Subject: FAQ: Qualification and Seeding for the European Cups From: martin@inferenzsysteme.informatik.th-darmstadt.de (Martin Protzen) Date: 1995/05/24 Newsgroups: rec.sport.soccer ============================================================================= * * * FAQ: Qualification and Seeding for the European Cups * * * ============================================================================= This FAQ has been prepared to answer various questions regarding the seeding and qualification process for the four European Cups. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version May 25 - what's new in this version ? - final tables for 1994/95 - incorporated corrections according to new UEFA decisions - new information about the UEFA Intertoto Cup - recent rumours on the status of Yugoslavia's participation ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- *** FLASH NEWS (May 25): UEFA has changed the seeding system for the *** Champions' League once again. Noone (at least noone of the RSSSF crowd) *** knows yet how it works. *** Ajax, Blackburn and Bremen/Dortmund are seeded for the League stage, *** together with five other teams. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are four different European Cups - the Champions' Cup (CC), - the Cup Winners' Cup (CWC), - the UEFA Cup (UC), originally intended for League runners up, and - the new UEFA Intertoto Cup (UIC). The qualification for these Cups is due to the performance in National Leagues resp. Cup competitions. The Champion usually enters the CC, 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 'new' UEFA Intertoto-Cup will start this summer. The cup will be played during the summer, and the teams allowed to participate will be 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 will be determined by the UEFA ranking of countries just as in the UC (see also some historical remarks on the UIC in the Q & A section). The teams will be divided into 12 groups, with the winners of each group to gether with four "best seconds" qualifying for a play-off round, from where the best 4 teams (i.e. the semifinalists) qualify for the UEFA Cup the following autumn. This year's UIC is supposed to have 60 participants: Yugoslavia is provisionally included (with 2 spots), Lithuania, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Macedonia don't get any. However Scotland only wants one spot (only Partick Thistle want to enter), their other spot will go to Lithuania and if Yugoslavia are excluded then their spots will go to Armenia and Azerbaijan. Also Luxembourg specifically applied in the name of Avenir Beggen, if they qualify for Europe otherwise then their Luxembourg place will go to Macedonia. So preliminarily 68 berths have been allocated (79 berths for 47 countries as per the UEFA ranking minus the 7 berths of Italy and Spain who forfeit their participation minus the 4 berths of Lithuania, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Macedonia). Before the provisional draw was held, Russia abandonned its three berths. Also no places were allocated for Ukraine, Latvia, Northern Ireland, Albania, Moldova, and Georgia. On the other hand, Austria were given 3 berths (and not 2) such that the numbers add up nicely to 60 participants. Which countries refused to participate and which were denied participation by UEFA I don't know for sure, but Italy, Spain and Russia certainly declined the invitation. There is also talk that some other teams may abandon their participation. Whether that means that the teams from Ukraina, etc. will get a second chance to take these places is unknown. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The qualification process for the CC has been modified last year such that only the CC defender together with the top 23 champions enter the CC while all other champions will enter the UC. To determine the top champions and the number of UC berths allocated to a country UEFA maintains two different ranking lists. The basis for both rankings is the performance of teams in all three European Cups during a five year period. During that period each team gets two points for a win (UEFA is considering to change this to three points, however it is still undecided when this change will be effective and which