CSKA Moscow

Formed: 1911
Nickname: Armeytsi (Army Men)

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• UEFA Cup: 2005
• UEFA Super Cup: (2005)

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 10 (2006)
• Soviet/Russian Cup: 11 (2011)

History
• Founded as OLLS (Obshestvo Lyubiteley Lyzhnogo Sporta – Amateur Society of Skiing Sports), the club went through five other names before, in 1960, becoming CSKA – Central Sports Club of the Army. By then they were already a force to be reckoned with.

• Having finished fourth in their debut Soviet Top League season in 1936, they won the USSR Cup in 1945 and followed that up with league success 12 months later. It was the first of five Soviet Top League titles in six years, winning the league and cup double in 1948 and 1951.

• CSKA claimed the championship again in 1970, earning them a first tilt at European competition. It started promisingly enough, overcoming Galatasaray AŞ 4-1 on aggregate in the European Champion Clubs’ Cup first round, but R. Standard de Liège ended their ambitions in the next stage.

• CSKA won the last Soviet Top League in 1991 but struggled after the collapse of the USSR – it was not until 2003, under Valeri Gazzaev, that they finally reined supreme in the Russian Premier-Liga.

• The club have claimed two more titles since, adding to five Russian Cups, but arguably their greatest achievement came in the UEFA Cup in 2005. CSKA became the first side from Russia to win a European title as they came from behind to beat Sporting Clube de Portugal 3-1 in the final in Lisbon. Under the guidance of Leonid Viktorovich Slutsky, CSKA reached the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals for the first time in 2010, and have lifted the domestic cup twice.

Club records
Most appearances: Vladimir Fedotov (425)
Most goals: Grigory Fedotov (149)
Record victory: Lokomotiv Vologda 1-10 CSKA (USSR Cup, 23 May 1937)
Record defeat: 6-0 on three occasions, most recently at Olympique de Marseille (UEFA Champions League, 17 March 1993)

 

From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=54266/profile/index.html

LOSC Lille Profile

Formed: 1944
Nickname:

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• UEFA Intertoto Cup (2004)

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 3 (2011)

History

LOSC Lille Métropole was formed on 23 September 1944 as a result of a merger between professional clubs Olympique Lillois and SC Fives. Lillois had been in the process of negotiating with Fives as early as 1939. After failing to agree to a merger with Fives, Lillois merged with local club Iris Club Lillois to form Olympique Iris Club Lillois. However, due to World War II and the abolishing of professional football under the Vichy Regime, the club spent most of its existence playing in the amateur war leagues. In 1944, Fives finally agreed to a merger. However, the section of Olympique Iris Club Lillois officials who were representing Iris Club Lillois refused the merger as it meant the club would have to turn professional. The disagreement between Olympique Lillois and Iris Club led to the first merger dissolving. As a result, the original incarnation of Lillois merged with Fives. The club was initially named Stade Lillois and played under the name in two friendly matches ahead of the 1944–45 war championship season. On 10 November 1944, after a directors’ meeting, the club changed its name to Lille Olympique Sporting Club. The name pays tribute to Olympique Lillois by retaining the Lille Olympique title and pays tribute to SC Fives by retaining the SC acronym. The club, subsequently, adopted the red and white colors of Lillois as its home kit and took Fives’ blue colors as its away kit. Former Fives president Louis Henno was named as the club’s first president.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lille_OSC

Trabzonspor Profile

Formed: 1967
Nickname: Karadeniz Fırtınası (Black Sea Storm), Bordo-Mavililer (Claret-Blues)

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 6 (1984)
• Turkish Cup: 8 (2010)
• Turkish Super Cup: 1 (2010)

History
• Trabzonspor’s birth came in two stages. First, three local amateur sides – İdmangücü, Karadenizgücü and Martıspor – merged on 21 June 1966 to form the club with a red and white strip chosen as team’s colours. However, the new collaboration did not initially include İdmanocağı, one of the city’s leading sports clubs. Although the newly-formed entity competed in the second division in 1966/67, İdmanocağı were subsequently included and the club refounded on 2 August 1967, this time sporting a claret and blue kit.

• They played in the Turkish second division until winning the league in 1974 and finished ninth in their first campaign in the top flight. Historic success followed in 1975/76 as Trabzonspor won the Turkish championship, the first time it had not been claimed by one of Istanbul’s big three of Galatasaray AŞ, Fenerbahçe SK and Beşiktaş JK. They also picked up the President’s Cup and Prime Minister’s Cup that same season.

