List of combined European club champions

The UEFA Champions League has been the European football Club Championship since 1955, known as the European Cup until 1992. Prior to that, various attempts were made at an international club championship involving European clubs by football's governing bodies and interested parties, as UEFA itself was not founded until 1954.

History

In 1897, John Gramlick Sr., co-founder of the Vienna Cricket and Football Club, envisaged an international competition for football clubs, helping to start the Challenge Cup that was competed for by clubs from the Austro-Hungarian cities of Budapest, Prague and Vienna until 1911. Like the European Cup, the trophy was intended to be retained by the first team to win it in three consecutive seasons, but this rule was abandoned in 1903 and the cup was made into a permanent Wanderpokal. The cup is now kept by the final winners, Wiener Sport-Club. It acted as a predecessor to both the Austrian cup in 1918 and the Mitropa Cup in 1927.

In 1900, the Belgian count Van der Straeten Ponthoz offered a trophy to the winner of an international club tournament. The champions of three continental European domestic leagues were present in Brussels, leading newspapers to declare it a European club championship. In the second EDition of the tournament between Dutch and Belgian sides, the Dutch teams left after a dispute AbOUT officiating, and the question about whether a governing body would suit the sport helped to result in the creation of FIFA in 1904. Union Saint-Gilloise won their third trophy in 1907 and were allowed to keep it. It was succeeded by the Coupe Jean Dupuich, donated by Adolphe Dupuich to commemorate his son Jean Dupuich, a forward at Léopold CB.

In 1908, Italian sports magazine La Stampa Sportiva organized the Torneo Internazionale Stampa Sportiva incorporating clubs from Italy, France, Germany and Switzerland, with Swiss side Servette beating Italians Torino in the final. Both Turin clubs, Torino and Juventus donated players to a Torino XI in the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy in 1909, contributed by merchant and yachstman Sir Thomas Lipton. They again played as separate clubs in the second and final edition of the tournament in 1911. The British FAs declined to send an official representative, but British invitees West Auckland Town FC won both tournaments and were awarded the trophy outright. Both of these early tournaments have been called the First World Cup, with the FIFA World Cup not played until 1930.

From 1909-1913, the Bodensee-Fußballvereinigung was contested by clubs from Austria-Hungary, Germany and Switzerland on the border of Lake Constance. The tournament was played as the Bodensee-Meisterschaft in the 1920s and 1930s.

From 1910-1914, the Pyrenees Cup was played between clubs from Catalonia and the Basque Country in Spain and clubs from southern France.

The Mitropa Cup was established in 1927 along with the Central European International Cup for national teams. Additionally, to correspond to the newly-formed FIFA World Cup in 1930, Swiss side Servette invited a group of domestic champions to take part in the Coupe des Nations, won by Hungarian side Újpest FC, while in 1937, leading European clubs were invited to the Tournoi International de l'Expo Universelle de Paris during the World's Fair.

After World War II, the Mitropa Cup, rebranded as the Zentropa Cup, lost much of its prestige to the Latin Cup, played between the champions of France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. The Zentropa Cup was played in 1951 and from 1955-1992, but was effectively a second-tier tournament after the advent of the European Cup in 1955.

Another international tournament, the Grasshoppers Trophy, was played between representatives from Austria, France, Germany Italy, Switzerland and Yugoslavia, including Swiss side Grasshopper, from 1952-1957. The Latin Cup remained Europe's premier club competition until the European Cup crowned its first champion in 1956 and played its last season in 1957.

Clubs who have won the European Cup three times in succession or five times overall have been allowed to keep the trophy, the European Champion Clubs' Cup, and awarded the UEFA Badge of Honour.

Key

Winners

Notes

• Bayern Munich won 4–0 in a replay

• Liverpool won 4–2 in a penalty shootout

• Steaua Bucureşti won 2–0 in a penalty shootout

• PSV Eindhoven won 6–5 in a penalty shootout

• Red Star Belgrade won 5–3 in a penalty shootout

• Juventus won 4–2 in a penalty shootout

• Bayern Munich won 5–4 in a penalty shootout

• Milan won 3–2 in a penalty shootout

• Liverpool won 3–2 in a penalty shootout

• Manchester United won 6–5 in a penalty shootout

• With no recognized tie-breaker, Union Saint-Gilloise and Racing C.B. were declared joint-winners