Your team played in the Premier League at the weekend.

Now it’s Wednesday and they’re facing Real Madrid in Spain. Or Thursday night somewhere else in Europe against a club you’ve barely heard of.

Welcome to European football.

The best clubs can qualify for one of UEFA’s three major competitions:

Think of them as three levels of European football.

Simple enough.

How you actually qualify for them?

Not so simple.

If the Premier League decides the best team in England, the Champions League asks a bigger question:

Who is the best club in Europe?

It began in 1955 as the European Cup, originally built mainly around domestic league champions. In 1992, it became the UEFA Champions League and expanded to include more of Europe’s strongest clubs.

Today, it’s probably the most prestigious club competition in world football.

And Champions League nights feel different.

Real Madrid. Barcelona. Bayern Munich. Inter Milan.

This is where your club gets to test itself against Europe’s biggest names.

Real Madrid aren’t just first.

They’re miles ahead.

The format changed significantly in 2024.

The old four-team groups are gone. Now 36 clubs compete in one league table, with each team playing eight different opponents:

4 at home
4 away

Then:

1st–8th: Round of 16
9th–24th: Knockout play-off
25th–36th: Eliminated

From there, it’s knockout football through the Round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals before a one-match final at a neutral stadium.

Win it and you’re champions of Europe.

Historically, you probably heard people talk about “the top four.”

Finish in the Premier League’s top four and you’d normally qualify for the Champions League.

But under the current system, England can sometimes get an extra place.

Each season, UEFA looks at how clubs from different countries perform across its three European competitions.

The two best-performing countries each receive an additional Champions League place for the following season.

So if England earns one, fifth place in the Premier League could also qualify.

That’s why you might hear:

“Top five could get Champions League.”

The number of places can genuinely change depending on how English clubs perform in Europe.

Win it and you automatically qualify for the following season’s Champions League.

Even if your Premier League position wouldn’t normally get you there.

And the same principle applies to another competition.

The Europa League is Europe’s second major club competition.

It began as the UEFA Cup in 1971 before becoming the Europa League in 2009.

It doesn’t have quite the prestige or money of the Champions League.

But don’t mistake that for it not mattering. Ask supporters whose team wins it.

They’ll care. A lot.

Sevilla absolutely own this competition historically.

The format is almost identical to the Champions League.

There are 36 teams, with each playing eight opponents:

4 at home
4 away

Then:

1st–8th: Round of 16
9th–24th: Knockout play-off
25th–36th: Eliminated

From there, it’s knockout football to the final.

But there’s one enormous reason to win it.

The Europa League winner automatically qualifies for the following season’s Champions League.

Which can create some wonderfully ridiculous situations.

Tottenham finished 17th in the Premier League in 2024/25.

Seventeenth. One place above relegation.

But they also beat Manchester United 1–0 in the Europa League final, which automatically sent them into the following season’s Champions League.

England ended up with six teams in the competition. Five qualified through the Premier League after England earned an extra European Performance Spot.

Tottenham qualified by winning the Europa League.

Seventeenth domestically. Champions League internationally.

Perfectly logical.

Welcome to European football.

The UEFA Super Cup is a one-off match between the previous season’s:

Champions League winner vs Europa League winner

Think of it as the European version of the Community Shield.

It’s normally played in August at a host stadium somewhere in Europe. If it’s tied after 90 minutes, it goes straight to penalties.

It’s nowhere near as important as winning the Champions League or Europa League.

But you’ve earned your place by winning a major European trophy.

There are worse ways to start a season than lifting another one.

So yes, Real Madrid are top of another European trophy list.

Of course they are.

The Conference League launched in 2021 as a third level below the Champions League and Europa League, giving more clubs the opportunity to compete in Europe.

That doesn’t make it meaningless.

Try telling West Ham supporters their 2023 win didn’t matter. Or Crystal Palace supporters after winning it in 2026.

For clubs that don’t regularly challenge for Europe’s biggest trophies, it means European nights, trips across the continent and a genuine chance to win something.

