UEFA Women's Champions League

A preliminary round was played to reduce teams to 32, in the first season only two teams played a two-legged match, the following seasons were played as four team mini-tournaments which had the winner advance to the group stage. Teams were then divided into eight groups of four. The groups were played again as mini-tournaments at a single location over the course of five days. The group winners then advanced to the quarter-finals. The knock-out rounds were played as two-legged. That included the final which was only played as a single leg in 2002.

For the 2004–05 season the group stage was played in four groups with the top two teams advancing to the quarter-finals. That resulted in more qualifying groups.

On 11 December 2008, UEFA announced that the competition would be reformatted and renamed to the UEFA Women's Champions League.[2] As in the men's game, the new tournament aims to include runners-up of the top women's football leagues in Europe,[3] and the title holder has the right to enter if they do not qualify through their domestic competition. Also similar to the men, the final is to be played in a single match.

The competition is open to the champions of all 55 UEFA associations. However, not all associations have or had a qualifying women's league, and not all nations opt to participate each year. Due to the varying participation, the number of teams playing the qualifying round and teams entering in the round of 32 change from year to year. The principles are inferred from the access list:[4] Numbers are based on three principles:

• Groups of 4 teams shall contest the qualifying rounds.
• The group winners shall qualify for the main round.
• The smallest possible number of qualifying group runners-up shall qualify for the main round.

For example, in a 53-team tournament, 25 teams directly enter the R32, with seven qualifying groups providing seven group winners and no runners-up; if the tournament were 60 teams instead, 20 teams would directly enter the R32, with ten qualifying groups providing ten group winners and two runners-up.

When the new format was initially announced, the eight top countries according to the UEFA league coefficient between 2003 and 2004 and 2007–08 would be awarded two places in the new Women's Champions League.[3] The runners-up from each country participated in the qualifying rounds for the first two years under the Champions League format.

For the 2011–12 tournament, the runners-up from the top eight nations instead qualified directly to the R32. For the five years under this format, seven nations remained in the top eight: Germany, Sweden, England (both iterations), France, Denmark, Russia, and Italy. A different nation provided the eighth runner-up in each of the five years: Iceland, Norway, Austria, Czech Republic,[5] and Spain[6] in that order.

The tournament was expanded again for the 2016–17 season, with the runners-up from nations 9–12 in the UEFA league coefficient also qualifying. Whether they begin participation in the qualifying round or the R32 depends on how many total teams participate in the tournament. For the first three years under this format, the four nations in these slots were Czech Republic, Austria, Scotland, and Norway, though Czech Republic rose into the top 8 at the expense of Russia; 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.

On 4 December 2019, the UEFA Executive Committee approved a new format for the 2021–22 season.[7] The top six associations will enter three teams, the associations ranked 7–16 will enter two, and the remaining associations will enter one. The competition is restructured to appear much more similar to the men's CL format than before, with a double-round-robin group stage in the competition proper, the first time in the Women's Champions League era, and two paths (a champions path and a non-champions path) for all teams that do not automatically qualify for the group stage. UEFA will also centralize the media rights from the group stage onward, having previously only done so for the final.[8]

Under this new format, the group stage – four groups of four – qualifies eight teams to the home-and-away quarterfinals, at which point the competition remains the same as before. Four teams qualify directly to the group stage: the defending UWCL champions and the league champions from the nations ranked 1–3 by UEFA coefficient. Seven teams qualify from the champions path – guaranteeing that at least ten nations will be represented in the group stage – and five from the league path. Qualification along both paths takes place in two rounds: a first round consisting of four-team, predetermined-venue miniature tournaments (one-off semifinals, third place, and final matches) and a second round of paired home-and-away ties. In this format, the first round is similar to the previous qualifying round except that teams play a two-game knockout tournament instead of a three-game round-robin, and the second round is similar to the previous round of 32 except that the range of possible opponents is more stratified.

Nation	Winners	Runners-up	Semi-finalists	Winner	Runners-up	Semi-finalists
Germany	9	7	9	Frankfurt (4) Turbine Potsdam (2) VfL Wolfsburg (2) Duisburg (1)	VfL Wolfsburg (3) Frankfurt (2) Turbine Potsdam (2)	Frankfurt (2) Turbine Potsdam (2) Duisburg (2) Bayern Munich (2) VfL Wolfsburg (1)
France	8	4	8	Lyon (8)	Lyon (2) Paris Saint-Germain (2)	Paris Saint-Germain (3) Lyon (2) Toulouse (1) Montpellier (1) Paris FC (1)
Sweden	2	5	4	Umeå (2)	Umeå (3) Djurgården (1) Tyresö (1)	Umeå (2) Djurgården (1) Malmö (1)
England	1	1	10	Arsenal (1)	Chelsea (1)	Arsenal (5) Manchester City (2) Chelsea (2) Birmingham City (1)
Spain	1	2	2	Barcelona (1)	Barcelona (2)	Barcelona (2)
Denmark	0	1	3		Fortuna Hjørring (1)	Brøndby (3)
Russia	0	1	0		Zvezda Perm (1)
Norway	0	0	2			Trondheims-Ørn (1) Kolbotn (1)
Finland	0	0	1			HJK (1)
Italy	0	0	1			Bardolino Verona (1)

Since the format change in 2009, no team from a nation outside the top two has won the title, except for Barcelona in 2021. The only teams from nations outside the top two to have finished runner-up in that time were Tyresö in 2014, Barcelona in 2019 and Chelsea in 2021.

Also, no team from a nation outside the top four made the semi-finals until Brøndby in 2015. Barcelona has since made the semi-finals in 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021 (and they went on to win the title in 2021).

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.

As of 21 May 2022[22] Bold players still active.

Rank	Topscorer	Goals	Clubs
1	Ada Hegerberg	59	Stabæk, 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam, Olympique Lyon
2	Anja Mittag	51	1. FFC Turbine Potsdam, FC Rosengård, Paris Saint-Germain, Wolfsburg, FC Rosengård
3	Conny Pohlers	48	1. FFC Turbine Potsdam, 1. FFC Frankfurt, Wolfsburg
4	Eugénie Le Sommer	47	Olympique Lyon
5	Marta	46	Umeå IK, Tyresö FF, FC Rosengård
6	Camille Abily	43	Montpellier, Olympique Lyon
7	Lotta Schelin	42	Olympique Lyon, FC Rosengård
7	Kim Little	42	Hibernian, Arsenal
8	Nina Burger	40	SV Neulengbach
10	Hanna Ljungberg	39	Umeå IK

DAZN have the global rights of the competition from 2021–22 until 2024–25, 61 matches in both 2021–22 and 2022–23 seasons will be live streamed for free on the DAZN UEFA Women's Champions League YouTube channel.[23]

All matches from group stage until final will be aired live on beIN Sports until 2023–24 season.

ATA Football has agreeing a new partnership with DAZN which see the subscribers get access of 31 live matches from the tournament throughout the 2021/22 season. Those games will also be available to rewatch on the platform, as well as live on DAZN and its YouTube channel.[24]