UEFA_club_rankings

UEFA coefficient

UEFA coefficient

Statistics used for ranking and seeding teams


In European football, the UEFA coefficients are statistics based in weighted arithmetic means used for ranking and seeding teams in club and international competitions. Introduced in 1979 for men's football tournaments,[1] and after applied in women's football and futsal, the coefficients are calculated by UEFA, who administer football within Europe, as well as Armenia, Cyprus, Israel and the Asian parts of some transcontinental countries.

The confederation publishes three types of rankings: one analysing a single season, one analysing a five-year span and another analysing a ten-year span. For men's competitions (discussed in this article), three sets of coefficients are calculated:

Men's association coefficient

Map of UEFA associations whose teams have reached the group stage of the UEFA Champions League
  UEFA member association that has been represented in the group stage
  UEFA member association that has not been represented in the group stage
  Not a UEFA member
Map of UEFA associations whose teams reached the group stage of the UEFA Europa League
  UEFA member association that has been represented in the group stage
  UEFA member association that has not been represented in the group stage
  Not a UEFA member
Map of UEFA associations whose teams reached the group stage of the UEFA Europa Conference League
  UEFA member association that has been represented in the group stage
  UEFA member association that has not been represented in the group stage
  Not a UEFA member

The association coefficient is used to rank the football associations of Europe, and thus determine the number of clubs from an association that will participate in the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Europa Conference League.

The UEFA ranking determines the number of teams competing in the season after the next, not in the first season after the publication of the ranking. Thus, the rankings at the end of the 2021–22 season determine the team allocation by association in the 2023–24 (not 2022–23) UEFA season. This is unrelated to the selection of teams which will fill each allocation through the individual association leagues and national cups (which is decided in the preceding season).

This coefficient is determined by the results of the clubs of the associations in the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Europa Conference League games over the past five seasons. Two points are awarded for each win by a club, and one for a draw (points are halved in the qualifying rounds). Results determined by extra time do count in determining the allocation of points, but results determined by penalty-shootouts do not affect the allocation of points, other than for bonus points given for qualification into the latter rounds. The number of points awarded each season is divided by the number of teams that participated for that association in that season. This number is then rounded down to three decimal places (e.g. 2+23 would be rounded to 2.666).[3][4]

To determine an association's coefficient for a particular season, the coefficients for the last five seasons are added. Bonus points are added to the number of points scored in a season. Bonus points are allocated for:[5]

Bonus Points

More information 2024–25 through 2026–27 seasons, Round ...

UEFA uses this coefficient system to decide which teams gain automatic entry to the group stage and which teams must go through qualifying. For instance, the teams who occupy the top four league places in the associations ranked 1 to 4 in UEFA competition, the top two teams of the association ranked 5 and 6, and the champions in the associations ranked 7 to 10 gain automatic entry into the group stages for the following season's Champions League competition.

Current ranking

The ranking below takes into account of each association's performance in European competitions from 2019–20 to 2023–24, with the 2023–24 season ongoing.

The final ranking at the end of the 2023–24 season will be used to determine the minimum number of places for each association in the 2025–26 UEFA club competitions.

As of 18 April 2024, the coefficients are as follows:[6][7]

More information Ranking, Member association (L: League, C: Cup, LC: League Cup) ...
  Indicates active associations which have all their teams still competing in this season's UEFA club competitions (i.e. Champions League, Europa League or Europa Conference League).
  Indicates active associations which have some teams still competing in this season's UEFA club competitions.
  Indicates associations which have no teams remaining in this season's UEFA club competitions.
  1. Number of teams still active from association in UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League or UEFA Europa Conference League.
  2. European Performance Spot: The two associations with the highest one-year coefficient in the previous season are awarded an additional berth in the Champions League league stage.[8]
  3. The winner of the league cup of England is given a place in the UEFA Europa Conference League by special permission from UEFA (replacing the lowest-ranked league team which would have qualified).
  4. Did not participate in Europe this season, but were awarded 4.333 (the lowest coefficient obtained in the previous 5 seasons)
  5. Not participating in Europe this season
  6. The Liechtenstein Football Association does not organise a national league competition and all its seven clubs compete in the Swiss football league system.[9][10] As a result, the only competitor from Liechtenstein in European competitions is the Liechtenstein Cup winners, who qualify for the UEFA Europa Conference League.[10]

Notes

  1. ^
    Russia (RUS): On 28 February 2022, Russian football clubs and national teams were suspended from FIFA and UEFA competitions due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[11][12][13] On 2 May 2022, UEFA confirmed that Russian clubs would be excluded from the 2022–23 UEFA competitions and be awarded the minimum coefficient from the previous 5 seasons (4.333) for 2022–23.[14] Later UEFA changed Russia's coefficient in 2022–23 season to zero, but they subsequently restored their coefficient to 4.333 at the end of the 2022–23 season.[15]

Further information on Liechtenstein's status and similar cases

According to the UEFA regulations a National League needs to consist of at least eight clubs to be considered valid, otherwise no participants of such a league will be allowed to enter European competitions.

