Champions League: it is always the same (or almost) final – The World

Le Monde | 14/05/2015 at 11h54 • Updated 05/14/2015 at 4:27 p.m. | By Yann Bouchez and Clement Guillou

Two threes. After Borussia Dortmund-Bayern Munich in 2013 and Real Madrid-Atletico Madrid in 2014, the final of the Champions League 2015 Version loses his tunes national cup. By eliminating the defending champion Real on Wednesday night with a draw (1-1) to Santiago Bernabeau, Juventus avoid a third confrontation between clubs from the same country finals in the most selective European competitions . Saturday, 6 June, in Berlin, the Italians Juventus face the Spaniards FC Barcelona

Read also:. Juve in the final

The presence of Italian champion in the final, he had not reached since the defeat by AC Milan … in 2003 might seem like a breath of fresh air. Alas, even if the “Old Lady” has upset the odds, Juve is a regular finals, provided they take a little historical perspective: the club of Andrea Agnelli, winner in 1985 and 1996, will play eighth-round his history. Barça, quadruple European champion (1992, 2006, 2009, 2011), will play for his ninth final. Not really novices.

Even if the show in Berlin is unique, the Champions League is not fan of big surprises. Since the early 2000s, the finalist places are regularly monopolized by the same countries and the same clubs. Thus, during the last fifteen editions, taking into account that in 2015, only two teams (Porto and Monaco in 2004) were not from the four major championships – Spain, England, Germany and Italy. By themselves, Bayern Munich (4 finals), Barcelona (4), Real Madrid (3), Manchester United (3) and AC Milan (3) account for more than half of the finalists (17/30).

Moreover, despite Juve’s performance, it should not be forgotten that the final “one country” is almost commonplace since she appeared in 2000 in the enclosure Stade de France, in the match between Real Madrid FC Valencia.

In 2003, AC Milan faces Juventus. Five years later, in 2008, it was the turn of English clubs Chelsea and Manchester United to dispute the cup with big ears. Including the 2013 and 2014 episodes, the fifteen last final was therefore the scene of five national duels. – Three Spanish, one Italian, one German and one English

The misnamed Champions League, which allows some clubs came second, third or even fourth, after their championship to qualify on the most prestigious continental stage – a privilege previously reserved only national champions – has favored the emergence of this kind of phenomenon.

The European Cup is becoming more like a closed league. A circle increasingly select where devouring appetite of big leaves little room for small, and where differences between countries are growing over the decades. Demonstration in figures

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Spain, Germany, Italy, England crush C1

Distribution of victories C1 before and after the creation of the Champions League in 1992

The insatiable appetite of Europe of the four

The four major leagues (Spain, England, Germany, Italy) have, over the last twenty years, exercised an overwhelming domination of C1. But the phenomenon is not really new, it has simply accelerated. In fifty-nine years of European editions, since the victory of Real Madrid face the Stade de Reims (4-3) in 1956, 35 of the 59 winners were from one of the four major championships, almost 60%.

This dominance has increased in the last two decades, with the advent of the Champions League in 1992, the Bosman ruling in 1995, and especially since 1997, that the biggest championships were entitled to present several qualified C1, not just one. Small countries find it increasingly difficult to exist

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The influence of the Big Four is accelerating

Wins by C1 championship, before and after the creation of the Champions League in 1992

The time when Red Star Belgrade (1991), PSV Eindhoven (1988), Steaua Bucharest (1987) or Glasgow Celtic (1967) could win the C1 seems over. Since 1992, only the Olympique de Marseille (1993), Ajax Amsterdam (1995) and FC Porto (2004) disrupted the Spanish-Italian-German-English hegemony.

Final 2004 between Porto and Monaco, won (3-0) by the Portuguese, is also the last to be opposite two clubs small football nations

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C1 finalist’s quarters, a club that closes

Championships and clubs represented in the quarter-finals on a five-year period

A geographical diversity down

Comparing the results in increments of five editions (above), the result seems quite clear: between 1985 and 1989, 27 different clubs representing 18 countries reached the quarterfinals, while they are only 18 lucky ones, for 8 countries represented, between 2005 and 2009.

Since 1999, the third and fourth can get some championships tickets for the C1, which partly explains the reduced number of victorious nations. Today, only 12 national championships have at least guaranteed a spot for the group stage of the Champions League. The growing economic gap between large and large contributed to this concentration.

The reform introduced by Michel Platini, the president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), from 2009- 2010, seems to have allowed a resurgence of any relative diversity, illustrated in particular by the surprise presence of the Cypriot club Apoel Nicosia in the quarterfinals in 2014. An isolated exploit.

If well real, the oligopoly phenomenon is not new. The five most successful clubs (Real Madrid, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Barca) have cornered 52.5% of editions awarded since the birth of the tournament in 1956. These five giants exert their domination for a long time made from FC Barcelona, ​​titled for the first time in 1992, all had their first success long ago, either Real Madrid (1956, from the first edition), AC Milan (1963), Bayern Munich ( 1974) and Liverpool (1977).

But if the Champions League often offers the same contenders, she got used to be fickle. The last club to have won twice in a row is AC Milan, in 1989 and 1990. On Wednesday night, Real Madrid was the last victim of the “curse of the outgoing”.