UEFA Youth League

The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the youth (under-19) teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions League group stage, plus the domestic youth champions of the best-ranked national associations.

UEFA Youth League
Founded2013
RegionEurope (UEFA)
Number of teams64
Current champions Porto (1st title)
Most successful club(s) Barcelona
Chelsea
(2 titles each)
Television broadcastersList of broadcasters
WebsiteOfficial website
2019–20 UEFA Youth League

The semi-finals and final matches have been traditionally played at the Colovray Stadium in Nyon, Switzerland. The winners are awarded the Lennart Johansson Trophy, named in honour of the former UEFA president.

The most successful teams are Barcelona and Chelsea with two trophies each. Chelsea won back-to-back titles in 2015 and 2016, while Barcelona won the inaugural season of the competition and clinched their second trophy in 2018. The current champions are Portuguese side Porto, who beat Chelsea 3–1 in the 2019 final.

History

In May 2010, UEFA organised a match, referred to as the "UEFA Under-18 Challenge", between the under-18 teams of Bayern Munich and Internazionale, three days prior to the UEFA Champions League Final between the respective senior sides. Internazionale won the match 2–0 with two goals from Denis Alibec. The match was part of "UEFA Grassroots Day", and acted as an inspiration for the UEFA Youth League.[1][2][3]

The teams in the first tournament, 2013–14 UEFA Youth League, played a group stage with the same composition and calendar as the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League group stage, and was held on a 'trial basis'.[3]

The eight group-winners and eight runners-up from group stage then participated in a knockout phase. Unlike the UEFA Champions League, the knockout phase had single-leg ties, with the semi-finals and final played at neutral venues.[3]

British media commented that the competition was formed to "limit the growing influence of the NextGen Series".[4]

In April 2014, Barcelona became the first champion, beating Benfica by 3–0 in the final-four held in Nyon.

After a two-year trial period, the UEFA Youth League became a permanent UEFA competition starting from the 2015–16 season, with the tournament expanded from 32 to 64 teams to allow the youth domestic champions of the top 32 associations according to their UEFA country coefficients to also participate. The 32 UEFA Champions League group stage youth teams retain the group stage format, with the group winners advancing to the round of 16 and the runners-up advancing to the play-offs. The 32 youth domestic champions play two rounds of two-legged ties, with the eight winners advancing to the play-offs, where they play a single match at home against the Champions League path runners-up. The round of 16 onwards retain the same format of single-leg ties as before.[5]

Finals
Season Winners Score Runners-up Losing semi-finalists Final stage host
2013–14 Barcelona 3–0 Benfica Real Madrid and Schalke 04 Colovray Stadium, Nyon
2014–15 Chelsea 3–2 Shakhtar Donetsk Anderlecht and Roma
2015–16 Chelsea 2–1 Paris Saint-Germain Anderlecht and Real Madrid
2016–17 RB Salzburg 2–1 Benfica Barcelona and Real Madrid
2017–18 Barcelona 3–0 Chelsea Manchester City and Porto
2018–19 Porto 3–1 Chelsea Barcelona and 1899 Hoffenheim

Winners
UEFA Youth League winners by teams
Team Winners Runners-up Years won Years runner-up
Chelsea 2 2 2015, 2016 2018, 2019
Barcelona 2 0 2014, 2018 —
RB Salzburg 1 0 2017 —
Porto 1 0 2019 —
Benfica 0 2 — 2014, 2017
Shakhtar Donetsk 0 1 — 2015
Paris Saint-Germain 0 1 — 2016
UEFA Youth League winners by countries
Country Winners Runners-up Years won Years runner-up
 England 2 2 2015, 2016 2018, 2019
 Spain 2 0 2014, 2018 —
 Portugal 1 2 2019 2014, 2017
 Austria 1 0 2017 —
 Ukraine 0 1 — 2015
 France 0 1 — 2016

Broadcasters

2018–2021

Up to four matches per week (total 39 matches per-season) are streamed through UEFA.tv channel in the unsold markets with highlights available in all territories.[6]

Europe
Country/Region Broadcaster
 Albania Tring
 Austria Puls 4
Balkan countries
 Arena Sport
Baltic countries
 TV Play Sports
 Belgium Proximus
 Cyprus CytaVisionINT
 France RMC Sport
 Luxembourg
 Monaco
 Germany Sport1
 Greece Cosmote Sport
 Ireland BT Sport
 United Kingdom
 Israel Sport 5
 Italy Sky Sport
 Kosovo Kujtesa
 NENT
 Poland Polsat
 Portugal Eleven Sports
 Romania Telekom Sport
Digi Sport
 Russia Match TV
 Spain Movistar
 Ukraine Football TV

Outside Europe
Country/Region Broadcaster
 Brazil Live FCINT
Caribbean ESPN
 China PPTV
 Costa Rica Facebook
 RMC Sport
 Indonesia Djarum MediaIDN
 Timor-Leste
 Canada DAZN (Via Goal)INT
 Japan
 Taiwan
 United States BR Live

^IDN – The coverage of 2018–19 season play-off round until 2019–20 group stage live on Super Soccer TV (IDN only), from 2019–20 play-off onwards moved to Mola TV.[7]

^INT – Only for both 2019–20 and 2020–21 seasons.

See also

References
  1. "Young stars take centre stage". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 18 May 2010. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  2. "Inter take Under-18 honours". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 19 May 2010. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  3. "UEFA Youth League club competition launched". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. 7 December 2012. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
  4. "UEFA to launch U19 shadow Champions League from 2013 to curtail NextGen series". Daily Mail. London. 30 June 2012. Retrieved 2 July 2012.
  5. "UEFA Youth League retained and expanded". UEFA.org. 18 September 2014.
  6. "Where to watch the UEFA Youth League". UEFA. Retrieved 2019-11-29.
  7. Super Soccer TV. "Super Soccer TV on Instagram: "Kira-kira, seberapa jauh perbandingan skuat kita jika dibandingkan dengan tim akademi Eropa? Apalagi pada Mei mendatang, tim Garuda Select…"". Instagram. Retrieved 2019-02-19.
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