Lagos — MultiChoice Nigeria the subscription management company for DStv has confirmed that all the major matches of the ongoing UEFA Champions League will be covered live on the DStv bouquet this season. It is estimated that more than 200 million pairs of eyes worldwide will tune in to watch the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League and DStv subscribers in the country are poised to have the best of football entertainment on offer in the global sport arena this October.

The UEFA Champions League evolved from the European Champion Clubs Cup, which was inaugurated in 1955 from a suggestion made by the French sports journalist and editor of L'Equipe, Gabriel Hanot. It has been organised by UEFA since 1992 and the prize, the UEFA Champions League, is one of the most prominent club titles in the sport.

The competition uses a two-legged knockout system where teams play one match at home and the other away. The team with the highest overall aggregate score progresses to the next round of competition.

Initially, entry was open to clubs that had won their national league championships and the reigning European Cup holder. In the 1992/93 season the tournament was renamed the UEFA Champions League and in the 1997/98 season, eligibility was lengthened to include the best performing runners-up in UEFA's ranking system.

The UEFA Champions League is open to each national association's domestic champions, as well as clubs who finish just behind them in their respective domestic championship. The number of clubs that can be entered by an association and their entry point in the competition depends on the association's position in UEFA's coefficient ranking list.

The competition is dependent on many stages. Currently it begins in mid-July with three preliminary knockout qualifying rounds. From the 16 remaining teams in the group stage, eight winners and eight runners-up can enter the knockout rounds, which end with the final in May.

The 2008/09 season's final will be played at Rome's Stadio Olimpico.

Since its inception the title has been held by 21 different clubs (Milan, Juventus, Internazionale, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool, Manchester United, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Hamburg, Ajax, PSV, Feyenorrd, Benfica, Porto, Marseille, Steua, Red Star Belgrade and Celtic). Of the 21 winning clubs, only 12 have won the Champions League title more than once (Milan, Juventus, Internazionale, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool, Manchester united, Nottingham Forest, Bayern Munich, Ajax, Benfica and Porto). The all-time record holder is Real Madrid with nine wins.

Italy, Spain and England all share the same number of wins by a nation, with 11. Germany and Netherlands are both on six wins each while Portugal has four wins.

The top goalscorer of all time in the UEFA Champions League is Raul Gonzales of Real Madrid with 61 goals. He is closely followed by Andriy Shevchenko with 59 goals. Ruud van Nistelrooy has 57 goals and Thierry Henry is fourth with a tally of 53 goals.

The current UEFA Champions League title holders are Manchester United, who beat Chelsea 6-5 on penalties after a 1-1 draw at the end of extra time at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow in May 2008.

Also, the CAF Confederation Cup (CAF Cup) is an international club association football competition that is run by the Confederation of African Football and is the equivalent of the UEFA Champions League in Africa.

According to information from Segun Fayose of the Corporate Communications and Public Affairs department of MultiChoice Nigeria, the CAF competition was traditionally open to the runners-up of domestic leagues, but in 2004 the competition was merged with the African Cup Winners Cup. Since then, the winners of domestic cup competitions have also entered the CAF Confederation Cup. Also, clubs eliminated in the third round of the qualifying stage in the CAF Champions League get a chance to participate in the CAF Confederation Cup. DStv subscribers will have an all access pass to view these games