This FAQ has been prepared to answer various questions regarding the seeding and qualification process for the four European Cups. If you want to receive subsequent updates of this FAQ by mail send me a note. If you have comments or suggestions don't forget to mail me a copy since I may miss follow-ups in rec.sport.soccer. The FAQ is published irregularily.
Note: this FAQ will not be updated anymore, as UEFA now has the relevant
explanations on their own pages.
To wit: UEFA Champions League: 1999/2000 Format explained;
and: UEFA Cup: 1999/2000 Format explained.
Version August 1998 - what's new in this version ?
Starting from this edition the FAQ will not contain updated coefficient
tables anymore. If I remember correctly I have been providing these numbers
since 1991 and have been the sole provider for most of the time. Nowadays
several football enthousiasts provide these numbers on the web in a timely
fashion. Since I'm always short on time I see no need to include them in the
FAQ anymore.
Currently up-to-date coefficients are available at the following URLs:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/rank99.html
http://vlo.waw.ids.edu.pl/~mogiel/EC/current.html
http://net.indra.com/~mwaters/94-98.htm
Contents
- Champions' League
- Cup Winners' Cup
- UEFA Cup
- UEFA Intertoto Cup
- Dates 1997/98
- UEFA ranking list 97/98
- UEFA coefficient broken down per season
- Seeding
- Q & A section
There are four different European Cups - the UEFA Champions' League (CL), - the Cup Winners' Cup (CWC), - the UEFA Cup (UC), originally intended for League runners up, and - the UEFA Intertoto Cup (UIC). The qualification for these competitions is due to the performance in National Leagues resp. Cup competitions. The Champion usually enters the CL, the Cup Winner (resp. losing finalist in case of a double) enters the CWC, while a variable number of League runners up enter the UC (in some countries winners of a League Cup enter the UC as well). Teams finishing below those qualifying for the UC may enter the UIC.
Champions' Cup: New format for 1997/98 For the 1997/98 season UEFA has again changed the format to allow the vice champions of the 8 top ranked countries as well as the champions of up to 48 countries into the competition. The countries elegible to send their vice champion will be determined by the UEFA ranking determined at the end of the previous season. The league stage will be played in six groups of four teams. From there the six group winners together with two 'best runners-up' will advance to the quarter finals. The 'best runners-up' will be determined by number of points, goal difference, goals scored and goals scored away. To cut down the number of teams the 32 champions of countries ranked 17 to 48 in the most recent ranking table play a preliminary round in late July. For the 16 losers of this tie their European campaign is over. The 16 winners play in the qualification round together with 8 champions of countries ranked 9 to 16 and 8 vice champions of countries ranked 1 to 8. The 16 winners of this round advance to the league stague where they will be joined by the 8 champions of the top ranked countries. The 16 losers will play in the first round of the UEFA Cup. The defending Cup Winner gets an automatic place in the league stage regardless where he finishes in his domestic competition. This means that in this case the champions of the countries ranked 8th, 16th (and 48th) are 'downgraded'. In future versions of the competition the second placed team from the Cup defender's country will possibly not be allowed into the Champions' League in order to avoid congestion with the TV schedule. It is also planned to have four groups of six teams and reduce the quarter and semi finals to one game only but these changes are not in effect for the 1998/99 season.
Cup Winners' Cup: The Cup Winners of the FA Cups of the member FAs of UEFA get to play in this Cup unless they also win the domestic championship (in which case they will be replaced by the losing cup finalists). The CWC defender is also eligible to play (unless he becomes national champion). In case both Cup finalists play in the Champions Cup a play-off between the losing semifinalists is arranged to determine the CWC representative.
UEFA Cup:
The UEFA Cup started (under the name "Fairs Cup") as a competion between city
teams from cities which host a trade fair. Later it was a competition for
the runners up of the various leagues, some countries enter also their League
Cup winner. The number of participants from each country is determined by
the UEFA ranking list. Since the Champions League was introduced the
champions not eligible for the Champions League are entered into the UEFA Cup
as well, another three berths are allocated for the Intertoto Cup
finalists and three are given to countries who top the UEFA Fair Play
competition. From 1997/98 on we have the following participants:
82 participants are determined by the UEFA coefficient table (see below):
3 countries with four berths
5 countries with three berths
13 countries with two berths
29 countries with one berth
3 Intertoto Cup participants
3 Fair Play competition winners
The three countries which top the UEFA Fair Play competition each get one
additional UEFA cup berth in the next competition. The 1995/96 berths
were allocated to Norway, England and Luxembourg, the 1996/97 berths have
been awarded to Sweden, Russia and Finland (one berth originally awarded
to England has been revoked because of fielding youth and reserve teams
in the 1995 UIC) and in 1997/98 Norway, England and Sweden have gotten
the berths, the 98/99 berths will go to England, Finland and Norway.
