The 2012–13 UEFA Champions League was the 58th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 21st season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League.

The final was played at Wembley Stadium in London, England,^[2] in recognition of the 150th anniversary of the formation of England's Football Association, the world's oldest football association. It came just two years after Wembley hosted the final in 2011, making it the seventh occasion Wembley Stadium (current and old) had hosted the Champions League final.^[3][4] Bayern Munich, who had been runners-up in 2011-12, won by defeating Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund 2–1 via an 89th-minute goal from Arjen Robben. This was Bayern's 10th final, their first European Cup title in 12 years, and their fifth overall. This was the first all-German final, and the fourth final to feature two teams from the same association, after the finals of 2000, 2003, and 2008.

The defending champions, Chelsea, were eliminated in the group stage, becoming the first title holders to leave the competition at this stage.^[5] They went on to win the 2013 Europa League final, and became the first team to win the Europa League while still retaining their Champions League crown.^[6]

A total of 76 teams from 52 of the 53 UEFA member associations participate in the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League (the exception being Liechtenstein, which do not organise a domestic league). The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:^[7]

Since the winners of the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League, Chelsea, failed to qualify for the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league (finishing sixth in the 2011–12 Premier League), and because of the restriction that no association can have more than four teams playing in the Champions League, Chelsea's entry in the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League as title holders came at the expense of Tottenham Hotspur, the fourth-placed team of the 2011–12 Premier League (which entered the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League instead).

For the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2011 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2006–07 to 2010–11.^[8][9]

Tottenham Hotspur were due to enter the Champions League play-off round for non-champions, but instead entered the Europa League because Chelsea won the Champions League the previous season. As this spot in the play-off round was vacated, the following change to the default allocation system was made to compensate:^[10][11]

League positions of the previous season, except Chelsea which only qualified as title holders, shown in parentheses.^[12][13]

All draws are held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland unless stated otherwise.^[15]

In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2012 UEFA club coefficients,^[16][17][18] and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.

The draws for the first and second qualifying rounds were held on 25 June 2012.^[19] The first legs were played on 3 July, and the second legs were played on 10 July 2012.

The first legs were played on 17 and 18 July, and the second legs were played on 24 and 25 July 2012.

The third qualifying round was split into two separate sections: one for champions (Champions Route) and one for non-champions (League Route). The losing teams in both sections entered the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League play-off round.

The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 20 July 2012.^[20] The first legs were played on 31 July and 1 August, and the second legs were played on 7 and 8 August 2012.

The play-off round was split into two separate sections: one for champions (Champions Route) and one for non-champions (League Route). The losing teams in both sections entered the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League group stage.

The draw for the play-off round was held on 10 August 2012.^[21] The first legs were played on 21 and 22 August, and the second legs were played on 28 and 29 August 2012.

The draw for the group stage was held in Monaco on 30 August 2012.^[22] The 32 teams were allocated into four pots based on their 2012 UEFA club coefficients,^[16][17][18] with the title holders, Chelsea, being placed in Pot 1 automatically. They were drawn into eight groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.

In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The matchdays were 18–19 September, 2–3 October, 23–24 October, 6–7 November, 20–21 November, and 4–5 December 2012. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the round of 16, while the third-placed teams entered the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League round of 32.

A total of 17 national associations were represented in the group stage. Montpellier, Nordsjælland and Málaga made their debut appearances in the group stage.^[23]

See here for tiebreakers if two or more teams are equal on points.

In the knockout phase, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows:

The draw for the round of 16 was held on 20 December 2012.^[24] The first legs were played on 12, 13, 19 and 20 February, and the second legs were played on 5, 6, 12 and 13 March 2013.

The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 15 March 2013.^[25] The first legs were played on 2 and 3 April, and the second legs were played on 9 and 10 April 2013.

The draw for the semi-finals and final (to determine the "home" team for administrative purposes) was held on 12 April 2013.^[26] The first legs were played on 23 and 24 April, and the second legs were played on 30 April and 1 May 2013.

The final was played on 25 May 2013 at Wembley Stadium in London, England.

Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.

For the 2012–13 season, UEFA awarded €2.1 million to each team in the play-off round. For reaching the group stage, UEFA awarded a base fee of €8.6 million. A win in the group was awarded €1 million and a draw was worth €500,000. In addition, UEFA paid teams reaching the first knockout round €3.5 million, each quarter-finalist €3.9 million, €4.9 million for each semi-finalist, €6.5 million for the runners-up and €10.5 million for the winners.^[29]

A large part of the distributed revenue from the UEFA Champions League is linked to the "market pool", the distribution of which is determined by the value of the television market in each country. For the 2012–13 season, Juventus, who were eliminated on quarter-finals, earned nearly €65.3 million in total of which €20.5 million was prize money, compared with the €55.0 million earned by Bayern Munich, who won the tournament and was awarded with €35.9 million of prize money.^[30]