Please Explain The UEFA

Can some explain the UEFA to me. Chelsea just won the Championship. Is this the same Chelsea that is the Premier league won by Manchester City?

 

Premier League is a domestic regular season.
Champions League is a tournament for the top teams from all countries in Europe.

 

Thx - so if I understand then the winner of Premier league moves to the Champions league.

Would it be analogous to March Madness?

What happened to Manchester City? I thought that they won the Premier league.

 

UEFA is a separate tournament.

 

The UEFA Champions League is actually pretty damn complicated. To the best of my knowledge, every European nation that has a league (including Israel) gets a bid in some shape or form into the Champions League, whether it's England or Andorra.

Some of the stronger leagues, like England, Spain and Germany, get three automatic teams into the group stage (the final 32 teams). Chelsea will get an automatic bid to this round. The champion from, say, Finland, has to go through a few qualifying stages to reach the final round of 32 with the big boys.

 

Do the seasons of both leagues coincide? If you make the UEFA do you still participate in the Premier League for that season?

 

Participation is based on the previous season because the Champions League runs from Aug-May (or there about) just like the seasons.

As pointed out by kingcreole, some nations get more entrants than others. When it first started back in the 1950s, it truly was a "Champions League" meaning that all the national league champions from each country played. Now, with TV money, etc., it has gone beyond that.

 

Most of the top clubs from the big countries will play three and four competitions all at the same time, that's why bigger clubs will sometimes have 70 matches in a season. They will play their national league, Champions League, at least one national cup competition and sometimes two.

 

Yeah, there's a bunch of qualifying rounds in the Champions League and the Europa Cup as well. It's where all the minnows (as they call them on FIFA.com) take on each other.

 

Not all leagues run on the same calendar. Those in countries with harsh winters operate on a summer schedule. However, they don't get any special dispensation in the European competitions.

Once upon a time, the European Cup, the predecessor of the Champions League, was reserved solely for league champions. Now you can get in by finishing as low as fourth in a top-tier league. They also used to have a European Cup-Winners Cup, for winners of domestic cup competitions, and the UEFA Cup, the forerunner of the Europa League, for everyone else. (The Runners-Up Cup, as it used to be informally known. Although England have a long-standing tradition of sending the League Cup winner to the UEFA Cup/Europa League. Most other countries don't bother with two cup competitions.)

 

Appreciate all the responses. I have a lot clearer picture now.

 

and we haven't even gotten into the defunct Fairs Cup or the beloved Intertoto Cup!