A restructuring of the Fair Play Award competition has been announced.
Three UEFA Cup places will continue to be offered as rewards but only the
top ranked association will automatically receive a spot in the
competition. The two remaining places will be decided by a draw from all
the associations who have met a pre-determined standard.
1 defending UEFA Cup Holder
(only if they don't qualify for any European competition otherwise)
16 qualification round losers from the Champions Cup (from 1997/98 on)
up to
3 champions of low ranked countries which find no room in the 56-team
Champions' League
---
108 participants
The following format will be used:
- Preliminary round involving 40 teams from countries with the lowest country
coefficient in the 96/97 ranking
- Qualifying round involving 40 teams (20 winners from the round, 20 teams
from the countries with low coefficients which not play in the preliminary
round)
- First round involving 64 teams (20 winners from the qualification round, 16
teams eliminated from the Champions' Cup, 25 teams from countries with high
rankings and 3 teams qualifying through the UIC).
From 1997/98 on the UC final will be decided in a single game on neutral
ground.
UEFA Intertoto Cup: The Intertoto Cup started as a way to guarantee income to the toto-industry in the early sixties (in fact, this generated a significant sum of money for clubs in several countries, one of them the Netherlands). The first one or two seasons the group winners played out a final stage to determine an overall winner (the first being Ajax). After a few years the competition degenerated into summer practice for midtable teams of North, Central and East European countries. Teams from the British Isles, Spain or Italy seldom participated if at all. No final stage was played after the initial (one or two) season(s) and nobody really cares for it. This new directive by UEFA seems like a final attempt of attracting some attention to it. The 'new' UEFA Intertoto-Cup has started in the summer of 1995. The cup will be played during the summer, and the teams allowed to participate should have been the best finishing teams in the respective leagues the previous season not already qualified for any of the other three European Cups. The number of teams from each country is determined by the UEFA ranking of countries just as in the UC (with the exception that also the bottom clubs are entitled to one berth). In 1996 and 1997 60 teams were divided into 12 groups with the winners of each group qualifying for a knock-out round, from where the best 3 teams qualified for the first round proper of the UEFA Cup the following autumn. 1995 saw a slightly different format producing two UC entrants. UEFA have announced some changes for the 1998 competition. A two leg knockout format beginning with 40 teams will be used. The 20 winners will then play 12 seeded teams with the 16 winners meeting the eight top seeded clubs, which will be determined by a UEFA coefficient. The 24 teams will then be whittled down to three who win UEFA Cup places. Berths are assigned using the 95/96 coefficient list. The top-8 countries submit one team to the second and one team to the third round (England forfeits the second round berth). The next five countries (Greece, Russia, Turkey, Denmark and Austria) submit one team to round two and one to round one. Sweden, Switzerland and Norway submit two teams to round one (why Norway sends two teams rather than the Czech Republic is unknown to me). All remaining countries except Scotland, Moldavia and Andorra who forfeit their berths and Bosnia, Liechtenstein and San Marino who do not qualify since they do not participate in the UC send one team to round one. Games will start on June 20 and will end on August 25. From the 1995 UIC two French teams, Racing Strassbourg and Girondins de Bordeaux, emerged successful and participated in the UC, Bordeaux even reached the UC final. In 1996 Silkeborg IF, Karlsruher SC and EA Guingamp qualified for the UC, in 1997 three French teams qualified.
UEFA ranking list:
The basis for this ranking is the performance of teams in the three major
European Cups during a five year period. During that period each team gets
two points for a win and one point for a draw. For games decided by penalty
kicks the score after extra time is used.
One bonus point is allocated for reaching the quarter final, the semi final
and the final. Reaching the league stage of the CL yielded two bonus points
in the 91/92, 92/93 and 93/94 competitions and one from the 94/95 competition
on (yes, some teams already got a bonus point without even having played).
