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ueFa general seCretary’s Message<br />
25 November 2012 marks the 20th birthday of the<br />
UEFA Champions League. On that Wednesday in<br />
1992, Daniel Amokachi scored the 17th-minute<br />
goal which earned Club Brugge KV a 1-0 home<br />
win against PFC CSKA Moskva and which was the<br />
first time that a ball hit the net in the newly-born<br />
competition. In some quarters, there was a degree<br />
of pessimism about the long-term prospects of<br />
an inaugural UEFA Champions League in which<br />
clubs from England, Germany and Spain were<br />
conspicuous by their absence. Leeds United AFC,<br />
VfB Stuttgart and FC Barcelona had all been<br />
eliminated during the two preliminary rounds<br />
played in September and October which had<br />
reduced the field to just eight clubs. The UEFA<br />
Champions League ‘season’ consisted of just<br />
25 matches, yet the new competition made<br />
a profound impact.<br />
Today, the global success of the UEFA Champions<br />
League is something which can easily be taken<br />
for granted. But it’s always worth harking back<br />
to those pioneering days of two decades ago<br />
and recalling how much enthusiasm, drive and<br />
belief was invested in making the revolutionary<br />
competition work. Dealing with those early<br />
challenges served to create a momentum and a<br />
team spirit which, I am glad to say, have never been<br />
allowed to wane. UEFA has been healthily restless<br />
in looking for ways to improve the competition and<br />
to offer the UEFA Champions League experience to<br />
as many clubs and as many supporters as possible.<br />
We go into the 2012/13 season with a number of<br />
fresh challenges which will help us all to stay on our<br />
toes. We are at the start of a new three-year cycle<br />
in which new commercial and television partners<br />
are coming on board. UEFA is also implementing<br />
a new strategy which, we hope, will go largely<br />
unnoticed. Right from the conception of the new<br />
competition two decades ago, TEAM Marketing AG<br />
have thoroughly deserved credit for their contribution<br />
to the logistics which have underpinned more than<br />
4,000 matches. With a number of TEAM players<br />
now in our squad, UEFA is adopting a rational policy<br />
of running its own competitions and our aim is<br />
to make the transition as seamless as possible.<br />
8 UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE StAtIStICS HANdbOOk 2012/13 UEFA GENErAl SECrETAry’S MESSAGE<br />
The new strategy kicked-in during the play-offs<br />
at the end of August which, for the fourth time,<br />
formed part of the centrally-marketed package<br />
and continued to offering drama and excitement<br />
to a global public, with places among the 32<br />
participants in the group phase at stake.<br />
The changes have also applied to this edition of<br />
the UEFA Champions League’s annual Statistics<br />
Handbook which, by combining a wealth of printed<br />
and online information, aims to provide in-depth<br />
coverage of the players and coaches who will<br />
be performing to packed houses during the 124<br />
matches which will lead to the final at Wembley.<br />
Gianni Infantino<br />
UEFA General Secretary<br />
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