Clubs with the Most Titles in the UEFA Champions League History

Clubs with the Most Titles in the UEFA Champions League History

The UEFA Champions League is the world’s elite club competition, and it is an annual club football competition organized by the Union of European Football Associations and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competition winners through a round robin group stage to qualify for a double-legged knockout format and a single leg final.

The Champions League is Big Business

The uefachampionsleague official website have it that the total revenue of the UEFA Champions League amounted to 2.8 billion euros during the 2020/21 season, a significant jump from the revenue of just under 1.1 billion euros in the 2009/10 season. With the UEFA Champions League competition being one of the most popular in the world, the rights to broadcast the games are unsurprisingly worth a lot of money.

According to the UEFA statistic, it is claimed that in 2020/21 season, the competition generated revenue of approximately 2.39 billion euros in broadcasting rights and a further 401.5 million euros from commercial rights. While football competition still has a long way to go to reach the popularity of traditional sports such as American Football and basketball in the United States, it appears that interest in the sport is starting to grow. Over two million U.S. viewers tuned into the Champions League final in 2021, an increase from 1.51 million in 2019.

Real Madrid’s European Dominance

The La Liga heavyweight club Real Madrid claimed the current title of the 2021/22 Champions League and is by far the most successful club in European Cup history, having taken home the prestigious trophy a total of 14 times. Real Madrid’s closest rivals in terms of titles are AC Milan, who have won the Champions League seven times, most recently in 2007 against Liverpool.

Real Madrid beat Liverpool to extend its Champions League reign to 14 times in Paris on Saturday. Only two English clubs, Liverpool (six) and Manchester United (three), have more Champions League titles than the Blues. However, Real Madrid remains the undisputed champion of Europe with 13 titles.

The history of football has it that Real Madrid have dominated the Champions League in recent years and took home the trophy four out of five times between 2013 and 2018. But nevertheless, the Los Blancos only failure came during the 2015 season when they were knocked out by Juventus in the semi-finals, with bitter rivals Barcelona ultimately lifting the trophy. Real Madrid having won the trophy in 2018, there were high hopes for the reigning champions in 2019.

However, the recorded statistics have it that Real Madrid were knocked out by underdogs, Ajax, in the quarter final stage of the competition, marking their earliest exit from Europe for nine years. Since then, their dry spell continued in the ensuing two seasons (2019/20 and 2020/21), failing to make the final on both occasions, yet in 2021/22 they reclaimed their throne as champions.

Out of the teams that will be mentioned below, the closest team to Real Madrid with seven titles is AC Milan, a team with  a rich European legacy but has been absent from the competition for a few seasons. Nevertheless, AC Milan will be back in Europe’s premier club competition next season as it won the Serie A this campaign.

Beside that, representing England and Germany among the heavyweights are Liverpool and Bayern Munich with six titles each.

Clubs with the Most Titles in the UEFA Champions League History