UEFA Champions League 1992–93

The UEFA Champions League 1992–93 was the 38th European Cup, the premier European club football tournament, and the first edition under the current UEFA Champions League format.

It was the second tournament to have a group stage involving the eight second round winners split into two groups, and the winner of each one met in the final. In addition, a preliminary round was required as this was the first season after the break-up of the USSR and Yugoslavia, resulting in a large number of new countries eligible to enter the champions of their own leagues into the competition.

The tournament was won for the first time by Marseille, defeating Milan in the final. However, soon after Marseille's victory allegations of match fixing were levelled at them and their president Bernard Tapie. This involved a league game where Marseille, it emerged, had fixed their title-clinching Ligue 1 game against US Valenciennes so they could concentrate on the Milan tie. It is believed that Tapie bribed Valenciennes to lose so that Marseille would win the French league earlier, giving them more time to prepare for the Champions League final. This resulted in Marseille being stripped of their league title by the French Football Federation (although not the Champions League, as the match in question was not in that competition). They were also forcibly relegated to the second tier in the league, and banned from defending their European title in the 1993–94 season.

Preliminary round

First round

* In the second leg between Leeds United and Stuttgart, Stuttgart had fielded an ineligible player. The game was awarded to Leeds United and a play-off in Barcelona was ordered, which Leeds United won 2-1.

econd round

Group stage

Group A

Final

footballbox
date = 1993-05-26
team1 = Marseille flagicon|FRA
score = 1 – 0
team2 = flagicon|ITA Milan
goals1 = Boli goal|44
goals2 =
stadium = Olympiastadion, Munich
attendance = 64,400
referee = Kurt Röthlisberger flagicon|SUI

Trivia

*Milan became the first team in Champions League history to have a perfect record in the group stage (6 matches, 6 wins).
*Marseille became the first French team to win the UEFA Champions League.

ee also

*UEFA Cup 1992-93

External links

* [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UCL/history/Season=1992/intro.html 1992-93 season at UEFA website]
* [http://www.rsssf.com/ec/ec199293.html#cc European Cup results at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation]