Subject: Final FAQ for this season From: Martin Protzen Date: 1996/05/29 Newsgroups: rec.sport.soccer As always: comments by mail (_not_ by news) welcome. Martin. ============================================================================= * * * 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 96 - what's new in this version ? - final coefficient table - information about UIC ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 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 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Champions' Cup: Originally this Cup was intended for the league winners of the member FAs of UEFA. A while ago the qualification process for the CC has been modified such that only the CC defender together with the top 23 champions enters the CC while all other champions will enter the UC. The CC defender and the 7 best champions advance directly to the league stage while the champions ranked 8th to 15th have to play a preliminary tie against one of the champions ranked 16th to 23rd. To determine the top champions (and the number of UC berths allocated to a country) UEFA maintains a ranking list - see section UEFA ranking list. For the 95/96 competition Crvena Zvezda Beograd, the champion of Yugoslavia, has not been allowed into the preliminary round of the Champions League as their country coefficient was considered irregular. UEFA is considering to allow a second team from the eight top ranked countries into the CC thus meaning that all CC participants have to undergo a qualification round. How the second team will be determined has not yet been fixed. This modification will not be effective for the 96/97 competition, the only change will be that the losers of the preliminary tie get to play in the first round proper of the UC. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cup Winners' Cup: The Cup Winners of the FA Cups of the 48 member FAs of UEFA get to play in this Cup unless they also win their national championship (in which case they will be replaced by the losing cup finalists). The Cup defender is also eligible to play (unless he becomes national champion). For the 95/96 competition there was no Croation representative since Croatia Zagreb had to serve a ban. UEFA is also considering to allow a second team from the eight top ranked countries into the CWC. How the second team will be determined has not yet been fixed. This modification will not be effective for the 96/97 competition. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 four berths are allocated for the Intertoto Cup semifinalists (this will be increased to six for the 1996 UIC) and three are given to countries who top the UEFA Fair Play competition. 68 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 15 countries with one berth 24 champions not entering the CC 4 Intertoto Cup participants (6 from 1996 on) 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). 1 defending UEFA Cup Holder (only if they don't qualify for any European competition otherwise) 8 preliminary round losers from the Champions Cup (from 1996/97 on) --- 100 participants (110) The 1995/96 competition had 98 participants. The two Yugoslavian teams were neither admitted into the UC nor replaced by teams from other countries, the berths for CC and UC holders were not taken but one team from the Czech Rep. and from Slovakia were additionally admitted. According to France Football the following format is considered for the future: - Qualifying round (on 24+31/7), involving 54 teams (40 teams from non-seeded countries (ranked 9-36), 11 teams from the countries