UEFA Women's Champions League facts for kids

"UEFA Women's Cup" redirects here. For the second-tier competition, see UEFA Women's Europa Cup.

Quick facts for kids
UEFA Women's Champions League

Organising body	UEFA
Founded	2001; 24 years ago (2001)
Region	Europe
Number of teams	16 (group stage) 72 (total)
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	Arsenal (2nd title)
Most successful club(s)	Lyon (8 titles)
Television broadcasters	Disney+ Eurovision Sport

The UEFA Women's Champions League is a big football competition for women's club teams in Europe. It's organized by UEFA, which is the main football body in Europe. Before 2009, it was called the UEFA Women's Cup.

This tournament brings together the best women's football clubs from different countries across Europe. Teams compete to become the champion of European club football.

Lyon from France is the most successful club, having won the title eight times. They even won five times in a row from 2016 to 2020! Arsenal from England are the current champions, after winning the 2025 final against Barcelona.

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

How the Tournament Works
Prize Money for Teams
Official Sponsors
Records and Statistics
Awards for Players
- Player of the Season
- Young Player of the Season
Images for kids
See also

How the Tournament Works

The UEFA Women's Champions League has changed its rules several times over the years to make the competition even better.

Early Years (2001–2009)

When the tournament first started as the UEFA Women's Cup in 2001, teams played in small groups. Winners from these groups moved on to the next stage. Later, more teams got to skip the first round and go straight to the group stage. All knockout games, including the final, were played over two matches (one home, one away).

Champions League Era (2009–2021)

In 2009, the competition was renamed the UEFA Women's Champions League. This change meant that not just the champions, but also the second-place teams from the top leagues in Europe could join.

The tournament was open to champions from all 55 UEFA countries that had a women's football league. Teams played in qualifying rounds in groups of four. The winners, and sometimes a few second-place teams, moved on to the Round of 32. The best teams from the top countries got to start directly in the Round of 32.

From the Round of 32 onwards, teams played two matches against each other (home and away). The team that scored more goals overall, including away goals, would win. The final match was played as a single game.

New Format (2021–2025)

A new format began in the 2021–22 season to make the competition more exciting. It now looks more like the men's Champions League.

Direct Qualifiers: The team that won the previous Champions League and the champions from the top three countries automatically entered the group stage.
Qualification Rounds: Other teams had to play through two rounds of qualifiers.
- Champions Path: This path was for champions from countries ranked 8th to 50th.
- League Path: This path was for second-place teams from the top 16 countries and third-place teams from the top 6 countries.

After these qualifiers, 16 teams played in a group stage. There were four groups of four teams. The top two teams from each group moved on to the knockout rounds, which included quarter-finals, semi-finals, and the final.

		Teams entering in this round	Teams advancing from the previous round
First round August	Champions Path (44 teams)	44 champions from associations 7–50
First round August	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)
Second round Aug/Sept	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

Future Format (2025–present)

Starting from the 2025–26 season, the tournament will have another new format. It will feature a "league phase" instead of traditional groups.

League Phase: 18 teams will play 6 games against 6 different opponents (3 home, 3 away).
Direct Qualifiers: The defending champions, champions from the top 6 countries, and second-place teams from the top 2 countries will go straight to the league phase.
Qualification Paths: Other teams will go through qualification rounds in two paths:
- Champions Path: For domestic champions from countries ranked 7th or lower, and the winner of the UEFA Women's Europa Cup.
- League Path: For second-place teams from countries ranked 4th to 17th, and third-place teams from countries ranked 1st to 7th.

The top four teams from the league phase will go straight to the quarter-finals. Teams ranked 5th to 12th will play in a knockout play-off round to reach the quarter-finals.

Provisional access list
		Teams entering in this round	Teams advancing from the previous round
First round	Champions path (24 teams)	24 champions from associations 29–52
Second round	Champions path (28 teams)	22 champions from associations 7–28	6 mini-tournament winners from the first round
Second round	League path (16 teams)	12 runners-up from associations 6–17 4 third-placed teams from associations 4–7
Third round	Champions path (8 teams)	UEFA Women's Europa Cup title holders	7 mini-tournament winners from the second round
Third 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 for Teams

Teams in the UEFA Women's Champions League can earn prize money. This started in 2010, and the amounts have grown a lot.

