FAQ
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Frequently Asked Questions on coefficients, rankings, formats, draws, seedings, etc
Why do UEFA coefficients exist?
They exist to decide which teams play in the European football cup competitions, and how they will be seeded. It is obvious that all the clubs in Europe cannot participate in an all-play-all league. It is also obvious that some countries are stronger than others. The co-efficient system is a means of trying to decide, as fairly as possible in UEFA's judgment, who should play in the European club competitions. The principles are that a stronger country will be allowed more places than a weaker country, and its teams may start at a later stage of the competition, and a stronger team is seeded in a higher position than a weaker team. Both in principle and in degree UEFA's gradations are much debated.
How does UEFA decide how many teams represent their countries in each European club competition?
The results from the two main European club competitions earn points for each club playing and the countries those clubs belong to. The points earned by all the clubs from a country are added together and divided by the number of clubs participating from that country, to give a figure called the country coefficient. The country coefficients of the five last completed seasons are added together, and the member countries of uefa are then ranked in order, highest figure top. According to what place a country has in the country ranking, it is entitled to a particular number of places in the Champions League and in the Uefa Cup. Uefa also assigns the stage at which a country's teams start in each competition from this ranking.
In general, a win in a match gives 2 points, a draw 1 point. There are bonus points for reaching particular stages of a competition. Points earned in qualifying rounds count only half, and count only for the country co-efficient, not for the team that has earned them. A higher ranked country, in general, has its teams start at a later stage of the competition. Where different teams from the same country start at different times, the team that finished higher in its domestic competition will start later, although domestic cup winners count as the best entrant of their country in the Uefa cup.
Why has country X only Y teams although they are ranked high?
To determine the participants in the Champions League and the UEFA Cup, the ranking for the previous season is used, because each country should know at the start of the season for how many places its clubs are competing. For example, for the 2006/07 season the country ranking of 2005 (which covers the five seasons including and ending with 2004/5) has been used to determine the number of places.
So there is a time lag for a country that is rising in the rankings, before its high ranking is reflected in the number of teams participating. This of course works the other way too, if a country is falling in the rankings, it will be a year before you see the effects in terms of its clubs in the European club competitions.
What is the basis for UEFA Country Ranking computation?
The basis for the UEFA rankings is the performance of teams in the European Cups during a 5 year period. During that period each team gets two points for a win and one point for a draw. From 1999 on these points are halved for qualification matches: one point for a win and half a point for a draw. One bonus point is allocated for reaching the quarter final, the semi final and the final. Reaching the group stage of the Champions League yields three bonus points (before 1996: 2 points, from 1996-2004: 1 point). As of the 2004/05 season, teams qualifying for the first knock-out round of the Champions League will be awarded an extra bonus point. The so-called UEFA coefficients are calculated by taking an average, based on the total number of points divided by the total number of teams of each country. The UEFA country ranking is computed by the sum of 5 coefficients in the last 5 years. To determine the participants in the Champions League and the UEFA Cup the last year's ranking is used, because each country should know at the start of the season for how many places its clubs are competing.
How are UEFA team coefficients calculated?
The UEFA team coefficients are calculated as the sum of 1) the number of points of each individual team, and 2) 33% of the coefficient of the country that team belongs to. For the calculation of the individual points of the team coefficients games played in qualifying rounds are not taken into account. Before 2004 50% of the country coefficient was added. The UEFA team ranking is computed by the sum of 5 coefficients in the last 5 years. The most recent team ranking is used to seed of clubs for draws in the Champions League and the UEFA Cup. 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 those teams, the sum of the ratio of the number of points achieved, divided by the number of games played by each team, was calculated for the previous five years.
How does UEFA's coefficient system affect the draws made in its competitions?
The simple answer is of course, that teams with higher coefficients are seeded, or are placed in a higher pot when there is a round with teams placed in groups. However, a number of consequences arise from the specifics of UEFA's system. Remember that a team co-efficient is the total of five years' worth of coefficients; even if a team did not play in Europe in a particular season, it will have 33% of its country's co-efficient for that year.
A team will have a higher co-efficient either if it belongs to a highly ranked country (so 33% of that country's co-efficient is a substantial figure) or if it gains points for itself in the main rounds of the competition. The highest ranked teams generally satisfy both criteria. This means teams from the highest ranked countries can sometimes be seeded with little or no European experience from the previous five years. In choosing the figure of 33% (previously 50%) UEFA is trying to balance the strength or weakness of countries against the strength or weakness of individual teams' performances.
In the qualifying rounds of the UEFA cup, the teams are divided into three regional groups, Northern, Central-East and South-Mediterranean. UEFA has absolute discretion to choose which group a team is in; therefore seeding (and geographical) anomalies can arise. The teams seeded may differ slightly from a seeding established by a single list of all the teams in the round.
In the qualifying rounds of the Champions' League, the second round is drawn before the results of the first are known, and the third before the second. For the purposes of these draws, UEFA assumes the seeded team progresses from the previous round. Therefore, if the unseeded team wins a tie, it is in effect seeded for the next round only.
Note that team coefficients are not used at every stage of the European competitions. In the Champions' League, the winners of the groups from the group stage are drawn against the runners up (these are the last 16 teams), and in the last 32 of the UEFA Cup, the winners of the groups are drawn against the third placed teams, while the second placed teams play the teams that finished third in the Champions League groups. Beyond these stages, there is no seeding for the draws in either competition.
In other words, once you reach the group stages, your draw in the next round is determined by your performance in your group, not by your coefficient.
Can teams from the same country meet in the European club competitions?
Until the quarter finals of the competitions, teams from the same country cannot be drawn against one another, so that more international club matches take place. This is called 'country protection.'
Does the Intertoto Cup feature in UEFA's calculation of coefficients?
No. However, the winners of the Intertoto Cup (since the 2006-7 season, these are 11 in number) enter the Uefa Cup at the second qualifying round, and the ranking points they gain in the Uefa cup are obviously considered.
What are the Fair Play European places and do they affect the country coefficients?
Each season, Uefa calculates which countries' teams have best exhibited fair play, a concept that includes a number of different tiers of football within each country (e.g. youth, women's teams) and involves a number of different aspects of play (not just the numebr of yellow and red cards). The country that comes top of the fair play table can nominate a team (in general the team in their highest tier that has come top in the domestic fair play table) for an extra Uefa cup place. The next eight countries go into a draw, from which two winners chosen by lot can also enter teams. These three teams start at the first qualifying round of the Uefa Cup. See also UEFA Fair Play Competition.
Yes. Their points are counted towards the country co-efficient. There is debate as to whether this is a good system, since fair play entrants are self-evidently chosen for criteria other than their results. Therefore, weaker teams may enter and dilute their country co-efficient, since that is calculated as an average of all teams of a country.
Why should I bother to find out about UEFA coefficients?
1) You will understand access to and seeding in European club competitions. For example, without understanding that coefficients and rankings are calculated over a five year period, it may be hard to see why some teams rank higher than other teams, or even to work out why a country enters a particular number of teams. 2) You can forecast the ranking of different countries and therefore how many teams each will have in the next season's competitions, and you can also forecast the seeding thresholds in the different rounds. 3) You will have a means of comparison between various teams and countries, since far too many teams participate in European competitions for all to meet directly in competitive matches.