UIC games including the so-called UIC "finals" do not count towards the
ranking list.
Using these points the UEFA ranking list is computed which determines how
many entrants each country should have in the UEFA cup and also in the UIC.
This coefficient is a sum of 5 averages over the next-to-last 5 years, where
each average is based on the ratio #total points for country/#total clubs.
To determine the participants in the 1998/99 UEFA Cup resp. 1999 UIC, the
results from the years 1992/93 to 1996/97 are used because each country
should know at the start of the season how many places it disposes. This has
become obsolete recently since the number of teams which will be allowed into
the Champions' League is decided by the most recent ranking which is not
known until the end of the season underway. For the ranking results in
preliminary rounds except the games between the UIC semifinalists are taken
into account. Also the champions of the 7 countries topping next year's list
(i.e. that including results from 1993/94 through 1997/98) together with the
Cup defender advance to the league stage of the CL directly, while the next 8
champions together with the runners up of the best eight countries are seeded
for the qualification round which determines 16 other entries to the league
stage.
For the UEFA Cup the distribution then is that the countries
ranked
1 - 3 obtain 4 berths,
4 - 8 3 berths,
9 - 21 2 berths
and the remaining countries will obtain one berth.
Table A : UEFA coefficient
Legend of table
---------------
91/96: coefficient including the 91/92 through 95/96 seasons,
used to determine the berths for the 97/98 competition
(cf. table B)
92/97: coefficient including the 92/93 through 96/97 seasons,
will be used to determine the berths for the 98/99 competition
used for seeding purposes for the 97/98 competition
rank: ranking for 91/96 resp. 92/97
93/97: coefficient including the 93/97 through 96/97 seasons,
start value for this year's coefficient
BP: bonus points for advancing to the league stage of the CL
teams: starting resp. remaining teams in this year's competition
97/98: coefficient for this season alone
93/98: coefficient including the 93/94 through 97/98 seasons as after the
current round
A much more detailled elaboration on the coefficients can be found at Bert
Kassies' UEFA page at
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/
Country 91/96 92/97 prev 93/97 p. q. rd rd rd CL QF SF BP s/r 97/98 93/98
sum sum rank sum rd rd 1 2 3 teams sum
Italy 61,24 60,72 1/ 1 47,06 - 4 13 11 6 15 13 11 13 2 7 12,57 59,63
Germany 42,13 43,94 4/ 4 38,80 - 2 17 13 5 27 9 5 11 - 8 11,13 49,93
Spain 43,92 46,52 3/ 2 39,86 - 4 15 7 3 13 5 4 8 2 7 8,71 48,57
France 45,41 45,74 2/ 3 34,54 - 2 23 11 6 17 3 2 5 - 10 6,90 41,44
Netherland 38,70 36,35 5/ 5 28,75 - 4 11 8 3 13 0 - 4 - 6 7,17 35,92
England 30,16 30,81 7/ 7 27,56 - 3 10 7 2 15 8 2 7 2 7 8,00 35,56
Portugal 32,80 34,80 6/ 6 27,60 - 3 4 4 1 8 - - 2 - 6 3,67 31,27
Greece 27,00 25,00 9/ 9 21,00 - 10 9 5 - 4 1 - 2 - 4 7,75 28,75
Czech Rep. 17,00 21,67 16/16 21,67 6 7 4 2 - 4 1 - 2 - 4 6,50 28,17
Norway 15,82 22,24 18/15 21,24 4 12 4 2 - 8 - - 1 - 5 6,20 27,44
