UEFA Women's Champions League

Last updated

UEFA Women's Champions League
UEFA Women's Champions League logo (2021).svg
Organiser(s) UEFA
Founded2001;24 years ago (2001)
Region Europe
TeamsLeague phase: 18
Total: 74
Qualifier for FIFA Women's Club World Cup (proposed)
FIFA Women's Champions Cup (proposed)
Related competitions UEFA Women's Europa Cup (2nd tier)
Current champions Flag of England.svg Arsenal (2nd title)
Most championships Flag of France.svg Lyon (8 titles)
Broadcasters List of broadcasters
Website Official website
Soccerball current event.svg 2025–26 UEFA Women's Champions League

The UEFA Women's Champions League (UWCL), previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA.

Contents

Winners
SeasonUEFA Women's Cup
2001–02 Flag of Germany.svg Frankfurt
2002–03 Flag of Sweden.svg Umeå
2003–04 Flag of Sweden.svg Umeå  (2)
2004–05 Flag of Germany.svg Turbine Potsdam
2005–06 Flag of Germany.svg Frankfurt  (2)
2006–07 Flag of England.svg Arsenal
2007–08 Flag of Germany.svg Frankfurt  (3)
2008–09 Flag of Germany.svg FCR Duisburg
SeasonUEFA Women Champions League
2009–10 Flag of Germany.svg Turbine Potsdam  (2)
2010–11 Flag of France (lighter variant).svg Lyon
2011–12 Flag of France (lighter variant).svg Lyon  (2)
2012–13 Flag of Germany.svg VfL Wolfsburg
2013–14 Flag of Germany.svg VfL Wolfsburg  (2)
2014–15 Flag of Germany.svg Frankfurt  (4)
2015–16 Flag of France (lighter variant).svg Lyon  (3)
2016–17 Flag of France (lighter variant).svg Lyon  (4)
2017–18 Flag of France (lighter variant).svg Lyon  (5)
2018–19 Flag of France (lighter variant).svg Lyon  (6)
2019–20 Flag of France (lighter variant).svg Lyon  (7)
2020–21 Flag of Spain.svg Barcelona
2021–22 Flag of France (lighter variant).svg Lyon  (8)
2022–23 Flag of Spain.svg Barcelona  (2)
2023–24 Flag of Spain.svg Barcelona  (3)
2024–25 Flag of England.svg Arsenal  (2)
2025–26

The competition was first played in 2001–02 under the name UEFA Women's Cup, and renamed the Champions League for the 2009–10 edition. The most significant changes in 2009 were the inclusion of runners-up from the top eight ranked nations, a one-off final as opposed to the two-legged finals in previous years, and – until 2018 – playing the final in the same city as the men's UEFA Champions League final. In the 2021–22 season, the competition proper included a group stage for the first time in the Women's Champions League era, which evolved into a league phase from the 2025–26 season onward. [1]

Lyon is the most successful club in the competition's history, winning the title eight times, including five consecutive titles from 2016 to 2020. Arsenal are the current defending champions, having beaten Barcelona in the 2025 final.

Format

UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009)

For the tournament's first three editions, a preliminary round was first played to reduce teams to 32. Starting in the second season, this stage grouped teams into mini-tournaments of four teams, whose winners advanced to the second qualifying round, sometimes called the group stage. The group stage was eight groups of four, each group held as a round-robin in a single country, whose winners advanced to the quarter-finals.

From the 2004–05 season, the first qualifying stage was expanded to 9 groups of 4, again playing a round-robin in a single location. Seven teams got a bye to the group stage. (in 2007–08, it was 10 groups of 4, advancing winners plus one runner-up, with 5 teams getting a bye). The group stage was then played among only 16 teams in four groups of four, each group in a single host country, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the quarter-finals.

The knock-out rounds were played as two-legged home-and-home matches, including the final (except for the first final).

Champions League (2009–2021)

On 11 December 2008, UEFA announced that the competition would be reformatted and renamed to the UEFA Women's Champions League beginning with the 2009–10 season. [2] As in the men's game, the new tournament aimed to include runners-up of the top women's football leagues in Europe. [3]

The competition was opened to the champions of all 55 UEFA associations that had a qualifying women's league. Due to the varying participation, the number of teams playing the qualifying round changed from year to year. [4] Numbers were based on three principles:

Competition from the Round of 32 onwards would be in the form of home-and-home pairings using the away goals rule, except for the single-legged final.

Minor adjustments

When the new format was initially announced, the eight top countries according to the UEFA league coefficient were awarded two places in the league, [3] with runners-up participating in the qualifying rounds.

