On 23 August 2024, UEFA unveiled a new Champions League brand identity, and among the logos and colours sat the one detail fans truly cared about: Tony Britten had gone back into the studio to re-record his anthem. The complaints came quickly. Thirty-two years on, the music still makes people feel something.

Fact	Detail
Composer	Tony Britten, English
Adopted	1992
Based on	Handel's Zadok the Priest (1727)
Original recording	Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chorus
Languages	English, French and German
Full length	About three minutes
Latest re-recording	2024, with the choir Tenebrae
Rights	Owned by UEFA; Britten receives royalties

A commercials brief that borrowed from a coronation

Britten was no football man hunting for a project. He had worked at the National Theatre before moving into music for film, television and advertising. That is how the job found him. When the European Cup was rebranded as the Champions League in the early 1990s, UEFA's marketing partner, TEAM, wanted something classical rather than a pop jingle.

“I had a commercials agent and they approached me to write something anthemic,” Britten said in a 2013 interview.

He reached for Handel. Zadok the Priest, written in 1727, has been sung at the coronation of every British monarch since, and its slow, swelling build is unmistakable once you know to listen for it in the opening bars of a Champions League night. Britten is careful about how much he took. The piece has “a kind of Handelian feel to it but I like to think it's not a total rip-off,” he said in that same interview. It took him days.

Short job. Long life.

Three languages, one famous recording

The version most of us grew up with was played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and sung by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chorus. It became the sound of midweek nights from London to Lagos. The chorus moves between English, French and German, UEFA's three official languages, using short phrases a language expert drafted for Britten. In full, the anthem lasts about three minutes, although most fans hear only a slice, cut down for the line-up and for the start and end of broadcasts.

We will not reprint the words here.

Its reach is global. UEFA's own Spotify figures, reported by Front Office Sports in May 2025, put Istanbul, London, Jakarta, Milan and Madrid at the top of the list of cities streaming its anthems, with the Champions League piece the most played of the lot.

How the music has changed since 1992

The stadium version has evolved quietly. Before 2024 it had been altered only twice, in 1999/2000 and 2006/07, according to nss magazine. In December 2023 the same outlet reported a different arrangement being tested in Bern, before Young Boys played Red Star Belgrade.

Then came the re-recording, made with a hand-picked orchestra and Tenebrae. Euronews found it slightly faster, more upbeat and lighter on percussion. Some supporters called the new intro “terrible”. Since 2024/25 a more triumphant version also plays when the trophy is lifted.

There have been one-offs too. Hans Zimmer remixed the theme with the rapper Vince Staples for EA Sports' FIFA 19 in 2018, and Britten himself conducted the chorus of La Scala before the 2001 final between Bayern Munich and Valencia at San Siro. “I don't think anybody imagined that the competition would become quite as big as it's become,” he told Front Office Sports. The 2026 final in Budapest, on 30 May, ended with Paris Saint-Germain beating Arsenal 4-3 on penalties.

Clubs have their own rituals, from Real Madrid's Hala Madrid to Liverpool's You'll Never Walk Alone and the Manchester United anthem.

None travels this far.

Can you download the Champions League anthem?

Legally, yes. UEFA has released official recordings on Spotify and other streaming services under its own name, including a short version of about 41 seconds and the full anthem, and current listings also show a 2024/25 edition alongside the Europa League and Women's Champions League themes. An offline download inside a streaming app is the clean route.

Free MP3 files are another matter. UEFA owns the rights. Britten told the BBC in 2020 that his royalties are “not millions”, so bootlegs cost the composer too. That is why this page no longer hosts an audio file or a video link.

Our view

For Nigerian fans the anthem still frames the nights that matter. On 21 October 2026, after the usual line-up at Stade Pierre-Mauroy, Victor Osimhen scored in the 61st minute of Galatasaray's 4-2 win at his old club, as our report on Osimhen's goal at Lille described. “I love this stadium,” he said afterwards. Britten wrote three minutes of borrowed Handel for a rebrand, and it became football's most recognisable call to attention. Hear it properly.

This article was most recently revised and updated 57 seconds ago