Forest is the most successful team in European Cup history
March 2, 2010
Nottingham Forest is the most successful team in European Cup history. This is based on on the number of times a club has qualified for the European Cup and the number of times that club has won the competition as a result of qualification.
Upto and including the 2009/10 season, there have been 21 different clubs that have won the European Cup/Champions League. Of those, Real Madrid, Milan and Liverpool have managed to win Europe’s premier competition on 5 or more occasions. But only 2 clubs on the list have achieved a Win Ratio of 50% and over: Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa, with Forest managing a 67% success rate.
English teams make up 3 of the top 5 positions, with Milan and Real Madrid joining Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa and Liverpool. It also appears very difficult for any club to overtake the top 2 sides. One scenario for this to happen would, probably, involve a new winner of the trophy, who having qualified for the first time, then goes on to win it 3 times in a row, failing at the 4th attempt, giving them a Win Ratio of 75%. Of course if a new winner emerged, after qualifying for the first time, then that club would of course have a 100% record for a short period.
In addition, Nottingham Forest is the only club to have won more European Cups than domestic league titles (2 to 1) and the only previous winner to have played in the 3rd tier of their national league. Forest, along with Porto, are the only clubs who have appeared at least twice in a European Cup final and, as such, have a 100% success rate. The success of Liverpool, Manchester United, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa also means that England is the only country to have 4 clubs from different cities win the competition.
European Cup/Champions League Win Ratio Table
Club Wins Qual Win Ratio 1 Nottingham Forest 2 3 67% 2 Aston Villa 1 2 50% 3 Milan 7 24 29% 4 Liverpool 5 20 25% 5 Real Madrid 9 40 23% 6 Internazionale 3 17 18% 7 Hamburg 1 6 17% 8 Ajax 4 26 15% 9 Bayern Munich 4 26 15% 10 Barcelona 3 20 15% 11 Manchester United 3 21 14% 12 Borussia Dortmund 1 10 10% 13 Marseille 1 11 9% 14 Porto 2 25 8% 15 Feyenoord 1 13 8% 16 Juventus 2 26 8% 17 Benfica 2 29 7% 18 Steaua Bucharest 1 19 5% 19 Red Star Belgrade 1 21 5% 20 PSV Eindhoven 1 23 4% 21 Celtic 1 25 4%