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Arsenal Football Club is an English professional football club based in Holloway, North London. The club's first European football match was played against Copenhagen XI on 25 September 1963, and it has since participated in European club competitions on several occasions, most of which organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Arsenal has won two European honours: the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1970 and the Cup Winners' Cup in 1994 – the latter title recognised by the European confederation. The club played the 1994 European Super Cup and repeated its presence in the following year's Cup Winners' Cup final. Arsenal also reached the final of the UEFA Cup in 2000, and became the first London team to appear in a UEFA Champions League final, in 2006. Qualification for European club competitions is determined by a team's position in its domestic league, as well as how successfully a team fares in domestic cup competitions in the previous season. Following the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985, UEFA placed an indefinite ban on all English teams from competing in Europe; the ban was lifted in the 1991–92 season, giving Arsenal the opportunity to play in the European Cup. Between 1998–99 and 2015–16, Arsenal participated in eighteen successive UEFA Champions League seasons, an English football record shared with Manchester United and only surpassed in Europe by Real Madrid. French striker Thierry Henry holds the club record for most appearances with 89, and is the club's record goalscorer in European competitions with 42 goals. Arsenal's biggest winning margin in Europe is a 7–0 scoreline, a feat achieved twice: firstly away at Standard Liège, during their successful Cup Winners' Cup campaign, and secondly at home against Slavia Prague, for the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League. Arsenal hold the European club competition record for the most consecutive clean sheets with ten, set between September 2005 and May 2006. ==Background== Club competitions between teams from different European countries can trace their origins as far back as 1897, when the Challenge Cup was created for clubs in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, who did not meet under normal circumstances. The Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, named after entrepreneur and sportsman Thomas Lipton, was established in 1909 and was contested between clubs from Italy, Great Britain, Germany and Switzerland; the competition lasted for two years. The earliest attempt to create a cup for national champion clubs of Europe was made by Swiss club FC Servette. Founded in 1930, the Coupe des Nations featured clubs of ten major European football leagues and was deemed a success. Due to financial reasons, the competition was abandoned.〔''Nemzeti Sport'', 9 July 1930, p. 3.〕 In December 1954, French sports magazine ''L'Equipe'' published an article by journalist and former professional footballer Gabriel Hanot, who proposed the introduction of a European club competition. He initially suggested that each country should nominate a club to play in a mid-week European league; many clubs favoured a cup competition, which required less matches to play.〔 A year later, ''L'Equipe'' sent out invitations to 18 clubs, selected by Hanot, Jacques Ferran and Jacques Goddet, with UEFA agreeing to administrate the competition named as the European Champion Clubs' Cup. The European Cup Winners' Cup, later retitled the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, was founded in 1960 and involved the winning clubs of national cup competitions in Europe. Arsenal, in the First Division at the time, were ineligible for both competitions, given that the club did not win a league championship or domestic cup for almost two decades. They however were invited to participate in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, an annual European club competition which was set up to promote international trade fairs; where a club finished in their domestic league had no relevance to qualification as teams were selected from cities holding trade fairs. The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup was regarded as the predecessor to the UEFA Cup, rebranded as the UEFA Europa League in 2008. Each competition round was staged over a two-legged tie, with the winner determined by the aggregate score. The away goals rule is activated if the aggregate score is equal. To reinvigorate the European Champion Clubs' Cup, the competition was expanded and rebranded as the UEFA Champions League in 1992. From the 1997–98 season, it was further expanded to include eight domestic league runners-up selected by a UEFA coefficient and preliminary spots the following season were awarded to the third placed team; in some leagues fourth from 2002–03. The expansion and constant growth of the competition led to the decline of the Cup Winners' Cup, abolished in 1999 and by which point instigated proposals for a European Super League. Arsène Wenger has, on numerous occasions predicted the latter, arguing the pressure of television companies will force it to happen: "It's all about money. More games equal more money through TV revenue and I think the next few years will see not just two, but three or four teams from the top countries competing against each other. It's what television wants – big teams in big matches. That is why the Champions' League was introduced." Although Arsenal qualified for a fifteenth successive season of Champions League football in May 2012, this coincided with the club not winning a domestic honour since 2005, which led to open criticism over the competition's present format. Wenger however has gone on to defend the club policy, stating a trophy for Arsenal is winning the Premier League or the Champions League; "Would you like to finish tenth in the league but win the League Cup and say you have won a trophy? Certainly not." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Arsenal F.C. in European football」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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