not entitled to a UEFA Cup place today (ranked 37-47), 3 fair-play teams). - Preliminary round (on 6+20/8), involving 50 + 6 teams (27 winners from the qualifying round, 23 teams from the countries not entitled to play in the Champions Cup + 6 Intertoto teams). - First round (on 10+24/9), involving 64 teams (25 + 3 winners from the preliminary round, 8 teams eliminated from the Champions Cup, 27 teams from the top 8 ranked countries (3x4 teams and 5x3 teams), the 28th seeded team (or the defending champion?)). These modifications will not be effective for the 96/97 competition, except that the losers of the preliminary round of the Champions Cup get to play in the first round of the UC. The format however is quite unclear. Assuming that we have only one preliminary round (as before) 101 teams will compete for 56 spots in the first round proper (the other 8 being taken by the losers of ther qualification for the Champons League). This would mean that all but 11 teams would have to enter the qualification round - very strange. There are also rumours floating around that the number of teams allowed into the UEFA Cup will be increased even more for the top countries, for example for Germany the number of entries could be increased to 6 or 7. Details are not yet known. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- UEFA Intertoto Cup: 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 'new' UEFA Intertoto-Cup has started in the summer of 1995. The cup was 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 was 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 - see also some historical remarks on the UIC in the Q & A section). The teams were divided into 12 groups, with the winners of each group together with four "best seconds" qualifying for a play-off round, from where the best 4 teams (i.e. the semifinalists) qualified for the preliminary round of the UEFA Cup the following autumn. The 1995 UIC had 60 participants. Italy, Spain and Russia abandoned their berths, also Ukraine, Latvia, Northern Ireland, Albania, Moldova and Georgia seem to have declined the invitation. Luxembourg forfeited their berth, Scotland and Portugal took only one spot instead of the allocated two resp. three. Armenia, Azerbaidjan and Macedonia were not allowed into the competition at all. On the other hand, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark and Romania were given 3 berths (not 2) such that the numbers add up nicely to 60 participants. [ In the meantime, the 1995 UIC has been completed. Two French teams, Racing Strassbourg and Girondins de Bordeaux, emerged successful and participate in the first round proper of the UEFA Cup. ] A number of changes have been announced for the 1996 UIC: the number of UC berths available through this competition has been raised to 6, Italian teams will join the competition and teams are urged to take the competition serious, i.e. play with their first team. In the meantime the draw has been made (supplied by Filip Zavoral ) 1. GER 1, BEL 2, DEN 1, ISR 1, NIR 2. GER 2, AUT 2, SWE 2, CYP, FAE 3. ITA 1, AUT 1, SWE 1, ISL, SLO 4. ITA 2, BEL 3, DEN 2, POL 2, WAL 5. FRA 1, HOL 1, GRE, NOR, IRE 6. FRA 2, SPA, SWI 1, ISR 2, CRO 7. ITA 3, RUS 1, SWI 2, UKR, BLS 8. GER 4, RUS 3, POL 1, BUL 2, CZE 9. GER 3, YUG 2, ROM 1, LAT, SVK 10. BEL 1, HOL 2, TUR 2, HUN, ALB 11. FRA 3, RUS 2, TUR 1, BUL 1, MAL 12. FRA 4, YUG 1, ROM 2, FIN, GEO From this we can conclude that UEFA is using the same coefficients as for the UEFA Cup which is just over. Some countries do not take part in the competition: England, Portugal, Scotland and Luxembourg. Italy sends only three teams, Spain and Greece only one. Also the format of the cup has changed slightly: again there will be 12 groups with 5 teams each. But fortunately the concept of "best seconds" has been cancelled: the 12 winner will play one elimintion round with the 6 survivors playing another round as part of the UC preliminary round. The first games are scheduled for June 22/23. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 (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). 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 (#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 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 1990/91 through 1994/95) together with the Cup defender advance to the league stage of the CC directly, while the next 16 champions play a preliminary round to decide the other 8 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 22 - 36 1 berth and the remaining countries will not obtain any berths. =============================================================================== Table A : UEFA coefficient to determine the number of berths per country =============================================================================== Legend of table --------------- 89/94: coefficient including the 89/90 through 93/94 seasons, used to determine the berths for the 95/96 competition 90/95: coefficient including the 90/91 through 94/95 seasons, will be used to determine the berths for the 96/97 competition used for seeding purposes for the 95/96 competition 91/95: coefficient including the 91/95 through 94/95 seasons, start value for this year's coefficient W, D, L games won, drawn resp. lost in the preliminary round BP: bonus points for reaching the CL resp. the quarterfinals teams: starting resp. remaining teams in this year's competition 95/96: coefficient for this season alone 91/96: coefficient including the 91/92 through 95/96 seasons as after the current season, will determine the berths for the 97/98 season and the seeding for the 96/97 competitions Note: It seems UEFA have cancelled their plan to use a 3pt scheme for the ranking list. Country 89/94 90/95 91/95 W D L BP st rem. 95/96 91/96 teams Italy 62,29 63,86 51,74 22 6 11 7 6 1 9,50 61,24 France 44,75 45,28 35,53 30 10 13 9 8 1 9,88 45,41 Spain 35,98 39,08 32,92 25 9 10 7 6 0 11,00 43,92 Germany 41,63 40,30 33,30 20 7 11 6 6 1 8,83 42,13 Netherlands 24,25 28,45 26,20 17 9 5 7 4 1 12,50 38,70 Portugal 33,80 34,00 28,40 7 7 8 1 5 0 4,40 32,80 England 31,00 38,33 25,83 8 8 12 2 6 0 4,33 30,16 Belgium 36,40 30,40 25,80 3 4 7 0 5 0 2,00 27,80 Greece 19,50 20,50 18,75 12 6 6 3 4 0 8,25 27,00 Russia 32,50 31,30 19,80 10 4 8 3 5 0 5,40 25,20 Turkey 18,82 23,74 20,41 4 2 6 0 4 0 2,50 22,91 Denmark 15,16 20,00 16,25 9 4 9 1 4 0 5,75 22,00 Austria 21,80 21,45 16,70 7 4 6 3 4 1 5,25 21,95 Sweden 13,00 18,00 16,00 5 1 6 0 4 0 2,75 18,75 Switzerland 15,50 15,50 13,25 5 9 8 1 4 0 5,00 18,25 Czech Rep. 1,00 5,00 5,00 14 6 6 2 3 0 12,00 17,00 Scotland 17,75 16,55 12,05 6 5 9 1 4 0 4,50 16,55 Norway 8,32 12,32 11,32 7 3 10 1 4 0 4,50 15,82 Ukraina 6,99 10,32 10,32 7 2 3 0 3 0 5,33 15,65 Hungary 8,41 11,91 10,91 4 4 6 1 3 0 4,33 15,24 Rumania 15,10 14,15 11,15 3 9 4 1 4 0 4,00 15,15 Poland 12,16 14,92 9,17 9 3 8 2 4 0 5,75 14,92 Israel 10,50 12,17 12,17 3 3 6 0 4 0 2,25 14,42 Cyprus 6,32 10,65 9,65 3 3 4 0 3 0 3,00 12,65 Croatia 4,00 11,50 11,50 0 2 2 0 2 0 1,00 12,50 Latvia 7,00 8,50 8,50 3 2 5 0 3 0 2,67 11,17 Slovakia 2,33 7,99 7,99 4 1 5 0 3 0 3,00 10,99 Slovenia 4,33 7,66 7,66 4 0 6 0 3 0 2,67 10,33 Georgia 3,00 9,00 9,00 1 1 6 0 3 