Okay, buckle in for those trying learn about Champions League. Heres how it works:

QUALIFICATION: the Champions League (CL) is a tournament (not a league) consisting of 32 teams from Europe's top leagues. Qualification is based on the final standings from each European country's league. Each of these leagues is allotted a certain number of slots, and the teams that finish in them are in the Champions league (top four at the end of the season in the English Premier League get into next year's CL, for example). The number of slots per league are based on how good that league is/how much money it has/etc.

DRAW: Each of the 32 teams are put into certain pots, based on how they finished last year and what league they are in. These pots are drawn, and eight groups of four teams are created. Teams from the same country cannot be in the same CL group.

GROUP STAGE: Each team in each group plays six games, one home and one away against each team in their group. Two advance from this group, based on the points system (just like world cup). The team that comes in third in these groups is sent to the Europa League, which is basically the NIT of European Club soccer.

KNOCKOUT ROUNDS (Round of 16): The top two teams from each group are then placed into another pot, separating the group winners and second place teams. The teams that won the group play a second place team. These two teams then play a home and home with each other, and who advances is based on goal differential. If the goal differential is the same, the team who scored more away goals advances. If both goal differential and away goals are the same, the second game (called the second leg) goes into extra time and penal ties if needed, just like the World Cup.

QUARTER AND SEMI-FINALS: The teams are put into one big pot and redrawn again. The two teams drawn play each other in a home and home, with the exact format as the round of 16 games.

FINALS: The final is held at a neutral European site in late May, and it is a one game winner take all game.

Hope this helps, and if you have any more questions, I'm here. Here's some perspective of the size of this. In 2011, the Superbowl had 111.3 million viewers. The Champions League final that year surpassed 300 million