6. Champions League

The most unique

Ask a Western football fan where he was on June 6, 2015, and he will find you without any worry the bar or the sofa in which he was to watch the final of the Champions League. The competition, which spans a season and opposes the best clubs of the European championships, is the annual summit of international football outside the years of the World Cup.

Which plays in his favor

Barcelona, ​​winner of the 2015 Champions League. REUTERS / Darren Staples

The final of the competition is the most watched annual event in the world. They were 180 million in front of their TV to see the victory of FC Barcelona against Juventus Turin (3-1), mainly in Europe since that is where the 77 clubs from 54 countries come from.

The penetration of competition on other continents is far from anecdotal. Among the teams qualified in the semi-finals in 2015, there were players of 24 different nationalities, half of which were not European, including international stars such as Argentinean Lionel Messi, quadruple Golden Ball, and the Brazilian Neymar.

What's missing

Its emotional impact, restricted to fans of the clubs in the running. Even if it remains a highly commented event, the Champions League is a notch below on social networks. It boasts more than 500 million interactions on Facebook during the season (which lasts nearly ten months) but it is pretty thin against the 3 billion during the Football World Cup (which lasts a month). On a single event, the final is still far from the Super Bowl, with 76 million interactions against 265 million for the US final. At the same time, Katy Perry has never sung at halftime in the Champions League final.

Our opinion

This is an outstanding achievement for such a geographically focused event.