season will be affected) and one point for a draw. One bonus point is allocated for reaching the quarter final, the semi final and the final. Reaching the league stage of the CC yielded two bonus points in the 91/92, 92/93 and 93/94 competitions and one in the 94/95 competition (yes, some teams already got a bonus point without even having played). From these points two rankings are computed 1) The ranking coefficient which is used in the ranking of the teams in the Champions League, but also in the seeding of the teams in the other two European Cups. This coefficient is calculated for all the countries based on an average over the _last_ 5 years, including the season just finished (i.e the coefficient used for the 1995/96 competition is based on the 1990/91 to 1994/95 seasons). What is averaged is (#total points for country/#total _games_). In addition the same coefficient is calculated for each participating club based only on that club's results in the last 5 years. If this coefficient is higher than the country coefficient, that club will be `competing' in the ranking with its club coefficient. Games in preliminary rounds do not count towards this coefficient (it is unknown whether games in the preliminary round of the CC do count towards this coefficient). [ Note: There also seems to be a rule regarding the country coefficient of countries participating less than three years to the effect that these countries may not take advantage of their country coefficient. The exact wording of this rule is unknown. ] The 7 country champions with the highest coefficient together with the cup defender qualify immediately for the league stage of the CC. The next best 16 country champions play a home and away leg to determine the 8 other entrants to the Champions League. All other champions are entered into the UC (see table B below). In the CWC a number of country cup competition winners with the lowest coefficients have to play a preliminary round such that exactly 32 cup winners remain for the first round proper. There the top 8 in the rankings are seeded for the first round. The same holds for the UC with the exception that there are 64 first round participants and the top 16 get seeded in the first round. 2) The UEFA coefficient 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 (#total points for country/#total clubs). To determine the participants in the 1995/96 UEFA Cup resp. 1995 UIC, the results from the years 1989/90 to 1993/94 are used, because each country should know at the start of the season how many places it disposes. For this ranking results in preliminary rounds are taken into account (at least they have been in the past - this is probably subject to change). The distribution then is that the countries ranked 1 - 3 obtain 4 berths, 4 - 8 3 berths, 9 - 21 2 berths 22 - 36 1 berth and the remaining countries will probably not obtain any berths (see table A below). This is not confirmed yet, I can't imagine Czech Republic and Slovakia getting no berths in the UEFA Cup. Also, from the 95/96 season on, additional berths will be allowed for winners of the UIC (4) and the Fair Play Competition (3). Hence we get the following allocation of UEFA Cup berths: 49 members of UEFA, Liechtenstein only competes in CWC, San Marino does not compete at all 36 countries with one berth 21 countries with two berths 8 countries with three berths 3 countries with four berths 24 champions not entering the CC 4 Intertoto Cup participants 3 Fair Play competition winners On Friday, Oct 21st 1994 UEFA decided which 3 countries should be awarded the 3 extra UEFA cup berths for the 1995/96 season. The berths are awarded for fair play on the field, and were given to Norway, England and Luxembourg. These three countries top the first UEFA Fair Play ranking. It wasn't stated exactly how the ranking is derived. 