For the 2011–12 tournament, the runners-up from the top eight nations instead qualified directly to the round of 32. For the five years under this format, seven nations remained in the top eight: Germany, Sweden, England, France, Denmark, Russia, and Italy. A different nation provided the eighth runners-up in each of the five years: Iceland, Norway, Austria, Czech Republic, [5] and Spain. [6]

The tournament was expanded for the 2016–17 season, with the runners-up from nations 9–12 in UEFA league coefficient also qualifying. For the first three years under this format, the four nations in these slots were Czech Republic, Austria, Scotland, and Norway. For the 2019–20 season, Switzerland replaced Norway, and for the final season under this format, Norway, Kazakhstan, and The Netherlands replaced Russia, Scotland, and Austria in the top 12.

In all 11 editions of the competition under this general format, qualifying rounds consisted of between 7 and 10 groups-of-4, advancing qualifying-group winners plus 0-2 top-ranked runners-up, varying year to year based on team counts. The number of teams entering at the round of 32 also varied slightly, between 20 and 25.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced a slight restructuring of the 2019–20 and 2020–21 competitions. At the start of the pandemic the round of 16 had been completed; the quarter-finals and on were delayed and eventually played as single-legged matches in the summer of 2020. The qualifying rounds of the 2020–21 competition switched to single-legged matches, with 20 pairings of teams in the first round and 10 pairings in the second round, the winners joining 22 top teams in the round of 32, which was normal from that point on aside from most matches being played behind closed doors.

Champions League (2021–2025)

On 4 December 2019, a new format was announced starting with the 2021–22 season. [7] The top six associations entered three teams, associations ranked 7–16 entered two, and the remaining associations entered one. The competition is restructured to appear more similar to the men's CL format, with a double-round-robin group stage, and two paths through the qualifiers (a champions path and a non-champions path) for teams that do not automatically qualify for the group stage. UEFA also centralized the media rights from the group stage onward. [8]

Teams entering in this roundTeams advancing from the previous round
First round
August
Champions Path
(44 teams)
  • 44 champions from associations 7–50
League Path
(16 teams)
  • 10 runners-up from associations 7–16
  • 6 third-place teams from associations 1–6
Second round
Aug/Sept
Champions Path
(14 teams)
  • 3 champions from associations 4–6
  • 11 final winners from the first round (Champions Path)
League Path
(10 teams)
  • 6 runners-up from associations 1–6
  • 4 final winners from the first round (League Path)
Group stage
(16 teams)
Oct/Nov/Dec
  • UEFA Women's Champions League title holder
  • 3 champions from associations 1–3
  • 7 winners from the second round (Champions Path)
  • 5 winners from the second round (League Path)
Knockout phase
(8 teams)
Mar/Apr/May
  • 4 group winners from the group stage
  • 4 group runners-up from the group stage

Champions League (2025–present)

On 4 December 2023, a new format was announced starting with the 2025–26 season. [1] The top seven associations enter three teams, associations ranked 8–17 enter two, and the remaining associations enter one. The competition is restructured to appear more similar to the men's CL format, with a Swiss-system 'league phase' consisting of 6 games against 6 different opponents (3 home and 3 away), and two paths (a champions path and a non-champions path) for teams that do not automatically qualify for the league stage.

Provisional access list [9]
Teams entering in this roundTeams advancing from the previous round
First roundChampions path
(24 teams)
  • 24 champions from associations 29–52
Second roundChampions path
(28 teams)
  • 22 champions from associations 7–28
  • 6 mini-tournament winners from the first round
League path
(16 teams)
  • 12 runners-up from associations 6–17
  • 4 third-placed teams from associations 4–7
Third roundChampions path
(8 teams)
  • 7 mini-tournament winners from the second round
League path
(10 teams)
  • 3 runners-up from associations 3–5
  • 3 third-placed teams from associations 1–3
  • 4 mini-tournament winners from the second round
League phase
(18 teams)
  • UEFA Women's Champions League title holder
  • 6 champions from associations 1–6
  • 2 runners-up from associations 1–2
  • 4 winners from the third round (Champions Path)
  • 5 winners from the third round (League Path)
Preliminary knockout round
(8 teams)
  • 8 teams ranked 5–12 from the league phase
Knockout phase
(8 teams)
  • 4 winners from the previous play-off
  • 4 teams ranked 1–4 from the league phase

