TheSportsCampus

Europe's most prestigious football club competition kicks-off this Tuesday as 32 of the best teams from around the continent compete to be crowned Champions. Originally created in 1955-56 as the European Champion Clubs' Cup, the current avatar of the competition has gone by the name UEFA Champions League since 1992.

Nine clubs competing in the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League were involved in the competition when it started during the 1992/93 season. Olympique de Marseille were champions, defeating AC Milan in the final, while FC Porto, Rangers and CSKA Moskva all participated in the group stage. In addition Barcelona, APOEL FC, BeÅŸiktaÅŸ and VfB Stuttgart were knocked out in the two rounds precedin g the group stage that marked the competition proper.

On 27th August, the 32 teams in this year's event were divided into eight groups of four with Clubs from the same country kept away from each other for the first stage of the competition. Each club plays one home and one away match against each other club in its group, with three points awarded for a win, one point for a draw and no points for a defeat.

The eight group winners and eight runners-up of the group stage qualify for the first knockout round, to be played over two legs on 16/17/23/24 February and 9/10/16/17 March 2010. The clubs that finish this stage in third position in their group move into the round of 32 of the UEFA Europa League. The clubs that finish this stage in fourth position in their group are eliminated from UEFA club competition for the season.

This season's competition features 18 domestic league winners from last season, with Group F featuring four titleholders (Barcelona, Internazionale Milano, Dynamo Kyiv, Rubin Kazan) and Groups B (Manchester United, Beşiktaş JK, VfL Wolfsburg) and H (AZ Alkmaar, Olympiacos, R. Standard de Liège) three each.

Manchester United have extended their consecutive participation in the UEFA Champions League to 14, a record in the competition while Real Madrid are making their 13th successive appearance, one ahead of Arsenal. In qualifying for the 2006/07 knockout stage, Real Madrid surpassed Manchester United's record of nine consecutive seasons (which ended in 2005/06) in advancing past the group stage, a record the Spanish side stretched to 12 last season. Madrid have featured in the knockout phase every time since the 1996/97 campaign and have won the competition three times in the last eleven years. However, in the last five seasons their interest in the competition has ended at the first knockout round.

APOEL , Debreceni VSC, FC Zürich, Wolfsburg, AZ Alkmaar, Rubin Kazan, Standard and AFC Unirea Urziceni are all making their debuts in the competition, and are unlikely to follow in Juventus' (1995/96) footsteps of winning the competition on debut. The Italian giants were only the third club to achieve this following Marseille (1992/93, first UEFA Champions League final) and AFC Ajax (1994/95).

Here's a look at the fixtures on Matchweek 1:

Tuesday 15 September 2009

Group A
Juventus v Girondins de Bordeaux, Stadio Olimpico, Turin
Maccabi Haifa v Bayern München, Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv

Group B
VfL Wolfsburg v CSKA Moskva, VfL Wolfsburg Arena, Wolfsburg
Beşiktaş JK v Manchester United, Inönü, Istanbul

Group C
FC Zürich v Real Madrid, Letzigrund, Zurich
Olympique de Marseille v AC Milan, Vélodrome, Marseille

Group D
Chelsea v FC Porto, Stamford Bridge, London
Club Atlético de Madrid v APOEL FC, Vicente Calderón, Madrid

Wednesday 16 September 2009

Group E
Liverpool v Debreceni VSC, Anfield, Liverpool
Olympique Lyonnais v Fiorentina, Stade de Gerland, Lyon

Group F
Internazionale Milano v Barcelona, Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan
Dynamo Kyiv v Rubin Kazan, Valeriy Lobanovskiy, Kyiv

Group G
VfB Stuttgart v Rangers, VfB Arena, Stuttgart
Sevilla v Unirea Urziceni, Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán, Sevilla

Group H
Olympiacos v AZ Alkmaar, Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium, Athens
R. Standard de Liège v Arsenal, Maurice Dufrasne, Liege

File Photograph copyright: Ryu Voelkel