• What followed was a period of unparalleled success under legendary coach Ahmet Suat Özyazıcı. Trabzonspor defended their league title and between 1979 and 1981 they sensationally won three successive championships, putting the Black Sea club among the top teams in the country. Having taken over in 1973, Özyazıcı oversaw the club’s promotion and all their national titles bar the last two, in 1981 and 1984. Those triumphs came under Özkan Sümer, who was Trabzonspor president between 2000 and 2003.

• All Trabzonspor’s league titles were won with a completely Turkish squad and Özyazıcı still holds the national record as the coach with most domestic trophies due largely to that golden period with the Black Sea club. The title has evaded Trabzonspor since their double-winning campaign of 1984, but they have sought solace in the Turkish Cup, winning it for the eighth time in 2010.

• On the European stage, Trabzonspor have recorded some notable results, especially at home. The likes of Liverpool FC, FC Internazionale Milano and FC Barcelona have all been beaten at the Hüseyin Avni Aker Stadium. Knocking out Olympique Lyonnais and Aston Villa FC in the UEFA Cup in the early 1990s are still considered some of their biggest successes on the European stage.

Club records
Most appearances: Hami Mandıralı (469)
Most goals: Hami Mandıralı (218)
Record victory: 7-0 on three occasions, most recently away to Kasımpaşa (Turkish Super League, 17 October 2010)
Record defeat: Beşiktaş JK 7-1 Trabzonspor AŞ (Turkish Super League, 20 November 1993)

 From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=52731/profile/index.html

Inter FC Profile

Formed: 1908
Nicknames: Nerazzurri (Black and Blues), La Beneamata (The Beloved)

UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• European Champion Clubs’ Cup: 1964, 1965; (1967), (1972), 2010
• UEFA Cup: 1991, 1994, 1998; (1997)
• UEFA Super Cup: (2010)

Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 18 (2010)
• Italian Cup: 7 (2011)

History
• Inter were founded when members of Milan CFC – the forerunner for AC Milan – set up their own club. The name is a reference to their stated ambition of being open to players of all nationalities, and in 1909/10 Inter claimed their first Scudetto.

• Their name changed – briefly to AS Ambrosiana, then AS Ambrosiania-Inter – as did the club colours – to white from 1928 to 1946 – but the success continued with more or less a title a decade. An Inter side built around Giuseppe Meazza claimed their first Coppa Italia in 1938/39, and the club won back-to back titles in 1952/53 and 1953/54.

• The arrival of Angelo Moratti as president in 1955 ushered in the club’s golden era: ‘La Grande Inter’. Under Moratti, coach Helenio Herrera embraced Catenaccio and his disciplined unit won the Scudetto in 1963, 1965 and 1966 and the European Champion Clubs’ Cup in 1964 and 1965, also losing the 1967 final. Between 1961/62 and the title-winning 1970/71 season an Inter side including Giacinto Facchetti did not finish outside the top two in Serie A.

• Catenaccio was a dying art by Inter’s next title in 1980, and they began looking to Germany for inspiration. Following in the footsteps of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Andreas Brehme, Lothar Matthäus and Jürgen Klinsmann arrived and under Giovanni Trapattoni the Nerazzurri clinched its 13th Scudetto in 1989. They broke two records on the way: winning 58 out of 68 available points and 26 of 34 games, earning the moniker ‘Inter dei Record’.

• In 1991 Inter beat AS Roma 2-1 on aggregate in the UEFA Cup final, etching their name in the trophy again in 1994 and 1998, but Serie A success eluded them until a match-fixing scandal handed them the 2005/06 crown, even though they finished third.

• That was to be the first of five straight titles, with the most recent coinciding with José Mourinho making them European champions for the first time in 45 years, overseeing a 2-0 final win against FC Bayern München in Madrid in his final game in charge. Although Mourinho left that summer, Inter’s run of success continued with a 3-0 defeat of TP Mazembe Englebert in the FIFA Club World Cup final in December 2010. President Massimo Moratti appointed Gian Piero Gasperini to lead Inter’s 2011/12 campaign as they seek to reclaim the Serie A title from AC Milan.

Club records
Most appearances: Giuseppe Bergomi (758)
Most goals: Giuseppe Meazza (288)
Record victory: Inter 16-0 Vicenza Calcio (First Division, 10 January 1915)
Record defeat: Juventus 9-1 Inter (Serie A, 10 June 1961)

 

From: http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/clubs/club=50138/profile/index.html