The Union of European Football Association represents the national football associations of Europe, runs Europe wide national and club competitions, and controls the prize money, regulations and media rights to those competitions.

UEFA was founded on 15 June 1954 in Basel, Switzerland. The UEFA Champions League, which evolved from the European Champion Clubs' Cup, is a seasonal club football competition organized 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 the most prestigious club trophy in the sport.

Several national football associations, which are geographically in Asia or mostly in Asia, belong to UEFA rather than the Asian football Confederation (AFC). UEFA is one of the biggest of six continental confederations of FIFA.

Of all the confederations, it is by far the strongest in terms of wealth and influence over the global game. Virtually all of the world's top players play in European leagues in part due to the salaries available from the world's wealthiest football clubs, particularly in England, Germany, Italy and Spain.

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.

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. The current holders Manchester United defeated Chelsea 6-5 on penalties, after the scores were level at 1-1 after extra time in Moscow on 21 May 2008.