The 1996–97 UEFA Champions League was the 42nd season of UEFA's premier European club football tournament, the fifth since its rebranding as the UEFA Champions League, and the last that involved only clubs that were champions of their domestic leagues or the title holders. Due to the Bosman ruling, restrictions on foreign players in matchday squads were lifted from this season.
The tournament was won by Borussia Dortmund in a 3–1 final victory against defending champions Juventus. It was their only title in the tournament to date, and the first title for Germany since its reunification in 1990.
Association team allocation 24 teams entered the competition: the national champions of each of the top 23 nations in the UEFA coefficient rankings, and UEFA Champions League holders, Juventus. The national champions of the associations ranked 1–7, plus the title holders, all received a bye to the group stage, while the national champions of the associations ranked 8–23 entered in the qualifying round. The remaining national champions from the associations ranked 24–48 were only allowed to participate in UEFA Cup.
Association ranking For the 1996–97 UEFA Champions League, the associations were allocated places according to their 1996 UEFA association coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 1991–92 to 1995–96.
Apart from the allocation based on the association coefficients, an association could have an additional team participating in the Champions League, as noted below: – Additional berth for UEFA Champions League title holders
+Association ranking for 1996–97 UEFA Champions LeagueRankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes161.2591245.408343.932442.140538.700632.800730.166827.800927.0001025.2001122.9161222.0001321.9501418.7501518.2501617.0001716.550RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes1815.83211915.6652015.2492115.1502214.9162314.4162412.66502512.5002611.1662710.9992810.3322910.000309.666319.582329.250338.500345.332RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes355.0000365.000374.331384.331394.000403.666413.333423.000433.000442.666452.500462.000471.000480.500490.000500.000
Distribution RoundTeams entering in this roundTeams advancing from the previous roundQualifying round(16 teams) 16 champions from associations 8–23Group stage(16 teams) Title holders 7 champions from associations 1–7 8 winners from the qualifying roundKnockout stage(8 teams) 4 group winners from the group stage 4 group runners-up from the group stage
Teams Group stage Juventus Auxerre Borussia Dortmund Porto Milan Atlético Madrid Ajax Manchester United Qualifying round Club Brugge Brøndby Slavia Prague Ferencváros Panathinaikos Rapid Wien Rangers Steaua București Alania Vladikavkaz IFK Göteborg Rosenborg Widzew Łódź Fenerbahçe Grasshopper Dynamo Kyiv Maccabi Tel Aviv
Round and draw dates The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held in Geneva, Switzerland).
PhaseRoundDraw dateFirst legSecond legQualifying round6 July 19967 August 199621 August 1996Group stageMatchday 123 August 199611 September 1996Matchday 225 September 1996Matchday 316 October 1996Matchday 430 October 1996Matchday 520 November 1996Matchday 64 December 1996Knockout phaseQuarter-finals5 March 199719 March 1997Semi-finals9 April 199723 April 1997Final28 May 1997 at Olympiastadion, Munich
Qualifying round
Group stage
Atlético Madrid, Auxerre, Fenerbahçe, Rapid Wien and Widzew Łódź made their debut in the group stage.
Italy became the first association to have two teams in the Champions League group stage.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Knockout stage
Bracket
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
Top goalscorers RankNameTeamGoals1 Milinko Pantić Atlético Madrid52 Nicola Amoruso Juventus4 Artur Porto4 Alen Bokšić Juventus4 Alessandro Del Piero Juventus4 Mário Jardel Porto4 Lars Ricken Borussia Dortmund4 Karl-Heinz Riedle Borussia Dortmund4 Marco Simone Milan4 Christian Vieri Juventus4 Diego Simeone Atlético Madrid4
See also 1996 UEFA Intertoto Cup 1996–97 UEFA Cup 1996–97 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
References
External links
1996–97 All matches – season at UEFA website European Cup results at RSSSF All scorers 1996–97 UEFA Champions League (excluding qualifying round) according to protocols UEFA + all scorers qualifying round 1996/97 UEFA Champions League – results and line-ups