  • There are only seven clubs that are active in Liechtenstein, all of which play in neighbouring Switzerland's league competitions.
  • Prior to the introduction of the Welsh Premier League in 1992 Wales also had a single participant in European competitions, the winner (or best placed Welsh team as several English teams also competed) of the Welsh Cup, in the now defunct UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, two-legged ties in the knockout stages of the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League and 2019–20 UEFA Europa League, and in the qualifying stages of the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League and 2020–21 UEFA Europa League, were changed to single-leg matches. In those cases where there was such a change in format, the following points were awarded instead:[16][17]

  • 3 points for a win (1.5 points for qualifying and play-off matches)
  • 2 points for a draw (1 point for qualifying and play-off matches)
  • 1 point for a loss (0.5 points for qualifying and play-off matches)

This translates to the original system (2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss) by considering the "unplayed leg" as a draw.

Distribution of team competition quotas

2024–27

The following is the default access list for the 2024–25 and future seasons.[18] Rankings in table exclude Liechtenstein.[lower-alpha 1]

More information Champions League, Europa League ...

2021–24

The following was the default access list from the 2021–22 season through the 2023–24 season.[19][20] Rankings in table exclude Liechtenstein.[lower-alpha 1]

More information Champions League, Europa League ...
  1. The Liechtenstein Football Association does not organise a national league competition and all its seven clubs compete in the Swiss football league system.[9][10] As a result, the only competitor from Liechtenstein in European competitions is the Liechtenstein Cup winners, who qualify for the UEFA Europa Conference League.[10]

History

The FARoyal Spanish Football FederationThe FARoyal Spanish Football FederationItalian Football FederationDFBItalian Football FederationThe FADFBThe FARoyal Spanish Football Federation

Following the introduction of the UEFA Cup in 1971, the competition began to grow in complexity having more clubs than the European Champions Cup and the Cup Winners' Cup, reaching up to four from a single country. UEFA began to publish rankings in 1979,[1] to identify the number of participants for each association in the UEFA Cup.

Subsequently, for statistical purposes, various rankings were introduced to portray the history of the associations. According to the prorated (extended) calculation system, only four associations have succeeded in being ranked as the top European association.[21]

Following the Heysel Stadium disaster, all English teams were banned from UEFA competitions in 1985. The ban was only lifted after five seasons, with the knock-on effects continuing to impact on English football for a total of nine years from 1986 to 1994.[22] Having been top in 1985, England were un-ranked in 1990[23] and would not regain the top position until 2008.[24]

Russia was barred from competitions after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Due to military aggression and calls by Russia to "demilitarise" and "denazify", many football clubs in Ukraine were forced to be dissolved or suspend their participation due to destruction of their football infrastructure. [citation needed]

Also, FIFA imposed passive sanctions on Ukrainian clubs (along with Russian clubs) by suspending employment contracts of football players playing in Ukraine due to safety concerns in relations to the Russian aggression without any consultations with Ukrainian football community.[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] The CEO Serhii Palkin of Ukrainian leading football club Shakhtar Donetsk points out that this move led to a big financial loss and FIFA should compensate Ukrainian football community. In October 2023 UEFA brought one of the Ukrainian leading clubs' executive officers, who in 2021 received the "UEFA Grassroot Award",[35] to its Executive Committee on Status of Players.[36][37][38]

Top associations by period

The following data indicates the three top-ranked associations in each five-year period.[39] Data prior to 1975–1979 period has been calculated, but precedes the first published by the Confederation and has merely informative value.[39] Note that the table take into account the results from the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, which was a non-UEFA competition that took place until 1971, whose teams in the first editions were representing cities instead of clubs.

More information Years, 1st place ...

The table shows the ranking of nations with respect to the total number of years in the top three of the rankings:

As of 7 June 2023
More information Association, 1st ...

