{"id":631624,"date":"2026-04-27T09:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T09:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/631624\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T09:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T09:55:10","slug":"who-will-win-the-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/631624\/","title":{"rendered":"Who will win the Champions League?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Soccer Monday is a weekly newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things soccer from this past weekend. Sign up here<\/a> to get it every Monday morning. <\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc4b Good morning! <\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcf0 Headlines: <\/p>\n

Italy rocked by another refereeing scandal<\/p>\n

Gianluca Rocchi, head of referees in Serie A and Serie B, has been placed under criminal investigation. He is accused of influencing VAR decisions and altering the selection of referees to favor Inter Milan. <\/p>\n

Man City headed to a fourth straight FA Cup final <\/p>\n

Manchester City is headed to a fourth straight FA Cup final after surviving a scare to beat second-division Southampton 2-1 at Wembley on Saturday. Nico Gonzalez\u2019s 87th-minute winner completed a comeback after going a goal down. <\/p>\n

Barcelona closes in on a second consecutive title <\/p>\n

Barcelona closed in on a second straight La Liga title after a 2-0 win at Getafe on Saturday. Fermin Lopez dedicated his opener to the injured Lamine Yamal, Barca\u2019s leading scorer who will miss the rest of the season with a muscle injury. <\/p>\n

Get ready for this summer with \u201cThe World Cup: A History of the Planet’s Biggest Sporting Event, 2026 Edition\u201d<\/a> \u2014 your ultimate guide to the legends and unforgettable moments of soccer\u2019s greatest stage. Enjoy 20% off here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u26bd The big story: Europe\u2019s biggest clubs still endure long UCL droughts <\/p>\n

Going years, even decades, without a trophy happens all the time. When it comes to the longest title droughts in the Champions League, Europe\u2019s premier club competition, the list reveals a striking contrast.<\/p>\n

A study by Sportingpedia<\/a> examined all 24 teams to have won the European Cup or Champions League, tracking both their current wait since last lifting the trophy and the longest gaps multiple champions have endured between triumphs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At the top of this unwanted list is Benfica, who now hold the longest ongoing drought at 64 years, dating back to their 1961-62 European Cup victory. They are followed by Celtic with a 59-year wait and Feyenoord at 56 years. Notably, eight of the 10 longest current droughts belong to clubs that have only ever won the competition once. <\/p>\n

The Champions League returns this week with the opening legs of the semifinals. PSG take on Bayern Munich (UCL winners as recently as 2020), while Arsenal play Atletico Madrid. It should be noted that neither Atletico or Arsenal have ever lifted Europe\u2019s ultimate club trophy. <\/p>\n

At the same time, this data underlines just how European soccer\u2019s elite competition continues to produce both enduring dominance and decades-long waits, often within the histories of the same clubs. <\/p>\n

While those figures highlight long-standing struggles, a separate ranking tells a different story about resilience and revival. Inter Milan hold the record for the longest completed gap between two titles, ending a 45-year wait when they won the Champions League in 2009-10 \u2014 the Italian club\u2019s first since the 1964-65 season. <\/p>\n

Real Madrid rank second in that category, having once gone 32 years between their sixth and seventh European crowns.<\/p>\n

Another notable detail is that Benfica and Nottingham Forest are the only multiple-time winners to feature among the top 10 longest ongoing droughts \u2014 despite both clubs winning their titles in consecutive seasons.<\/p>\n

At the opposite end of the spectrum are the competition\u2019s most recent champions. Paris Saint-Germain currently have the shortest wait at just one year (with a very good shot at repeating this spring), followed by Real Madrid at two years and Manchester City at three. <\/p>\n

\ud83d\udd22 By the numbers: <\/p>\n

5 \u2014 Number of La Liga draws by Real Madrid this season, the latest on Saturday in a 1-1 game at Real Betis.<\/p>\n

45 \u2014 Days remaining before the start of the World Cup on June 11. <\/p>\n

145 \u2014 The number of editions of the FA Cup final, which will be played on May 16 between Manchester City and Chelsea. <\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcac What they\u2019re saying: <\/p>\n

QUOTE <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Iranian team is coming, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 A FIFA statement on April 23 when asked if Italy would replace Iran at the upcoming World Cup <\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc6 World Cup watch: Inside the massive FIFA marketing machine <\/p>\n

By the time the first whistle blows at the World Cup in June, the soccer tournament will already have scored its biggest victory \u2014 commercially.<\/p>\n

Set to take place across North America in the United States, Canada and Mexico, the expanded 48-team competition is not just the largest World Cup in history by scale, but also by ambition.<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, a vast ecosystem of sponsorships, licensing deals and marketing campaigns<\/a> will ensure that this World Cup becomes one of the most lucrative global sporting events ever staged.<\/p>\n

The 2026 World Cup is shaping up to be more than a sporting spectacle, but a commercial powerhouse. For FIFA, the challenge is balancing revenue growth with authenticity. For brands, it\u2019s about standing out in a very crowded field. <\/p>\n

The tournament, according to FIFA<\/a>, is projected to generate over $80 billion in global economic output, driven by 6.5 million visitors across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. <\/p>\n

You can read the rest of this article here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa Upcoming top games this week (all times ET): <\/p>\n

April 27 <\/p>\n

\u2014 Manchester United vs. Brentford (EPL) at 3 p.m. (USA) <\/p>\n

April 28 <\/p>\n

\u2014 PSG vs. Bayern Munich (UCL) at 3 p.m. (Paramount+)<\/p>\n

April 29 <\/p>\n

\u2014 Atletico Madrid vs. Arsenal (UCL) at 3 p.m. (Paramount+)<\/p>\n

April 30 <\/p>\n

\u2014 Corinthians vs. Penerol (Copa Libertadores) at 8 p.m. (Fanatiz) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Soccer Monday is a weekly newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things soccer from this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-631624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}