In addition, a preliminary round was required as this was the first season after the break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, resulting in many new countries eligible to enter the champions of their own leagues into the competition.

The tournament was won for the first time by Marseille, defeating Milan in the final, becoming the first and as of 2025 only French team to win the European Cup/Champions League.

Before the 1991 European Cup final against Red Star Belgrade, Marseille had a few injured players, Tapie did not want to repeat this mistake.

This resulted in Marseille being stripped of their league title by the French Football Federation (although not the European Cup, as the match in question was not in that competition).

During the 1995 trial over Marseille's financial accounts, it was revealed that they had an annual budget of Fr5 million (about €760,000) dedicated to the purchase of matches from 1989 to 1993.

Since the title holders (Barcelona) qualified via their domestic league, the title holder spot was vacated and the following changes to the default access list were made: The teams were ranked according to their 1992 UEFA seeding coefficients, which took into account performances in European competitions from 1987–88 to 1991–92.