1 defending UEFA Cup Holder (if otherwise non eligible) --- 100 1994 the two berths of Yugoslavia were given to England resp. Romania, and the berths of Albania and Latvia were given to Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The remaining countries Estonia, Lithuania; Croatia, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia; Armenia, Azerbaidchan and Macedonia did not get any berths since they were ranked below 36th. Two of the berths allocated for League Champions were not taken (Yugoslavia was not allowed to enter, Italian Champion qualified as Champions Cup Holder). Also the berths for Intertoto Cup participants and Fair Play competition winners were left open. In the CWC the Cup Winners of the following countries were not allowed into the competition: Yug, Geo, Arm, Azb, Mac. It is unknown whether these countries will be allowed into the cups in 1995. ================================================================================ Q & A section ================================================================================ Q: What is the Intertoto Cup ? What is the Fair Play Competition ? As for the Intertoto Cup, this started as a way to guarantee income to the toto-industry in the early sixties (in fact, this generated a significant of money for clubs in several countries, one of them the Netherlands), and 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 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 teams according to this ranking are supposed to qualify automatically for the UEFA Cup of the season afterwards (or the one after that, I don't know). Of course, nobody has a clue as to the precise mathematical formulation of this formula, a bit like the FIFA country ranking... Q: Finally, I have some questions regarding the Intertoto-cup: As I know, there are 4 UEFA-cup places available through this competition. Let's say that all these berths are won by teams from one country. Is there any restrictions on how many teams a country will be able to field in the UEFA-cup? It certainly would be strange seeing 8 English or Italian teams competing in the UEFA Cup. I don't know for sure but I don't think that any restrictions will be placed on the teams qualifying through the InterToto Cup. Q: What is the status of Yugoslavia ? In recent (yet unconfirmed) news it seems that the UEFA has banned Yugoslavia for next year's European Cups again. Yugoslavia would only be allowed to enter champion and vice-champion in the UIC. Most likely this has to do with the imposed UN sanctions on Yugoslavia. There is a ban on commercial, cultural and sportive relations with Yugoslavia. This ban has only temporarily been suspended - at first for 100 days and then again for 75 days. Given the recent developments I don't think that another suspension of the ban is very likely, and so UEFA may have decided to give the Yugoslavian champion resp. vice-champion a chance to play in the UIC. Probably the suspension of the ban is long enough to complete the UIC and UEFA hope that Yugoslav teams don't qualify for the UEFA Cup proper. ================================================================================ Table A : UEFA coefficient to determine the number of berths per country ================================================================================ Legend of table --------------- 88-92: coefficient including the 88/89 through 92/93 seasons, used to determine this year's berths 89-93: coefficient including the 89/90 through 93/94 seasons, used to determine next year's (95/96) berths 90-93: coefficient including the 90/91 through 93/94 seasons, will be accumulated in this year's competition pq, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, CL, QF, SF+F points scored in the respective rounds BP: bonus points for reaching the CL, resp. the quarter finals and later stages teams: starting teams in this year's competition 94/95: coefficient for this season alone 90-94: coefficient including the 90/91 through 94/95 seasons as after the current season, will determine the berths for the 96/97 season 88-92 89-93 90-93 pq 1st 2nd 3rd CL QF SF BP 94/95 90-94 +F teams Italy 60,31 62,29 50,58 - 17 16 10 5 13 17 13 7 13,00 63,58 France 40,05 44,75 35,95 4 16 11 3 12 5 0 5 6 9,33 45,28 Germany 39,39 41,63 30,13 - 17 10 10 6 8 2 8 6 10,17 40,30 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spain 37,12 35,98 30,48 - 8 11 6 6 3 4 5 5 8,60 39,08 England 22,50 31,00 31,00 - 14 9 - 6 5 4 6 6 7,33 38,33 Portugal 28,40 33,80 28,00 - 12 3 - 9 3 - 3 5 6,00 34,00 Russia 31,00 32,50 28,50 - 8 1 - 4 - - 1 5 2,80 31,30 Belgium 36,83 36,40 26,60 - 8 3 - 4 2 - 2 5 3,80 30,40 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Netherlands 