In the 2021–22 season, UEFA set aside a huge €100 million for the competition. A part of this money helps clubs that don't play in the tournament but are in countries that do. This helps develop women's football everywhere.

Teams that reach the group stage get at least €400,000. The winning team can earn up to €1.2 million, depending on how well they did in the group stage.

Here's how the prize money works for the main part of the competition:

Each team in the group stage gets €1,000,000.
For each win in the group stage, teams get €100,000. For a draw, they get €50,000.
Winning their group gives an extra €50,000 bonus.
Reaching the quarter-finals earns €200,000.
Getting to the semi-finals earns €480,000.
The runner-up (second place) gets €700,000.
The winning team receives €2,000,000.

These amounts add up, so a team earns money for each stage they reach.

Official Sponsors

The UEFA Women's Champions League has its own sponsors. These are different from the sponsors of the men's Champions League.

Here are some of the official sponsors as of 2024:

Adidas
Amazon
EA Sports FC
Euronics
Grifols
Heineken
Hublot
Just Eat Takeaway
PepsiCo
PlayStation
Visa

Records and Statistics

This section looks at some interesting facts and numbers from the tournament's history.

Winners by Nation

This table shows which countries' clubs have won, been runners-up, or reached the semi-finals.

Nation	Winners	Runners-up	Semi-finalists	Winner	Runners-up	Semi-finalists
Germany	9	8	10	Frankfurt (4) Turbine Potsdam (2) VfL Wolfsburg (2) Duisburg (1)	VfL Wolfsburg (4) Frankfurt (2) Turbine Potsdam (2)	Frankfurt (2) Turbine Potsdam (2) Duisburg (2) Bayern Munich (2) VfL Wolfsburg (2)
France	8	5	10	Lyon (8)	Lyon (3) Paris Saint-Germain (2)	Paris Saint-Germain (5) Lyon (2) Toulouse (1) Montpellier (1) Paris FC (1)
Spain	3	3	2	Barcelona (3)	Barcelona (3)	Barcelona (2)
Sweden	2	5	4	Umeå (2)	Umeå (3) Djurgården (1) Tyresö (1)	Umeå (2) Djurgården (1) Malmö (1)
England	2	1	13	Arsenal (2)	Chelsea (1)	Arsenal (6) Chelsea (4) Manchester City (2) Birmingham City (1)
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)

Top Goal Scorers Each Season

This award goes to the player who scores the most goals in the competition each season. Before 2021–22, goals from qualifying rounds counted. Now, only goals from the group stage onwards are included.

Margrét Lára Vidarsdóttir from Iceland has won this award three times. Ada Hegerberg holds the record for scoring the most goals in a single season.

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

All-Time Top Goal Scorers

This list shows the players who have scored the most goals in the history of the competition. Players whose names are in bold are still playing.

Rank	Topscorer	Goals	Clubs
1	Ada Hegerberg	66	Stabæk, Turbine Potsdam, Olympique Lyon
2	Anja Mittag	51	Turbine Potsdam, FC Rosengård, Paris Saint-Germain, Wolfsburg
3	Eugénie Le Sommer	50	Olympique Lyon
4	Conny Pohlers	48	Turbine Potsdam, 1. FFC Frankfurt, Wolfsburg
5	Marta	46	Umeå IK, Tyresö FF, FC Rosengård
6	Camille Abily	43	Montpellier, Olympique Lyon
6	Kim Little	43	Hibernian, Arsenal
8	Lotta Schelin	42	Olympique Lyon, FC Rosengård
9	Pernille Harder	41	Linköping, Wolfsburg, Chelsea, Bayern Munich
10	Nina Burger	40	SV Neulengbach

Awards for Players

Player of the Season

Since the 2021–22 season, UEFA has given out the UEFA Women's Champions League Player of the Season award. A group of coaches from the teams in the group stage and sports journalists choose the winner.

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

Young Player of the Season

Also starting in the 2021–22 season, UEFA introduced an award for the best young player in the UEFA Women's Champions League.

Season	Player	Club
UEFA Women's Champions League Young Player of the Season
2021–22	Selma Bacha	Lyon
2022–23	Lena Oberdorf	VfL Wolfsburg
2023–24	Melchie Dumornay	Lyon
2024–25	Melchie Dumornay	Lyon