On Saturday, over 400 million people from across the globe tuned in and watched the final of the UEFA Champions League between Liverpool and Spurs.

However, irrespective of the two teams at the final, a man from Gerrards Cross helped in the tournament's inception nearly 30 years ago.

Keith Young worked in a design consultancy that he had co -founded in 1986, responsible for working on traditional branding assignments in food for clients such as McVitie’s biscuits and McCain chips

But in 1991 there was a phone call from Switzerland wanting some help in creating a new brand and Young and a colleague flew to Zurich to meet with UEFA, the governing body of football in Europe.

UEFA had acquired the rights for the European Cup and wanted to commercially exploit the opportunity that a league of the best teams in Europe offered.

The brief was to create ‘The Game of the Gods’ with football played at the highest level.

Originally there were just eight clubs, the winners of the domestic leagues from the major countries in Europe.

The brand identity was created using a colour palette of black and white with the icon being what became known as the ‘star ball’. Look at the number of stars that is on the logo, unchanged from when it was launched and you’ll see eight, representing the eight football stars of Europe.

UEFA loved the idea and within a few short weeks the brand started to evolve using a Subbuteo platform to replicate football stadia.

Working on advertising strategy and how to give all advertisers the same amount of exposure meant the creation of visual branding systems that are now used by almost every sport. Young had been to an ice hockey game and seen the centre area used as branding and suggested to UEFA that at the start of all matches there should be a large star ball logo with local children flapping it just before kick off to set the scene and made great live feeds when shot from above.

The project lasted three years, it included the famous Champions League music development too and for Young it created many memories that will last a lifetime.

The concept included the logo, as a ‘star ball football’ to be used in matches. UEFA thought it was a great idea but couldn’t progress without approval from Adidas who were responsible for all football designs.

After meeting them they were impressed with the brand and thinking and asked for help with branding World Cup footballs and for eight years all football designs from Adidas for the major tournaments came through Young and his team.