Nobody has won it twice. For now, they’re all tied on one title each.

Again, there are 36 teams.

But each club plays only six league-phase matches:

3 at home
3 away

Then:

1st–8th: Round of 16
9th–24th: Knockout play-off
25th–36th: Eliminated

After that, it’s knockout football to the final.

The simple answer: It depends.

Champions League places generally go to the highest Premier League finishers. Europa League and Conference League places can also depend on league position and who wins England’s domestic cups.

But those places can move.

Add European Performance Spots, Champions League and Europa League winners, domestic cup winners and UEFA rules, and qualification can get complicated quickly.

That’s why the final European picture sometimes isn’t clear until the season ends.

Crystal Palace gave us another example.

Palace qualified for the 2025/26 Europa League, but UEFA ruled that its relationship with French club Lyon breached multi-club ownership rules.

Lyon remained in the Europa League.

Crystal Palace were moved into the Conference League, with Nottingham Forest also affected by the knock-on effect. We won’t disappear down that rabbit hole here.

Just remember:

League position isn’t always the final word.

UEFA regulations can change things too.

Prestige is one reason.

Money is another. A very big reason.

For 2025/26, UEFA allocated approximately €2.467 billion to Champions League and Super Cup clubs, compared with €565 million for the Europa League and €285 million for the Conference League.

Simply reaching the Champions League league phase brought an equal share of around €18.62 million, before performance bonuses and other payments.

A league-phase victory alone was worth another €2.1 million.

That’s why Champions League qualification can materially change a club.

More money. More sponsorship exposure. More attractive to players and potentially more success.

Now for a football argument with no correct answer.

Would you rather your club win the Premier League or Champions League?

For me, there’s something incredibly satisfying about the Premier League. It’s 38 games across nine months.

You can’t really fluke your way through an entire league season.

Finish top and you’ve proven you’re the best team in England over a sustained period.

The Champions League is different. You’re facing Europe’s best, with the added danger of knockout football. One bad night and your season can disappear. One incredible night can become club history.

The Premier League proves you’re the best in England.

The Champions League makes you champions of Europe.

Take your pick.

My favorite Champions League final isn’t even close.

Liverpool vs AC Milan. Istanbul. 2005.

Milan’s team was frightening, and at half-time they were 3-0 up.

Game over. At least that’s what everyone thought, including me.

Then Liverpool somehow scored three times in around six minutes through Steven Gerrard, Vladimír Šmicer and Xabi Alonso.

3-3.

Extra time. Then penalties.

Jerzy Dudek became the hero and Liverpool completed one of the most ridiculous comebacks I’ve ever watched. I remember thinking there was absolutely no way they were coming back against that Milan team.

Then they did. That’s what European knockout football can give you.

You can watch hundreds of games, but every now and then one sticks with you forever.

Istanbul is mine.

Now we’re getting into opinion, and this is just my view.

In 2021, some of Europe’s biggest clubs tried to create the European Super League. Supporters protested, clubs withdrew and the project quickly collapsed.

But looking at European football now, I can’t help wondering:

Haven’t we moved towards something similar anyway?

Not the same thing. That distinction matters.

The proposed Super League threatened the idea of qualifying through sporting merit. UEFA’s competitions still require clubs to qualify.

But the Champions League has expanded to 36 teams. There are more matches, more meetings between major clubs and the same league-phase concept across all three competitions. I actually really like the new format.

But more games also mean more television inventory, more revenue and more football squeezed into an already packed calendar.

No, the Champions League isn’t the European Super League.

But some of the ideas that made a Super League commercially attractive have found their way into European football. You can decide whether that’s a good thing.

Why Do These Two Teams Hate Each Other?

Some games are worth three points.

Others feel like they mean everything.

Next, we’re looking at derbies and rivalries, and how geography, history, religion, class and sometimes one unforgettable game can turn two football clubs into enemies.

From Manchester and North London to Liverpool, the Black Country and beyond, we’ll explain why some fixtures just mean more.