25,90 24,25 21,05 - 8 4 - 10 5 5 5 5 7,40 28,45 Yugoslavia 22,91 17,91 25,50# - - - - - - - - - - 25,50# Turkey 18,73 18,82 18,49 8 6 3 0 3 - - 1 4 5,25 23,74 Austria 18,20 21,80 15,20 4 8 7 0 5 - - 1 4 6,25 21,45 Greece 17,25 19,50 16,00 8 6 1 - 2 - - 1 4 4,50 20,50 Denmark 16,00 15,16 14,50 7 8 3 2 - 1 - 1 4 5,50 20,00 Sweden 14,85 13,00 10,50 11 5 1 - 9 2 - 2 4 7,50 18,00 Scotland 19,75 17,75 14,55 6 2 - - - - - - 4 2,00 16,55 Switzerland 15,50 15,50 11,75 5 5 4 1 - - - - 4 3,75 15,50 Poland 12,16 12,16 11,41 8 3 3 0 - - - - 4 3,50 14,91 Romania 22,10 15,10 10,35 6 5 2 - 5 - - 1 5 3,80 14,15 Norway 3,66 8,32 7,99 9 4 - - - - - - 3 4,33 12,32 Israel 5,00 10,50 10,50 4 1 - - - - - - 3 1,67 12,17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hungary 9,60 8,41 7,16 11 6 2 - - - - - 4 4,75 11,91 Croatia - 4,00 4,00 4 2 - - 6 1 - 2 2 7,50 11,50 Cyprus 3,66 6,32 5,32 12 4 - - - - - - 3 5,33 10,65 Ukraina 3,60 6,99 6,99 5 2 - - 2 - - 1 3 3,33 10,32 Georgia - 3,00 3,00 4 2 - - - - - - 1 6,00 9,00 Iceland 4,30 6,66 6,66 6 0 - - - - - - 3 2,00 8,66 Latvia 5,00 7,00 7,00 3 0 - - - - - - 2 1,50 8,50 Finland 6,60 6,33 5,08 8 2 - - - - - - 3 3,33 8,41 Slovenia 2,00 4,33 4,33 8 2 - - - - - - 3 3,33 7,66 Bulgaria 10,66 9,16 5,83 7 0 - - - - - - 4 1,75 7,58 Slovakia - - - 10 5 2 - - - - - 3 5,67 5,67 Wales 8,00 6,00 5,00 0 - - - - - - - 3 0,00 5,00 N. Ireland 3,32 3,98 3,98 2 1 - - - - - - 3 1,00 4,98 Ireland 2,60 3,65 3,65 3 0 - - - - - - 3 1,00 4,65 Belarus - 1,50 1,50 4 1 - - - - - - 2 2,50 4,00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Czech Rep. - - - 9 3 - - - - - - 3 4,00 4,00 Malta 2,65 3,31 2,65 4 - - - - - - - 3 1,33 3,98 Albania 4,30 4,33 2,33 2 0 - - - - - - 2 1,00 3,33 Lithuania 0,00 0,00 0,00 4 1 - - - - - - 2 2,50 2,50 Luxembourg 2,32 2,32 1,99 0 - - - - - - - 3 0,00 1,99 Moldova - 1,00 1,00 0 - - - - - - - 2 0,00 1,00 Armenia - - - 1 - - - - - - - 1 1,00 1,00 Macedonia - - - 1 - - - - - - - 1 1,00 1,00 Estonia 0,00 0,50 0,50 0 - - - - - - - 2 0,00 0,50 Faroe Isl. 0,50 0,50 0,50 0 - - - - - - - 3 0,00 0,50 Azerbaidjan - - - 0 - - - - - - - 1 0,00 0,00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Liechtenst. 0,00 3,00 3,00 0 - - - - - - - 1 0,00 3,00 (will not compete in UC since no own league) === NOTE: === The 95/96 berths are allocated using the second column - not the last !! * AC Milan got two points deducted due to crowd trouble. * The result of the game CSKA Sofia - Juventus (3-2) was changed into 0-3 since CSKA fielded an uneligible player. # Yugoslavia's coefficient has been recalculated due to the split up. This table deserves a few comments: first let us take a look at the differences between the original 1994/95 allocation of berths (i.e. before the Yugoslavian berths were re-allocated) and the 1995/96 allocation. Country 1994/95 1995/96 ======= ======= ======= Netherlands 3 -> 2 England 2 -> 3 Hungary 2 -> 1 Israel 1 -> 2 So, Israel, to the surprise of many, are guaranteed two berths and England are guaranteed three which must be encouraging for the English netters. The year after there is only one change in the allocation Country 1995/96 1996/97 ======= ======= ======= Bulgaria 2 -> 1 Norway 1 -> 2 England could not maintain it's lead over Spain and Germany from the start of the season and hence will remain at three berths for 96/97 (unless they get another berth due to the Fair Play trophy of course). Since the points from Manchester United's 1991 CWC win will be removed after this season, England will drop in the ranking again (probably as low as rank 8 but not lower). Germany will keep the third place in the ranking, and Norway will have two berths for the first time at the expense of Bulgaria. Regarding the lesser countries, according to the ranking Luxembourg, Faroe Islands, Slovakia and Czech Republic are not entitled to any UEFA Cup berths for 95/96 while Albania, Latvia, Croatia and Georgia should get one that year. However, I do expect UEFA to allow Slovakia and the Czech Republic to enter the UC (maybe Albania and Latvia will be excluded once again ?). The year after that Albania and Malta drop out of the top 36, while Slovakia and the Czech Republic (resp. Belarus - I don't know the tie breaker there) have earned their