The 1996âÂÂ97 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. 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 3âÂÂ1 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.
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 1âÂÂ7, plus the title holders, all received a bye to the group stage, while the national champions of the associations ranked 8âÂÂ23 entered in the qualifying round. The remaining national champions from the associations ranked 24âÂÂ48 were only allowed to participate in UEFA Cup.
For the 1996âÂÂ97 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 1991âÂÂ92 to 1995âÂÂ96.
Apart from the allocation based on the association coefficients, an association could have an additional team participating in the Champions League, as noted below:
The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws are held in Geneva, Switzerland).
Atlético Madrid, Auxerre, Fenerbahçe, Rapid Wien and Widzew à Âódà º made their debut in the group stage.
Italy became the first association to have two teams in the Champions League group stage.