0 1,00 10,00 Yugoslavia 25,50# 21,00# 9,00 0 2 2 0 2 0 1,00 10,00 Iceland 6,66 8,66 6,66 4 1 5 0 3 0 3,00 9,66 Finland 6,33 8,41 7,91 2 1 5 0 3 0 1,67 9,58 Bulgaria 9,16 7,58 6,25 5 2 7 0 4 0 3,00 9,25 Belarus 1,50 4,00 4,00 3 3 2 0 2 0 4,50 8,50 Nth. Ireland 3,98 4,98 4,32 1 1 6 0 3 0 1,00 5,32 Macedonia - 1,00 1,00 3 2 3 0 2 0 4,00 5,00 Moldavia 1,00 1,00 1,00 3 2 3 0 2 0 4,00 5,00 Ireland 3,65 4,65 3,65 1 0 5 0 3 0 0,67 4,32 Malta 3,31 3,98 3,98 0 1 5 0 3 0 0,33 4,31 Lithuania 0,00 2,50 2,50 1 1 4 0 2 0 1,50 4,00 Albania 4,33 3,33 3,00 1 0 7 0 3 0 0,67 3,67 Luxembourg 2,32 1,99 1,33 2 2 4 0 3 0 2,00 3,33 Faroe Islands 1,50 1,50 1,50 1 1 2 0 2 0 1,50 3,00 Liechtenstein 3,00 3,00 3,00 0 0 2 0 1 0 0,00 3,00* Wales 6,00 5,00 2,00 0 2 4 0 3 0 0,67 2,67 Armenia - 1,00 1,00 1 1 4 0 2 0 1,50 2,50 Estonia 0,50 0,50 0,50 1 1 2 0 2 0 1,50 2,00 Azerbaidchan - 0,00 0,00 0 1 3 0 2 0 0,50 0,50 # 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. This table deserves a few comments: let us take a look at the original allocation of berths (i.e. before the Yugoslavian berths are re-allocated, or any extra berths for Fair Play or UIC are considered) for different seasons: 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 Albania, Malta 1 -> 0 Czech Republic, Slovakia 0 -> 1 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 while the Czech Republic resp. Slovakia replace Malta resp. Albania in the 1-team group. 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 Ireland, Wales 1 -> 0 Belarus, Moldava/Macedonia 0 -> 1 The newest 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 although Poland can still overtake Romania. The Czech Republic made the biggest jump this year: moving up from rank 33 to 16. Belarus and Moldova (or Macedonia) will replace Ireland and Wales in the 1-team group. =============================================================================== 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. A much more complete list can be found in the RSSSF archive. Country 90/91 91/92 92/93 93/94 94/95 90/95 95/96 91/96 92/96 sum sum sum Italy 12,12 10,66 13,66 14,14 13,28 63,86 9,50 61,24 50,58 France 9,75 6,80 11,20 8,20 9,33 45,28 9,88 45,41 38,61 Germany 7,00 7,33 5,14 10,66 10,17 40,30 8,83 42,13 34,80 Spain 6,16 9,00 6,66 8,66 8,60 39,08 11,00 43,92 34,92 England 12,50 6,75 3,25 8,50 7,33 38,33 4,33 30,16 23,41 Portugal 5,60 5,40 7,20 9,80 6,00 34,00 4,40 32,80 27,40 Russia 11,50 4,00 9,00 4,00 2,80 31,30 5,40 25,20 21,20 Belgium 4,60 8,00 8,60 5,40 3,80 30,40 2,00 27,80 19,80 Netherlands 2,25 8,60 7,60 2,60 7,40 28,45 12,50 38,70 30,10 Turkey 3,33 5,66 4,75 4,75 5,25 23,74 2,50 22,91 17,25 Austria 4,75 2,25 2,20 6,00 6,25 21,45 5,25 21,95 19,70 Yugoslavia 12,00# 9,00# - - - 21,00 1,00 10,00 1,00 Greece 1,75 5,75 4,00 4,50 4,50 20,50 8,25 27,00 21,25 Denmark 3,75 4,25 2,75 3,75 5,50 20,00 5,75 22,00 17,75 Sweden 2,00 2,00 4,75 1,75 7,50 18,00 2,75 18,75 16,75 Scotland 4,50 2,25 4,80 3,00 2,00 16,55 4,50 16,55 14,30 Switzerland 2,25 3,75 3,50 2,25 3,75 15,50 5,00 18,25 14,50 Poland 5,75 1,66 1,50 2,50 3,50 14,91 5,75 14,91 13,25 Rumania 3,00 2,75 2,40 2,20 3,80 14,15 4,00 15,15 12,40 Norway 1,00 0,33 1,00 5,66 4,33 12,32 4,50 15,82 15,49 Israel - - 5,00 5,50 1,67 12,17 2,25 14,42 14,42 Hungary 1,00 3,00 1,66 1,50 4,75 11,91 4,33 15,24 12,24 Croatia - - - 4,00 7,50 11,50 1,00 12,50 12,50 Cyprus 1,00 1,00 0,66 2,66 5,33 10,65 3,00 12,65 11,65 Ukraina - - 3,66 3,33 3,33 10,32 5,33 15,65 15,65 Georgia - - - 3,00 6,00 9,00 1,00 10,00 10,00 Iceland 2,00 1,00 0,33 3,33 2,00 8,66 3,00 9,66 8,66 Latvia - - 5,00 2,00 1,50 8,50 2,67 11,17 