Prize money

Prize-money was awarded for a first time in 2010, when both finalists received money. In 2011 the payments were extended to losing semi- and quarter-finalists. [10] In these earlier years, teams sometimes complained about the sum, which did not cover costs for some longer trips. [11] The 2021–22 Women's Champions League introduced a 16-team group stage to the competition, and with it a vastly expanded prize pool of €24M total. Of that pool, €5.6M (23%) would be used for solidarity payments to non-participating clubs of participating countries, to provide funding for development. €7M (29%) would be reserved for the qualifying rounds (some of which is travel subsidies for clubs traveling long distances), and the €11.5M remainder (48%) would be for clubs reaching the group stage and later. [12]

For the main portion of the competition, UEFA announced that each group-stage participant would receive a minimum of €400,000 (about five times as much as Round of 16 participants received in previous editions). The winner of the tournament could earn up to €1.4 million (depending on its results in the group stage). [13] [14] With the move to a league phase for the 2025–26 competition, the prize-money structure for the competition proper is now as follows: [15]

This is in addition to any money teams may receive for participating in the qualifying rounds, and each stage's prize is cumulative.

Sponsorship

Until the 2015–18 cycle, UEFA Women's Champions League used to have the same sponsors as the UEFA Champions League. Since 2018, women's football competitions such as the Champions League have separate sponsors. [16] The tournament has centralised rights: in the group stage, only some assets and the official ball are centralised, while in knock-out rounds, UEFA started allowing only a few club sponsors, alongside the ones who are official. [17]

As of 2024, official sponsors are:

Records and statistics

Winners

Performances in the UEFA Women's Cup and UEFA Women's Champions League by club
ClubTitlesRunners-upSeasons wonSeasons runner-up
Flag of France.svg Lyon 83 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022 2010, 2013, 2024
Flag of Germany.svg Eintracht Frankfurt 42 2002, 2006, 2008, 2015 2004, 2012
Flag of Spain.svg Barcelona 33 2021, 2023, 2024 2019, 2022, 2025
Flag of Germany.svg VfL Wolfsburg 24 2013, 2014 2016, 2018, 2020, 2023
Flag of Sweden.svg Umeå 23 2003, 2004 2002, 2007, 2008
Flag of Germany.svg Turbine Potsdam 22 2005, 2010 2006, 2011
Flag of England.svg Arsenal 20 2007, 2025
Flag of Germany.svg FCR Duisburg 10 2009
Flag of France.svg Paris Saint-Germain 02 2015, 2017
Flag of Denmark.svg Fortuna Hjørring 01 2003
Flag of Sweden.svg Djurgården 01 2005
Flag of Russia.svg Zvezda Perm 01 2009
Flag of Sweden.svg Tyresö 01 2014
Flag of England.svg Chelsea 01 2021

By nation

NationWinnersRunners-upSemi-finalistsWinnerRunners-upSemi-finalists
Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 9810
Flag of France.svg  France 8510
Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 332
Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden 254
Flag of England.svg  England 2113
Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark 013
Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 010
Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 002
Flag of Finland.svg  Finland 001
Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 001

During the first Champions League era with no group stage (2009–2021), only one team from a nation outside the top two (France and Germany) won the title: Barcelona in 2021. Three teams from nations outside the top two nations finished runner-up: Tyresö in 2014, Barcelona in 2019 and Chelsea in 2021. Also during that era, only two teams from a nation outside the top four (then France, Germany, Sweden, and England) ever made the semi-finals: Brøndby in 2015 and Barcelona in four of the last five years under that format.

Top scorers by tournament

The top scorer award is given to the player who scores the most goals in the competition. Up until the introduction of the Champions League Group Stage it included the qualifying rounds. Since 2021–22, only goals from the group stage onwards count towards the award.

Iceland's Margrét Lára Vidarsdóttir has won the award three times. Ada Hegerberg holds the record for most goals in a season.