Austria 21,95 24,95 13/10 22,75 - 5 9 4 0 - - - - - 4 4,50 27,25
Russia 25,20 24,87 10/11 15,87 - 9 13 8 3 - 7 0 4 - 4 11,00 26,87
Croatia 12,50 18,50 25/21 18,50 6 9 5 2 1 - - - - - 3 7,67 26,17
Turkey 22,91 25,00 11/ 8 20,25 - 10 7 1 - 7 - - 2 - 5 5,40 25,65
Denmark 22,00 22,95 12/13 20,20 - 6 7 3 - - - - - - 4 4,00 24,20
Switzerld 18,25 21,50 15/17 18,00 12 4 1 - - - - - - - 4 4,25 22,25
Ukraina 15,65 17,98 19/22 14,32 12 5 3 0 - 8 1 - 2 - 4 7,75 22,07
Poland 14,91 19,50 22/18 18,00 6 3 3 - - - - - - - 3 4,00 22,00
Hungary 15,24 16,24 20/25 14,58 12 7 5 2 - - - - - - 4 6,50 21,08
Belgium 27,80 24,40 8/12 15,80 - 13 7 4 - 1 - - 1 - 5 5,20 21,00
Slovakia 10,99 15,99 27/27 15,99 8 6 0 - - 0 - - 1 - 3 5,00 20,99
Rumania 15,15 18,65 21/20 16,25 5 6 3 2 2 - - - - - 4 4,50 20,75
Sweden 18,75 22,75 14/14 18,00 - 7 1 - - 4 - - 1 - 5 2,60 20,60
Georgia 10,00 16,00 29/26 16,00 6 4 3 0 - - - - - - 3 4,33 20,33
Cyprus 12,65 16,65 24/23 15,99 6 6 1 - - - - - - - 3 4,33 20,32
Scotland 16,55 18,80 17/19 14,00 12 7 3 - - - - - - - 4 5,50 19,50
Israel 14,42 16,42 23/24 11,42 6 7 3 - - - - - - - 3 5,33 16,75
Slovenia 10,33 13,00 28/29 11,00 6 5 4 0 - - - - - - 3 5,00 16,00
Belarus 8,50 11,50 34/31 11,50 5 4 1 - - - - - - - 3 3,33 14,83
Iceland 9,66 10,99 31/32 10,66 4 5 0 - - - - - - - 3 3,00 13,66
Finland 9,58 12,08 32/30 11,08 5 2 0 - - - - - - - 3 2,33 13,41
Latvia 11,17 13,84 26/28 8,84 2 4 2 - - - - - - - 3 2,67 11,51
Bulgaria 9,25 10,67 33/33 9,17 3 1 - - - - - - - - 3 1,33 10,50
Macedonia 5,00 7,33 36/34 7,33 4 0 - - - - - - - - 3 1,33 8,66
Lithuania 4,00 6,00 40/36 6,00 3 1 - - - - - - - - 3 1,33 7,33
Yugoslavia 10,00 4,75 30/40 4,75 4 2 1 - - - - - - - 3 2,33 7,08
Moldavia 5,00 6,00 37/35 6,00 1 1 - - - - - - - - 3 0,67 6,67
Estonia 2,00 4,67 47/41 4,67 0 1 - - - - - - - - 3 0,33 5,00
Liechtenst 3,00 5,00 43/38 5,00 - 0 - - - - - - - - 1 0,00 5,00
Armenia 2,50 4,17 46/44 4,17 0 2 0 - - - - - - - 3 0,67 4,84
Nth. Ireld 5,32 5,33 35/37 4,33 0 1 - - - - - - - - 3 0,33 4,66
Malta 4,31 4,65 39/42 3,99 2 0 - - - - - - - - 3 0,67 4,66
Ireland 4,32 4,33 38/43 3,67 0 1 - - - - - - - - 3 0,33 4,00
Wales 2,67 5,00 45/39 4,00 0 0 - - - - - - - - 3 0,00 4,00
Faroe Isl 3,00 3,00 44/46 2,50 0 1 - - - - - - - - 3 0,33 2,83
Albania 3,67 2,67 41/47 2,67 - - - - - - - - - - - - 2,67
Luxembourg 3,33 3,66 42/45 2,33 0 0 - - - - - - - - 3 0,00 2,33
Azerbaid. 0,50 1,83 48/48 1,83 0 0 - - - - - - - - 3 0,00 1,83
Andorra - - 49/49 - 0 - - - - - - - - - 1 0,00 0,00
+ Dortmund and Schalke get extra berths to defend CL resp. the UEFA Cup;
England, Sweden and Norway due to their Fair Play ranking; France earns
three berths through the Intertoto Cup
* Liechtenstein does not get to send a team to the UC since they don't have a
domestic league.
Now let us take a look at the movements between the different groups over the
years:
Country 1994/95 1995/96
======= ======= =======
Netherlands 3 -> 2
England 2 -> 3
Hungary 2 -> 1
Israel 1 -> 2
So, for the 1995/96 competition Israel are guaranteed two berths for the
first time and England are back at three (not counting the extra Fair Play
spot).