spots. =============================================================================== Table B: Provisional Line up for the Champions League 95/96 =============================================================================== *** This may be meaningless. See message at the top of this FAQ. *** The following is a provisional list of participants of next year's Champions League. This ranking is based on the league standings as per 16/5 (taken from Ken Butler's Europe at a glance). This listing has been compiled under the assumption that the same system is used as last year. Knowing UEFA this need not be a good assumption. The first number is the team coefficient, the second the country coefficient, + means league decided, * means that the team may not be allowed to use the country coefficient. Note: this ranking has been compiled assuming that results from preliminary rounds are not included. However, UEFA may still decide to include games from the preliminary round of the CC. In that case the only significant changes are that Rangers' coefficient drops to 1.350, Legia's to 1.300 and M Haifa's coefficient drops to 0.667 (results including the preliminary round are given in parantheses). directly qualified for league stage Ajax Nth+ 1.838 1.239 Juventus Ita+ 1.800 1.586 Red Star Beograd Yug 1.737 1.556* Legia Warzaw Pol 1.625 0.865 (1.300 0.833) Rangers Sco+ 1.500 1.030 (1.350 1.000) Real Madrid Spa 1.472 1.322 Nantes Fra+ 1.200 1.442 ( = 1.448) Porto Por+ 1.432 1.278 qualified for preliminary round Spartak Moskva Rus+ 1.417 1.135 GOTEBORG Swe+ 1.363 0.919 (1.333 0.922) Bremen Ger 1.333 1.335 Blackburn Eng+ 0.500 1.324 Anderlecht Bel+ 1.275 1.160 Panathinaikos Gre+ 1.125 0.949 ( = 0.975) Sparta Praha Czr 1.091 0.500* (1.083 0.625) Steaua Bucharest Rom 1.038 0.816 (1.071 0.833) Rapid Wien Aut 1.000 1.024 ( = 1.047) Aalborg Den 1.000 0.892 ( = 0.881) Dynamo Kyyiv Ukr 1.000 0.773* (1.033 0.833) Besiktas Tur+ 0.714 0.987 ( = 1.012) Grasshoppers Sui 0.833 0.883 ( = 0.870) Croatia Cro 0.875 1.071* ( = 1.187) Slovan Slk+ 0.833 0.900* Rosenborg Nor+ 0.800 0.667 entrants to UEFA Cup Ferencvaros Hun 0.750 0.700 ( = 0.673) TPV Tampere Fin+ 0.750 0.471 Levski Sofia Bul+ 0.625 0.524 Akranes Ice+ 0.500 0.464 Crusaders NIr+ 0.500 0.458 Anorthosis Cyp+ 0.500 0.441 Dundalk Ire+ 0.500 0.250 M Tel Aviv Isr 0.250 0.583* ( = 0.500) Olimpija Sln 0.250 0.429* Zalgiris Lit 0.250 0.250* SKONTO Riga Lat+ 0.167 0.167* Jeunesse d'Esch Lux+ 0.000 0.150 ( = 0.136) Hibernians Mal 0.000 0.111 Samtredia Geo 0.000 1.000* Kim Vitebsk Blo 0.000 0.500* Bangor City Wal+ 0.000 0.400* SK Tirane Alb 0.000 0.286* Vardar Skopje Mac 0.000 0.000* Tre Fiori SMa 0.000 0.000* Tiligul Mol 0.000 0.000* Shirak Gyumri Arm+ 0.000 0.000* GI Far+ 0.000 0.000* Flora Tallinn Est 0.000 0.000* * unknown * Azb 0.000 0.000* other contenders (basically teams with odds better than 5-1 to win the league, cf. Ken Butler's simulation) Austria Vienna Aut 0.889 1.024 ( = 1.047) Austria Salzburg Aut 1.150 1.024 (1.227 1.047) Dinamo 93 Blo 0.000 0.500* Dinamo Minsk Blo 0.500 0.500* Hajduk Split Cro 1.083 1.071* Osijek Cro 0.000 1.071* ( = 1.187) Slavia Praha Czr 0.833 0.500* ( = 0.625) Silkeborg Den 0.000 0.892 (0.500 0.881) Brondby Den 1.208 0.892 ( = 0.881) Nikol Tallinn Est 0.000 0.000* Dinamo Tbilisi Geo 1.000 1.000* Dortmund Ger 1.444 1.335 Ujpest Hun 0.250 0.700 ( = 0.673) M Haifa Isr 1.000 0.583* (0.667 0.500) ROMAR Lit 0.000 0.250* Valletta Mal 0.000 0.111 Sliema Mal 0.000 0.111 Zimbru Mol 0.000 0.000* Widzew Lodz Pol 0.500 0.865 ( = 0.833) GKS Katowice Pol 0.722 0.865 Vojvodina Yug 0.000 1.424* Partizan Yug 1.125 1.424* A full list of provisional seeding coefficients can be found at the archive pages of the RSSSF (http://info.risc.uni-linz.ac.at:70/0h/misc-info/rsssf/tables/seed95.html). ================================================================================ This FAQ has been prepared by Martin Protzen with the help of Lars Thore Aarhus , Karel Stokkermans , James Ross and others. ================================================================================ Author: Martin Protzen Last updated: 25 May 1995 (C) Copyright Martin Protzen and RSSSF 1995 You are free to copy this document in whole or part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the author. All rights reserved.