The UEFA Champions League, which evolved from the European Champion Clubs' Cup, is a seasonal club football (soccer) competition organised by UEFA since 1992 (or overall in its older format since 1955) for the most successful football clubs in Europe. The prize, the European Champion Clubs' Cup (more commonly known as the European Cup), is one of the most prestigious club trophies in the sport. The UEFA Champions League is separate from the UEFA Cup.

The tournament consists of several stages. In the present format it begins in mid-July with three preliminary knockout qualifying rounds. The 16 surviving teams join 16 seeded teams in a group stage. Eight group winners and eight runners-up enter the final knockout rounds, which end with the final match in May. Previously only the champions of their respective national league could participate in the competition; however, this was changed in 1997 to allow the runners-up of the stronger leagues to compete as well.

As of 2008, the title has been held by 21 different clubs, 12 of which have won the title more than once. The all-time record-holder is Real Madrid with their nine wins.

FC Barcelona, Manchester United (Manchester United Posters), and FC Porto are the teams that have appeared most often in the group stages: thirteen each. FC Porto and Barcelona have only won the tournament once each since the establishment of the Group stages (2004 and 2006 respectively), whilst Manchester United have won it twice in 1999 and 2008.

Winning clubs are as follows: Milan (7), Juventus (2), Internazionale (2), Real Madrid (9), Barcelona (2), Liverpool (5), Manchester United (3), Nottingham Forest (2), Aston Villa (1), Bayern Munich (4), Borussia Dortmund (1), Hamburg (1), Ajax (4), PSV (1), Feyenoord (1), Benfica (2), Porto (2), Marseille (1), Steaua (1), Red Star Belgrade (1), Celtic (1).

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The competition attracts a huge television audience, not just in Europe, but throughout the world. The matches are broadcast in over 70 countries in more than 40 languages each year, and some important matches can attract over 200 million TV audience, often considered as one of the most watched sports events on TV.