11,17 Finland 0,50 1,25 1,00 2,33 3,33 8,41 1,67 9,58 8,33 Slovakia - - - 2,33 5,66 7,99 3,00 10,99 10,99 Slovenia - - 2,00 2,33 3,33 7,66 2,67 10,33 10,33 Bulgaria 1,33 1,25 1,50 1,75 1,75 7,58 3,00 9,25 8,00 Wales 3,00 0,00 1,00 1,00 0,00 5,00 0,67 2,67 2,67 Czech Rep. - - - 1,00 4,00 5,00 12,00 17,00 17,00 Nth.Ireland 0,66 0,66 1,00 1,66 1,00 4,98 1,00 5,32 4,66 Ireland 1,00 0,66 0,66 1,33 1,00 4,65 0,67 4,32 3,66 Belarus - - - 1,50 2,50 4,00 4,50 8,50 8,50 Malta 0,00 0,33 0,66 1,66 1,33 3,98 0,33 4,31 3,98 Albania 0,33 1,00 - 1,00 1,00 3,33 0,67 3,67 2,67 Liechtenst. - - 0,00 3,00 0,00 3,00 0,00 3,00 3,00* Lithuania - - 0,00 0,00 2,50 2,50 1,50 4,00 4,00 Luxembourg 0,66 0,00 1,33 0,00 0,00 1,99 2,00 3,33 3,33 Faroe Isl. - - 0,50 0,00 1,00 1,50 1,50 3,00 3,00 Moldavia - - - 1,00 0,00 1,00 4,00 5,00 5,00 Macedonia - - - - 1,00 1,00 4,00 5,00 5,00 Armenia - - - - 1,00 1,00 1,50 2,50 2,50 Estonia - - 0,00 0,50 0,00 0,50 1,50 2,00 2,00 Azerbaidchan - - - - 0,00 0,00 0,50 0,50 0,50 # 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 round resp. the teams who advance to the League stage of the CC directly. - in the CC 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 16 countries enter the preliminary round. - in the CWC the Cup Winners of the top 16 countries are exempt from the preliminary round. - in the UC the participants from the top 9 countries are exempt from the preliminary round. These numbers are made up such that the first round proper will have 32 resp. 64 participants exactly, they can vary slightly from season to season. Starting from the first round proper a number of strong teams is seeded such that those teams do not meet in the first rounds. In the CWC the ranking list is used to determine the seeded teams (16 in the first round, 8 in the second, none thereafter). The seeding for the UC uses the sum of the ratio #points achieved/# games played for each of the past five years. Here 16 teams are seeded in both the first and second round and none thereafter. ================================================================================ Q & A section ================================================================================ 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 UIC. However, at most two teams from the UIC will make it into the first round proper since the semifinals of the UIC will be part of the preliminary round. 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 season afterwards (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 has partially been admitted to the 1995/96 competition. The champion Crvena Zvezda has been relegated to the UC since the country coefficient of Yugoslavia was not considered, the Cup Winner Obilic has to play the preliminary round of the CWC and the two teams qualifying for the UC (Partizan and Vojvodina) were not admitted. Q: How many berths does England have for 1996/97 ? Good question! At one time 3 berths plus one extra from the Fair Play competition had been alloted. Later Tottenham and Wimbledon were excluded for fielding understrenth teams in the 1995 UIC _and_ one spot was revoked. Of course the clubs didappeal against that decision. Currently it seems that only the extra Fair Play berth was revoked and was given to Finland instead. ================================================================================ 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: May 23, 1996 (C) Copyright Martin Protzen and RSSSF 1996 You are free to copy this document in whole or part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the author. All rights reserved.