SeasonTop scorer(s) (Club)Goals
2001–02 Flag of Romania.svg Gabriela Enache (FC Codru Anenii Noi)12
2002–03 Flag of Sweden.svg Hanna Ljungberg (Umeå IK)10
2003–04 Flag of Austria.svg Maria Gstöttner (SV Neulengbach)11
2004–05 Flag of Germany.svg Conny Pohlers (1. FFC Turbine Potsdam)14
2005–06 Flag of Iceland.svg Margrét Lára Viðarsdóttir (Valur Reykjavík)11
2006–07 Flag of Scotland.svg Julie Fleeting (Arsenal LFC)9
2007–08 Flag of Ukraine.svg Vira Dyatel (Zhilstroy-1 Karkhiv)
Flag of Italy.svg Patrizia Panico (ASD CF Bardolino Verona)
Flag of Iceland.svg Margrét Lára Viðarsdóttir (Valur Reykjavík)
9
2008–09 Flag of Iceland.svg Margrét Lára Viðarsdóttir (Valur Reykjavík)14
2009–10 Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Vanessa Bürki (FC Bayern München)11
2010–11 Flag of Germany.svg Inka Grings (FCR 2001 Duisburg)13
2011–12 Flag of France.svg Camille Abily (Olympique Lyonnais)
Flag of France.svg Eugénie Le Sommer (Olympique Lyonnais)
9
2012–13 Flag of Romania.svg Laura Rus (Apollon Limassol)11
2013–14 Flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina.svg Milena Nikolić (ŽFK Spartak)11
2014–15 Flag of Germany.svg Célia Šašić (Frankfurt)14
2015–16 Flag of Norway.svg Ada Hegerberg (Olympique Lyonnais)13
2016–17 Flag of Hungary.svg Zsanett Jakabfi (VfL Wolfsburg)
Flag of the Netherlands.svg Vivianne Miedema (FC Bayern Munich)
8
2017–18 Flag of Norway.svg Ada Hegerberg (Olympique Lyonnais)15
2018–19 Flag of Denmark.svg Pernille Harder (VfL Wolfsburg)8
2019–20 Flag of the Netherlands.svg Vivianne Miedema (Arsenal)
Flag of Nigeria.svg Emueje Ogbiagbevha (Minsk)
Flag of Iceland.svg Berglind Björg Þorvaldsdóttir (Breiðablik)
10
2020–21 Flag of Spain.svg Jenni Hermoso (Barcelona)
Flag of England.svg Fran Kirby (Chelsea)
6
2021–22 Flag of Spain.svg Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)11
2022–23 Flag of Poland.svg Ewa Pajor (VfL Wolfsburg)9
2023–24 Flag of France.svg Kadidiatou Diani (Olympique Lyonnais)8
2024–25 Flag of Spain.svg Clàudia Pina (Barcelona)10

All-time top scorers

As of 26 March 2025 [29] Bold players still active.
RankTopscorerGoalsClubs
1 Flag of Norway.svg Ada Hegerberg 66 Stabæk, Turbine Potsdam, Olympique Lyon
2 Flag of Germany.svg Anja Mittag 51 Turbine Potsdam, FC Rosengård, Paris Saint-Germain, Wolfsburg
3 Flag of France.svg Eugénie Le Sommer 50 Olympique Lyon
4 Flag of Germany.svg Conny Pohlers 48 Turbine Potsdam, 1. FFC Frankfurt, Wolfsburg
5 Flag of Brazil.svg Marta 46 Umeå IK, Tyresö FF, FC Rosengård
6 Flag of France.svg Camille Abily 43 Montpellier, Olympique Lyon
Flag of Scotland.svg Kim Little 43 Hibernian, Arsenal
8 Flag of Sweden.svg Lotta Schelin 42 Olympique Lyon, FC Rosengård
9 Flag of Denmark.svg Pernille Harder 41 Linköping, Wolfsburg, Chelsea, Bayern Munich
10 Flag of Austria.svg Nina Burger 40 SV Neulengbach

Awards

Player of the Season

Starting from the 2021–22 edition, UEFA introduced the UEFA Women's Champions League Player of the Season award.

The jury is composed of the coaches of the clubs that participated in the group stage of the competition, as well as journalists selected by the European Sports Media (ESM) group.

SeasonPlayerClub
UEFA Women's Champions League Player of the Season
2021–22 Flag of Spain.svg Alexia Putellas Flag of Spain.svg Barcelona
2022–23 Flag of Spain.svg Aitana Bonmatí Flag of Spain.svg Barcelona
2023–24 Flag of Spain.svg Aitana Bonmatí Flag of Spain.svg Barcelona
2024–25 Flag of Spain.svg Aitana Bonmatí Flag of Spain.svg Barcelona

Young Player of the Season

In the same season, UEFA also introduced the UEFA Women's Champions League Young Player of the Season award.

SeasonPlayerClub
UEFA Women's Champions League Young Player of the Season
2021–22 Flag of France.svg Selma Bacha Flag of France.svg Lyon
2022–23 Flag of Germany.svg Lena Oberdorf Flag of Germany.svg VfL Wolfsburg
2023–24 Flag of Haiti.svg Melchie Dumornay Flag of France.svg Lyon
2024–25 Flag of Haiti.svg Melchie Dumornay Flag of France.svg Lyon

International broadcasters

See also

References

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  12. Theodoridis, Theodore (25 July 2022). "2022/23 UEFA Women's Champions League Schedule of payments to participating clubs" (PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
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