has often been in existence longer than the league system. Cups are usually knockout tournaments over one or two legs, culminating in an end-of-season final. The winners are often also rewarded with European qualification if not already achieved through their league position more on that later.

A team that wins both the top division and cup in their country is said to have won the domestic double. In Germany this has happened 16 times, with Bayern Munich completing a league and cup double on 11 occasions. Three trophies is a treble, four a quadruple and so on. There are sometimes also secondary cups. A league cup, organized by the league association, was once common but has started to fall out of fashion.

There are also cups available solely to teams outside of the top division s , or regional cups, often for non-professional clubs. Eligibility for these competitions, though, is as linked as leagues get to most cups.

And a special mention again to Liechtenstein. Although its teams compete in the Swiss league system, it does have its own domestic cup competition, allowing clubs from one of the world's two doubly landlocked countries a chance to compete in the Europa League under their national flag. That is different from AS Monaco, though. Monaco is an independent nation but — due to its size — it has no professional domestic league or cup. This means that the club plays in the French system and represents France in Europe.

It refers to being able to compete in one of the continental club competitions organized by UEFA. This does not include the European Championship, known as the Euros, which is for national teams.

These will be joined in by the Europa Conference League as the third tier of European club football. This is not to be confused with a domestic pyramid structure. There is no promotion or relegation between these leagues. Participation is based on the team's performances the previous season. Qualification for these competitions is primarily decided by domestic league positions, although domestic cup competitions also usually offer a route into Europe. All this, however, depends on a country's UEFA coefficient.

This is a ranking based on the performances of clubs from each league in European competition over a set period. The higher ranked a league is, the more European qualification berths they're allotted. Some of these berths earn teams the right to go straight into the competition itself, beginning in the group stage.

Others still have to go through qualifying — consisting of up to five rounds — to reach that stage. So qualification for Europe sometimes means qualifying for the chance to qualify for Europe. For the Champions League, the base ruling is that the holders and previous Europa League winners are joined by the champions of the top 10 ranked nations, the six runners-up from the top six, and the third and fourth-placed teams from the top four.

Should the holders of the two European competitions already qualify via their league position, that opens up the opportunity for an extra club from another league to gain automatic entry.