In addition to the familiar domestic leagues (such as the five major European leagues), football has a wide popularity, and each continent will also hold its own continental cup. The most famous and recognized is the annual Champions League, under the Europa League (also known as Europa), UEFA added the third tier of the European Club Cup, other continents are the Asian Champions League in Asia, the Copa Libertadores in South America, the CONCACAF League Champions, the African Football Championship, and the Oceania League in Oceania. Finally, there is the collection of champions from all continents, the Club World Cup.
The most familiar and recognized Champions League is the tournament that brings together UEFA's national leagues, including the five major leagues, the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1. The earliest was the 1955-56 season, when Real Madrid won five consecutive titles, and Real Madrid were the most successful team in the history of the Champions League, together with the previous three consecutive titles, they won a total of 14 titles, seven times more than second-placed AC Milan.
The Europa League is similar to the Champions League, except that it is played for teams lower in the league rankings, such as 5-6 in the four major leagues, and there were 48 teams participating in the group stage. UEFA's next conference league in 2021-22 is the third tier European competition after the Champions League and Europa League. At least one of the 55 UEFA member associations will be able to participate, and teams that have been eliminated from the Champions League and Europa League play-offs or group stage will also move to the UEFA Cup.
However, the European competition will be restructured in the 2024-25 season, and the three major European competitions will be expanded from the current 32 teams to 36 teams, and the format will no longer be the current group stage method, but will become more complex than the format known as the Swiss system. What we are currently seeing is to divide the 36 teams into four brackets, first draw 2 teams from the first gear to play 2 games, draw 3 teams from the second and third pots to play 6 games, and then draw 2 teams from the fourth gear to play 2 games, for a total of 10 group games, playing a single round-robin match.
For the second pot team, 3 teams are drawn from the first gear to play 3 games; Two teams from the second and third pots each play 4 games, and 3 teams from the fourth pot play 3 games, the same 10 group games. After 10 rounds, the top 8 in points reach the last 16 of the Champions League. The 25th to 36th places go to the Europa League, while the 8th to 24th places play a two-legged play-off to compete for the other eight places in the round of 16.