Women's association coefficient

Current ranking

The ranking below takes into account of each association's performance in European competitions from 2019–20 to 2023–24, with the 2023–24 season currently taking place.

The final ranking at the end of the 2023–24 season will be used to determine the number of places for each association in the 2025–26 UEFA Women's Champions League.

As of 20 April 2024 the coefficients are as follows:[40]

More information Ranking, Member association (L: League) ...
  Indicates active associations which have all their teams still competing in this season's UEFA Women's Champions League.
  Indicates active associations which have some teams still competing in this season's UEFA Women's Champions League.
  Indicates associations which have no teams remaining in this season's UEFA Women's Champions League.
  1. Number of teams still active from association in UEFA Women's Champions League.
  2. Did not participate in Europe this season, but were awarded 1.750 (the lowest coefficient obtained in the previous 5 seasons)
  3. Did not participate in European competitions that season.
  4. No rank, association did not enter in any of the seasons used for computing coefficients (NR)
  5. No women's domestic league (NL)

Notes

  1. ^
    Russia (RUS): On 28 February 2022, Russian football clubs and national teams were suspended from FIFA and UEFA competitions due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[11][12][13] On 2 May 2022, UEFA confirmed that Russian clubs would be excluded from the 2022–23 UEFA competitions and be awarded the minimum coefficient from the previous 5 seasons (1.750) for 2022–23.[14] Later, UEFA changed Russia's coefficient in 2022–23 season into zero, but UEFA subsequently restored their coefficient to 1.750 at the end of the 2022–23 season.[41][42]

History

Top associations by period

The following data indicates the three top-ranked women's associations in each five-year period.

More information Years, 1st place ...

The table shows the ranking of nations with respect to the total number of years in the top three of the rankings:

As of 4 June 2023
More information League, 1st ...

Men's club coefficient

The club coefficient is either the sum of the points earned by the club in the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League over the previous five seasons or 20% of the club's association coefficient over the same period, whichever coefficient is higher.[43] This ranking is used by UEFA to determine a club's seeding in club competition draws, including the qualifying and group stages of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Europa Conference League, and FIFA Club World Cup.[2]

The clubs receive two points for a win, one point for a draw, and no points for a defeat in games of the main stages of the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League. Results determined after extra-time are included in this method, however results determined after penalty shoot-outs are not (the result is considered a draw). Bonus points for entering the Europa League group stage or Europa Conference League group stage are not additional to win/draw points; they provide a minimum points allowance for participating clubs, whereas bonus points for entering the Champions League group stage (and those for qualifying to the knockout stage) are additional to win/draw points.

Qualifying round results are only taken into account if the club is eliminated in one of the rounds (see table below). Otherwise, the qualifying round results are taken into account only for the calculation of the association's coefficient and are halved.[44] The clubs do not receive any points for elimination in the Champions League or Europa League qualifying because those clubs move to the Europa League and/or Europa Conference League and receive points from participation in that competition.[45][46]

Current club ranking

The ranking below takes into account of each club's performance in European competitions from 2019–20 to 2023–24, with the 2023–24 season ongoing.

The top 25 clubs as of 18 April 2024 are as follows.[47][48]

More information Ranking, Club ...
  Indicates clubs still active in this season's UEFA Champions League.
  Indicates clubs still active in this season's UEFA Europa League.
  Indicates clubs still active in this season's UEFA Europa Conference League.
  Indicates clubs from active associations in this season's UEFA club competitions.
  Indicates clubs from associations which have no teams remaining in this season's UEFA club competitions.
  1. Did not participate in European competitions that season

Club point allocations

2024–25 through 2026–27 seasons

More information Round, Points awarded ...

2021–22 through 2023–24 seasons

More information Round, Points awarded ...

2018–19 through 2020–21 seasons

More information Round, Points awarded ...

Prior to the 2018 club rankings, teams received the sum of their points earned over the last five seasons plus 20% of the club's association coefficient.[44][45]

Before 1999 a number of strong teams in the UEFA Cup were seeded such that those teams did not meet in the first two rounds. To determine these teams, the sum of the ratio of the number of points achieved to the number of games played by each team, was calculated for the past five seasons.

Top club by period

The following data indicate the top-ranked clubs in each 5-year period.[39] Data prior to 1975–1979 period has been calculated, but precedes the first published by the Confederation and has merely informative value.[39]

More information Years, Club ...

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