Country 1995/96 1996/97
======= ======= =======
Bulgaria 2 -> 1
Norway 1 -> 2
In the 1994/95 competition England could not maintain it's lead over Spain
and Germany from the start of last season and hence will remain at three
berths for 1996/97. Since the points from Manchester United's 1991 CWC win
have been removed after last season, England have dropped in the ranking
again (before the season they were seventh with just 0.03 points advantage
over Belgium). Germany kept the third place in the ranking. Norway will
have two berths for the first time at the expense of Bulgaria.
Country 1996/97 1997/98
======= ======= =======
Germany 4 -> 3
Spain 3 -> 4
Russia 3 -> 2
Netherlands 2 -> 3
Israel, Poland, Yugoslavia 2 -> 1
Czech Republic, Ukraina, Hungary 1 -> 2
The 95/96 list indicates a number of countries going up resp. down for the
1997/98 competition: Spain clinches the third rank and will replace Germany
in the 4-team group (who are not in the top 3 for the first time ever), while
the Netherlands will replace Russia in the 3-team group and obtain their
automatic CL spot. Further down the Czech Republic, Ukraina and Hungary
replace Israel, Poland and Yugoslavia in the 2-team group. The Czech
Republic made the biggest jump: moving up from rank 33 to 16.
Country 1997/98 1998/99
======= ======= =======
Belgium 3 -> 2
Turkey 2 -> 3
Ukraine, Hungary 2 -> 1
Croatia, Poland 1 -> 2
Germany has lost the battle against Spain for the third rank once again.
Turkey, although level on points with Greece make their first time entry into
the 3-team group and replace Belgium. Croatia and Poland move into the
2-team group at the expense of Ukraina and Hungary. Scotland managed to keep
their second spot.
Finally, if we look at the current ranking list we notice that some of the
countries who used to be big names have dropped significantly. Rumania,
Sweden and Scotland will loose one of their two berths. Germany regains
their fourth berth by overtaking France and Spain while Greece will obtain a
third berth by ending up eighth after the season.
Country 1998/99 1999/2000
======= ======= =========
France 4 -> 3
Germany 3 -> 4
Turkey 3 -> 2
Greece 2 -> 3
Rumania, Sweden, Scotland 2 -> 1
Ukraina, Hungary, Slovakia 1 -> 2
Table B : UEFA coefficient broken down per season
The following list gives the UEFA coefficients for single seasons for the
last years. These indicate how the coefficient for a country may develop over
the next years. Note that the last column is the aggregate of only four
seasons. It is used as 'start value' for the 98/99 competitions. A much more
complete list can be found in the RSSSF archive.
Country 92/93 93/94 94/95 95/96 96/97 92/97 97/98 93/98 94/98
sum sum sum
Italy 13,66 14,14 13,28 9,50 10,14 60,72 12,57 59,63 45,49
