The2012–13 UEFA Champions League was the 58th season of Europe's premier clubfootball tournament organised byUEFA, and the 21st season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to theUEFA Champions League.
Thefinal was played atWembley Stadium inLondon, England,[1] in recognition of the 150th anniversary of the formation of England'sFootball Association, the world's oldest football association. It came just two years after Wembley hosted the final in2011, making it the seventh occasion Wembley Stadium (current andold) had hosted the Champions League final.[2][3]Bayern Munich, who had been runners-up in theprevious season, beatBundesliga rivalsBorussia Dortmund 2–1 to win their fifth title in the competition. It was the first all-German final and the fourth final to feature two teams from the same association, after the finals of2000,2003 and2008.
The defending champions,Chelsea, were eliminated in thegroup stage, becoming the first title holders to leave the competition at this stage.[4] They went on to win the2013 UEFA Europa League final, and became the first team to win theEuropa League as the holders of the Champions League.[5]
A total of 76 teams from 52 of the 53UEFA member associations participate in the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League (the exception beingLiechtenstein, which do not organise a domestic league). The association ranking based on theUEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[6]
Associations 1–3 each have four teams qualify
Associations 4–6 each have three teams qualify
Associations 7–15 each have two teams qualify
Associations 16–53 (except Liechtenstein) each have one team qualify
Because the winners of the2011–12 UEFA Champions League,Chelsea, failed to qualify for the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league (finishing sixth in thePremier League), and because of the restriction that no association can have more than four teams playing in the Champions League, Chelsea's entry in the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League as title holders came at the expense ofTottenham Hotspur, the fourth-placed team of the 2011–12 Premier League (who entered theEuropa League instead).
For the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2011UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2006–07 to 2010–11.[7][8]
Tottenham Hotspur were due to enter the Champions League play-off round for non-champions, but instead entered the Europa League becauseChelsea won the Champions League the previous season. As this spot in the play-off round was vacated, the following change to the default allocation system was made to compensate:[9][10]
The third-placed team of association 6 (Portugal) and the runners-up of association 7 (Russia) were promoted from the third qualifying round to the play-off round
Teams entering in this round
Teams advancing from previous round
First qualifying round (6 teams)
6 champions from associations 48–53
Second qualifying round (34 teams)
31 champions from associations 16–47 (except Liechtenstein)
3 winners from the first qualifying round
Third qualifying round
Champions (20 teams)
3 champions from associations 13–15
17 winners from the second qualifying round
Non-champions (8 teams)
8 runners-up from associations 8–15
Play-off round
Champions (10 teams)
10 winners from the third qualifying round for champions
Non-champions (10 teams)
1 runner-up from association 7
3 third-placed teams from associations 4–6
2 fourth-placed teams from associations 1–3 (minus the spot vacated by Tottenham Hotspur)
4 winners from the third qualifying round for non-champions
Group stage (32 teams)
Title holders
12 champions from associations 1–12
6 runners-up from associations 1–6
3 third-placed teams from associations 1–3
5 winners from the play-off round for champions
5 winners from the play-off round for non-champions
League positions of the previous season qualified via league position shown in parentheses. Chelsea qualified as title holders. (TH: Champions League title holders; EL: Europa League title holders).[11][12]
Scotland (SCO): As a result of second-placedRangers' administration and eventual liquidation,[13]Motherwell, the third-placed team of the2011–12 Scottish Premier League, took Scotland's Champions League place in the non-champions path
In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2012UEFA club coefficients,[15][16][17] and then drawn intotwo-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
The draws for the first and second qualifying rounds were held on 25 June 2012.[18] The first legs were played on 3 July and the second legs were played on 10 July 2012.
The third qualifying round was split into two separate sections: one for champions (Champions Route) and one for non-champions (League Route). The losing teams in both sections entered theEuropa League play-off round.
The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 20 July 2012.[19] The first legs were played on 31 July and 1 August and the second legs were played on 7 and 8 August 2012.
The play-off round was split into two separate sections: one for champions (Champions Route) and one for non-champions (League Route). The losing teams in both sections entered theEuropa League group stage.
The draw for the play-off round was held on 10 August 2012.[20] The first legs were played on 21 and 22 August, and the second legs were played on 28 and 29 August 2012.
Location of teams of the2012–13 UEFA Champions League group stage. Brown: Group A; Red: Group B; Orange: Group C; Yellow: Group D; Green: Group E; Blue: Group F; Purple: Group G; Pink: Group H
The draw for the group stage was held inMonaco on 30 August 2012.[21] The 32 teams were allocated into four pots based on their 2012UEFA club coefficients,[15][16][17] with the title holders,Chelsea, being placed in Pot 1 automatically. They were drawn into eight groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in around-robin format. The matchdays were 18–19 September, 2–3 October, 23–24 October, 6–7 November, 20–21 November and 4–5 December 2012. The group winners and runners-up advanced to theround of 16, while the third-placed teams entered theEuropa League round of 32.
A total of 17 national associations were represented in the group stage.Málaga,Montpellier andNordsjælland made their debut appearances in the group stage.[22]
In theknockout phase, teams played against each other overtwo legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows:
In the draw for the round of 16, the eight group winners were seeded and the eight group runners-up were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association could not be drawn against each other
In the draws for the quarter-finals onwards, there were no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association could be drawn against each other
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 20 December 2012.[23]The first legs were played on 12, 13, 19 and 20 February, and the second legs were played on 5, 6, 12 and 13 March 2013.
Amoment of silence was held before the Borussia Dortmund v Shakhtar Donetsk second leg to commemorate the victims of the crash ofSouth Airlines Flight 8971, which had been filled mostly with football fans heading for the match.[24]
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 15 March 2013.[25]The first legs were played on 2 and 3 April, and the second legs were played on 9 and 10 April 2013.
The draw for the semi-finals was held on 12 April 2013.[26]The first legs were played on 23 and 24 April, and the second legs were played on 30 April and 1 May 2013.
The final was played on 25 May 2013 atWembley Stadium inLondon, England. A draw was held on 12 April 2013, after the semi-final draw, to determine the "home" team for administrative purposes.[26]
For the 2012–13 season, UEFA awarded €2.1 million to each team in the play-off round. For reaching the group stage, UEFA awarded a base fee of €8.6 million. A win in the group was awarded €1 million and a draw was worth €500,000. In addition, UEFA paid teams reaching the first knockout round €3.5 million, each quarter-finalist €3.9 million, €4.9 million for each semi-finalist, €6.5 million for the runners-up and €10.5 million for the winners.[29]
Playoffs: €2,100,000
Base fee for group stage: €8,600,000
Group match victory: €1,000,000
Group match draw: €500,000
Round of 16: €3,500,000
Quarter-finals: €3,900,000
Semi-finals: €4,900,000
Losing finalist: €6,500,000
Winning the Final: €10,500,000
A large part of the distributed revenue from the UEFA Champions League is linked to the "market pool", the distribution of which is determined by the value of the television market in each country. For the 2012–13 season,Juventus, who were eliminated on quarter-finals, earned nearly €65.3 million in total of which €20.5 million was prize money, compared with the €55.0 million earned byBayern Munich, who won the tournament and was awarded with €35.9 million of prize money.[30]
