UEFA European Cups 1998/1999
Results and Qualification
by Bert Kassies
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This page was the main page of the 1998/1999 season. All text
has to be interpreted within that context. No changes are
applied.
There are three different European Cups: the Champions
League (EC1), the Cup Winners' Cup (EC2), and the
UEFA Cup (EC3). The qualification of teams for these
European cups is indicated below, and is determined by the so-called
UEFA country ranking.
The defending cup winner of each European Cup is automaticly qualified,
which may lead to a minor modification in the qualification rules for
other teams.
For the 1999/2000 season the UEFA has anounced a completely
new format of the Champions League (with a
first league stage of 32 teams) and the new UEFA Cup (a combination of
the Cup Winners Cup and the old UEFA Cup).
1. Champions League
The champions of all countries enter the Champions League. However,
teams of low ranked countries have to play preliminary and/or
qualifying rounds, while a second team of top ranked countries enters
the qualifying round.
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CHAMPIONS LEAGUE |
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Preliminary Round |
Qualifying Round |
League Stage |
Play-offs |
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July |
August |
Sept-Dec |
March-May |
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32 champions from low ranked countries |
involving 32 teams:
16 winners from preliminary round
8 champions from countries ranked 9-16
8 vice champions from countries ranked 1-8 |
involving 6 groups of 4 teams each:
16 winners from qualifying round
8 champions from countries ranked 1-8 |
involving 8 teams:
6 group winners and 2 best group seconds from league stage
play the quarter finals, the semi finals, and the final
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Losing teams in the qualifying round enter the 1st round of the UEFA
Cup.
2. Cup Winners' Cup
The Cup Winners of all countries get to play in this Cup unless they are
qualified for the Champions League (in which case they will be replaced
by the losing cup finalists).
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CUP WINNERS' CUP |
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Qualifying Round |
Rounds 1 and 2 |
Play-offs |
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August |
September-October |
March-May |
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34 teams from low ranked countries |
involving 32 teams:
17 winners from qualifying round
15 teams from high ranked countries |
8 teams play the quarter finals, the semi finals,
and the final |
In the first round the teams from countries ranked 1-16 are seeded,
and in the second round the teams from countries ranked 1-8 are seeded.
3. UEFA Cup
The UEFA Cup is a competition for the runners up of each
country, the qualifying round losers from the Champions
League, the best teams of the Intertoto Cup, and teams from countries
who top the UEFA Fair Play competition.
- 82 teams are determined by the UEFA country ranking of last year:
- 12 teams from countries ranked 1-3 (each country 4 teams)
- 15 teams from countries ranked 4-8 (each country 3 teams)
- 26 teams from countries ranked 9-21 (each country 2 teams)
- 29 teams from countries ranked 22-50 (each country 1 team,
except Bosnia 2 teams, and Liechtenstein no team)
- 3 teams of the Fair Play competition (1998/99:
England, Finland, and Norway)
- 3 teams of the Intertoto Cup (enter first round)
- 16 qualifying round losers of the Champions League (enter first round)
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UEFA CUP |
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Preliminary Round |
Qualifying Round |
Rounds 1, 2, and 3 |
Play-offs |
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July |
August |
Sept-Dec |
March-May |
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40 teams from low ranked countries |
involving 40 teams:
20 winners from preliminary round
20 teams from medium ranked countries
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involving 64 teams:
20 winners from qualifying round
25 teams from high ranked countries
16 teams eliminated from the Champions League
3 Intertoto teams
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8 teams play the quarter finals, the semi finals,
and the final |
UEFA Country Ranking
The basis for the UEFA ranking is the performance of teams in the three
European Cups during a five year period. During that period each team
gets two points for a win 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 Champions Cup yields one 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. See the UEFA coefficients of
1998 for an example of such a calculation.
The UEFA country ranking is computed by the sum of 5 coefficients in the
last 5 years. See the country ranking of 1998
for an example of such a ranking list. To determine the participants in
the UEFA Cup the last year ranking is used, because each country should
know at the start of the season how many places it disposes. However,
the most recent UEFA country ranking is used to determine which teams
have to play preliminary and/or qualifying rounds.
UEFA Cup Seeding
In the UEFA Cup a number of strong teams is seeded such that those
teams do not meet in the first two rounds. To determine these teams,
the sum of the ratio of the number of points achieved, divided by
the number of games played by each team, is calculated for the past
five years. An example of these seeding coefficients is given in the
team ranking of 1998. Please note that
for each team and year, the number of matches versus the number of
points is listed in this table. For the calculation of the seeding
coefficients games played in qualifying or preliminary rounds are
not taken into account.
Results
The results of the European Cup matches since 1990, the UEFA coefficients,
the UEFA country ranking and team ranking are available in
the archive.
This page is partly a compilation of the
FAQ: Qualification and Seeding for the European Cups
of Martin Protzen and the
RSSSF.
The FAQ is the most complete background information on the qualification
and seeding for the European Cups.