Germany 5,14 10,66 10,17 8,83 9,14 43,94 11,13 49,93 39,27
Spain 6,66 8,66 8,60 11,00 11,60 46,52 8,71 48,57 39,91
France 11,20 8,20 9,33 9,88 7,13 45,74 6,90 41,44 33,24
Netherlands 7,60 2,60 7,40 12,50 6,25 36,35 7,17 35,92 33,32
England 3,25 8,50 7,33 4,33 7,40 30,81 8,00 35,56 27,06
Portugal 7,20 9,80 6,00 4,40 7,40 34,80 3,67 31,27 21,47
Greece 4,00 4,50 4,50 8,25 3,75 25,00 7,75 28,75 24,25
Czech Rep. - 1,00 4,00 12,00 4,67 21,67 6,50 28,17 27,17
Norway 1,00 5,66 4,33 4,50 6,75 22,24 6,20 27,44 21,78
Austria 2,20 6,00 6,25 5,25 5,25 24,95 4,50 27,25 21,25
Russia 9,00 4,00 2,80 5,40 3,67 24,87 11,00 26,87 22,87
Croatia - 4,00 7,50 1,00 6,00 18,50 7,67 26,17 22,17
Turkey 4,75 4,75 5,25 2,50 7,75 25,00 5,40 25,65 20,90
Denmark 2,75 3,75 5,50 5,75 5,20 22,95 4,00 24,20 20,45
Switzerland 3,50 2,25 3,75 5,00 7,00 21,50 4,25 22,25 20,00
Ukraina 3,66 3,33 3,33 5,33 2,33 17,98 7,75 22,07 18,74
Poland 1,50 2,50 3,50 5,75 6,25 19,50 4,00 22,00 19,50
Hungary 1,66 1,50 4,75 4,33 4,00 16,24 6,50 21,08 19,58
Belgium 8,60 5,40 3,80 2,00 4,60 24,40 5,20 21,00 15,60
Slovakia - 2,33 5,66 3,00 5,00 15,99 5,00 20,99 18,66
Rumania 2,40 2,20 3,80 4,00 6,25 18,65 4,50 20,75 18,55
Sweden 4,75 1,75 7,50 2,75 6,00 22,75 2,60 20,60 18,85
Georgia - 3,00 6,00 1,00 6,00 16,00 4,33 20,33 17,33
Cyprus 0,66 2,66 5,33 3,00 5,00 16,65 4,33 20,32 17,66
Scotland 4,80 3,00 2,00 4,50 4,50 18,80 5,50 19,50 16,50
Israel 5,00 5,50 1,67 2,25 2,00 16,42 5,33 16,75 11,25
Slovenia 2,00 2,33 3,33 2,67 2,67 13,00 5,00 16,00 13,67
Belarus - 1,50 2,50 4,50 3,00 11,50 3,33 14,83 13,33
Iceland 0,33 3,33 2,00 3,00 2,33 10,99 3,00 13,66 10,33
Finland 1,00 2,33 3,33 1,67 3,75 12,08 2,33 13,41 11,08
Latvia 5,00 2,00 1,50 2,67 2,67 13,84 2,67 11,51 9,51
Bulgaria 1,50 1,75 1,75 3,00 2,67 10,67 1,33 10,50 8,75
Macedonia - - 1,00 4,00 2,33 7,33 1,33 8,66 8,66
Lithuania 0,00 0,00 2,50 1,50 2,00 6,00 1,33 7,33 7,33
Yugoslavia - - - 1,00 3,75 4,75 2,33 7,08 7,08
Moldavia - 1,00 0,00 4,00 1,00 6,00 0,67 6,67 5,67
Estonia 0,00 0,50 0,00 1,50 2,67 4,67 0,33 5,00 4,50
Liechtenst. 0,00 3,00 0,00 0,00 2,00 5,00 0,00 5,00 2,00
Armenia - - 1,00 1,50 1,67 4,17 0,67 4,84 4,84
Nth.Ireland 1,00 1,66 1,00 1,00 0,67 5,33 0,33 4,66 3,00
Malta 0,66 1,66 1,33 0,33 0,67 4,65 0,67 4,66 3,00
Ireland 0,66 1,33 1,00 0,67 0,67 4,33 0,33 4,00 2,67
Wales 1,00 1,00 0,00 0,67 2,33 5,00 0,00 4,00 3,00
Faroe Isl. 0,50 0,00 1,00 1,50 0,00 3,00 0,33 2,83 2,83
Albania - 1,00 1,00 0,67 0,00 2,67 - 2,67 1,67
Luxembourg 1,33 0,00 0,00 2,00 0,33 3,66 0,00 2,33 2,33
Azerbaidjan - - 0,00 0,50 1,33 1,83 0,00 1,83 1,83
Andorra - - - - - - 0,00 0,00 0,00
# Yugoslavia's coefficient has been recalculated due to the split up.
* Liechtenstein does not get to send a team to the UC since they don't have a
domestic league.
Seeding The most recent version of the UEFA ranking list is used to determine the participants of the preliminary rounds resp. the teams who advance to the League stage of the CL directly. - in the CL the champions of the top 7 countries together with the Cup holder are seeded for the league stage directly while the champions of the next 8 countries together with the runners up of the best 8 countries are seeded for the qualification round. The other 32 champions have to play a preliminary round from where the winners proceed to the qualification round. - in the other cups the numbers vary slightly such that the first round proper will have exactly 32 resp. 64 participants. Starting from the first round proper a number of strong teams is seeded such that those teams do not meet in the first rounds. For the Champions' League the procedure is still pretty unclear. In a first step the cup holder and the champions of the first seven countries will be assigned to groups, then the vice champions still in the competition and finally the remaining champions. Additional regulations will be ensure that teams from the same country do not end up in the same group. In the CWC the ranking list is used to determine the seeded teams (16 in the first round, 8 in the second, none thereafter). In the UC 16 teams are seeded in both first and second round. While the decision whether teams had to play in a preliminary round is based on a the country coefficients, the seeding for first and second round uses the sum of the ratio #points achieved/# games played for each of the past five years for each team (in this ranking preliminary and qualification round results are not taken into consideration). In addition the Cup defender will be seeded for the first two rounds. Table C displays for each season under consideration the number of points and the number of games played by the team together with the coefficient computed as the sum of five quotients points over games. Seeded teams eliminated in the first round will be replaced by teams further down the list for second round seeding. From the third round on no seeding will be applied. In the second round each unseeded team will meet a seeded team.
Q & A section
Q: What is the Fair Play Competition ? The Fair Play Cup thing will be determined by UEFA. Officials of that worthy body will attend all European matches in the oncoming seasons, and grade the behaviour of players, coaches, and fans. The best three countries according to this ranking are supposed to enter one additional team into the UEFA Cup of the following season (or the one after that, I don't know). The criteria for evaluating Fair Play for a single game are the following: Yellow and red cards: score 10 points maximum 1 point for each yellow and 3 points for each red card are deducted. Positive play: score 1 - 10 points The attractiveness of play is rated with emphasis on offensive and quick play (no time wasting). Respecting the opponent: score: 1 - 5 points Players are expected to respect the rules of the game, their opponent and the laws of Fair Play. Respecting the referee: score 1 - 5 points Players are expected to repect the referee, the other officials and their decisions. Behaviour of team officials: score 1 - 5 points Team officials including coaches are expected to improve technical, tactical and ethical level of the team. Also openmindedness towards the media is summarized under this topic. Behaviour of the audience: score 1 - 5 points The audience is considered integral part of the game. Fans are expected to respect both the opposing team and the referee. This criterion is only applicable if a considerable number of supporters of the team to be rated is available. Points are summed up and divided by the maximum of available points (40 resp. 35 if behaviour of the audience is not rated). For the Fair Play competition the avarage over all UEFA competitive games is used. Q: What is the status of Yugoslavia ? Yugoslavia had been partially admitted to the 1995/96 competition. The champion Crvena Zvezda was relegated to the UC since the country coefficient of Yugoslavia was not considered, the Cup Winner Obilic had to play the preliminary round of the CWC and the two teams qualifying for the UC (Partizan and Vojvodina) were not admitted. For the 1996/97 competition there seem to be no restrictions. For the 1997/98 competition Yugoslavia's coefficient has been recalculated excluding all pre-war results (see table B). Q: Some countries end up with an aggregated coefficient ending in .99 resp. .32 as a result of scores of 1/3 or 2/3 being added together. This is not correct mathematically. The coefficients are truncated after the third digit. Q: Why don't you use three digits after the dot in your tables as it is the official UEFA instruction for computing the cofficients ? I prefer to keep the width of tables less than 80 characters, hence I have to save some space. The differences introduced by this truncation are rather small and have never changed the ranking of countries so far. Q: What happens if the Champions' Cup Winner comes first or second in his National League and the country in question is elegible to send the vice champion to the Champions' Cup ? Will this country send three teams ? No. A country can only send three teams to the Champions' Cup if - the CL winner is from that country and does not finish first or second in the league and - the country in question is one of the 8 countries eligible to send their vice champion to the CL. Q: What happens if the finalists of the domestic cup competition are eligible to play in the CL ? Who will take the CWC spot ? A decisive match between the losing semi-finalists will be played with the winner advancing to the CWC. In case one of the losing semi-finalists is CWC defender also the other semi-finalist might enter the CWC although this seems unlikely to me.
Note: this FAQ will not be updated anymore, as UEFA now has the relevant
explanations on their own pages.
To wit: UEFA Champions League: 1999/2000 Format explained;
and: UEFA Cup: 1999/2000 Format explained.
Prepared and maintained by Martin Protzen for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
Author: Martin Protzen
(Martin.Protzen@gmx.de)
Last updated: 28 Oct 1999
(C) Copyright Martin Protzen and RSSSF 1996/1999
You are free to copy this document in whole or part provided that proper
acknowledgement is given to the author. All rights reserved.