|
| ||
|
| |||
|
| |||
|
| |||
This page was the main page of the 2008/2009 season. All text has to be interpreted within that context. No changes are applied. On this site you will find everything about the calculation of coefficients and rankings used for the qualification and seeding of teams for the Champions League and the UEFA Cup. There are no data on individual matches other than the results. Results of the UEFA Intertoto Cup are not available at this site.
Champions League
The Champions League contains 32 teams in the group stage, and is be preceded
by three qualifying stages. The champions of all countries enter the Champions
League, but high ranked countries can send up to 4 teams. Some teams of high
ranked countries are directly qualified for the group stage, while others have
to play qualifying rounds.
See
wikipedia
for more general info.
| CHAMPIONS LEAGUE | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1st Qualifying Round | July | 30 champions from countries ranked 23 or lower |
| 2nd Qualifying Round | Jul-Aug |
involving 28 teams: 15 winners from 1st qualifying round 7 champions from countries ranked 16-22 6 second-placed teams from countries ranked 10-15 |
| 3rd Qualifying Round | August |
involving 32 teams: 14 winners from 2nd qualifying round 6 champions from countries ranked 10-15 3 second-placed teams from countries ranked 7-9 6 third-placed teams from countries ranked 1-6 3 fourth-placed teams from countries ranked 1-3 |
| Group Stage | Sep-Dec |
involving 8 groups of 4 teams each: 16 winners from 3rd qualifying round 9 champions from countries ranked 1-9 6 second-placed teams from countries ranked 1-6 1 defending cup holder |
| Play-offs | Feb-May |
involving 16 teams: 8 group second-placed teams and 8 winners from group stage play the 2nd round, the quarter finals, the semi finals, and the final |
Losing teams in the 3rd qualifying round enter the 1st round of the UEFA Cup,
and third-placed teams from the group stage enter the 3rd round of the UEFA Cup.
The defending Champions league cup-holder always takes part. If the defending cup-holder does not finish in a qualifying place in their domestic competition they will come in at the expense of the last-placed side of that association, except for associations ranked 16 or below (which implies that the champion of each country always takes part). In this case the last-placed team for the Champions League of that association has to take part in the UEFA Cup. Only if the defending Champions league cup-holder also did not qualify for the UEFA Cup this will lead to an additional UEFA Cup berth for that association.
If the defending cup holder already qualified directly for the group stage of the Champions League, the champion of the 10th country on the country ranking list will gain direct access to the group stage, the champion of the 16th country on the country ranking list will gain direct access to the 3rd qualifying round, and the champions of the 23th and 24th country on the country ranking list will gain direct access to the 2nd qualifying round. Similar changes are made if the cup holder already qualified directly for one of the qualification rounds.
If in the group stage of the Champions League two or more teams finish equal on points after all the group matches have been played, the following criteria are applied to determine the group rankings:
- Higher number of points obtained in the matches between the teams in question
- Superior goal difference from the matches between the teams in question
- Higher number of goals scored away from home in the matches between the teams in question
- Superior goal difference from all group matches played
- Higher number of goals scored
- Coefficient points accumulated by the club in question, as well as its association, over the previous five seasons (Team Ranking)
See the Regulations of the UEFA Champions League 2008/2009 (pdf file of 480 kB at uefa.com) for a complete and formal description of all regulations.
UEFA Cup
The UEFA Cup is a competition for the runners-up and the Cup Winners of each
country, some teams expelled from the Champions League, the best teams of the
Intertoto Cup,
and teams from countries who top the
UEFA Fair Play competition.
See
wikipedia
for more general info.
| UEFA CUP | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1st Qualifying Round | July |
involving 76 teams: 35 cup winners from countries ranked 19 or lower 32 second-placed teams from countries ranked 19 or lower (except Liechtenstein, Andorra, and San Marino) 6 third-placed teams from countries ranked 16-21 3 teams of the Fair Play competition |
| 2nd Qualifying Round | August |
involving 64 teams: 38 winners from 1st qualifying round 5 cup winners from countries ranked 14-18 3 second-placed teams from countries ranked 16-18 7 third-placed teams from countries ranked 9-15 11 teams of the Intertoto competition |
| Round 1 | September |
involving 80 teams: 32 winners from the qualifying round 13 cup winners from countries ranked 1-13 2 third-placed teams from countries ranked 7-8 5 fourth-placed teams from countries ranked 4-8 8 fifth-placed teams from countries ranked 1-8 3 sixth-placed teams from countries ranked 1-3 16 teams eliminated from the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League 1 defending cup holder |
| Group stage | Oct-Dec |
involving 8 groups of 5 teams each: 40 winners of the first round |
| Round 3 | February |
involving 32 teams: 24 first-placed, second-placed, and third-placed teams from the group stage 8 third-placed teams from the group stage of the Champions League |
| Round 4 | March |
involving 16 teams: 16 winners of the third round |
| Play-offs | April-May |
involving 8 teams: 8 winners of the fourth round play the quarter finals, the semi finals, and the final |
If the cup winner of a country also qualifies for the Champions
League, then the losing team of the cup final is qualified for the UEFA
Cup. If both cup finalists qualify for the Champions League, then an
additional team based on league position will be qualified. However, the
losing cup finalist does not get the UEFA Cup cup-winner spot, but is
treated as a league entrant. The 'cup- winner' spot of that country goes
to the team with the highest league position. In some countries
(England and France) the last league entrant position is given to the
League Cup Winner.
The place for the defending cup holder is only used when that team has not otherwise qualified for either the Champions League or the UEFA Cup. If this place is not used then the cup winner of the 14th country on the country ranking list will gain direct access to the 1st round round, and the cup winners of the 19th and 20th country on the country ranking list will gain direct access to the 2nd qualifying round.
If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of all the group matches, the following criteria will be applied to determine the rankings:
- superior goal difference from all group matches played;
- higher number of goals scored;
- higher number of goals scored away;
- higher number of wins;
- higher number of away wins;
- higher number of coefficient points accumulated by the club in question, as well as its association, over the previous five seasons (Team Ranking).
See the Regulations of the UEFA Cup 2008/2009 (pdf file of 390 kB at uefa.com) for a complete and formal description of all regulations.
UEFA Country Ranking
The basis for the UEFA rankings is the performance of teams in the European Cups
during a five year period. During that period each team gets two points for a
win and one point for a draw. From 2009 on points in qualifying matches are only
based on the qualification for a certain round (CL-Q1: 0.50 points, CL-Q2: 1.00
points, EL-Q1: 0.25 points, EL-Q2: 0.50 points, EL-Q3: 1.00 points, EL-Q4: 1.50
points). From 1999 until 2008 points in qualification matches are halved: 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 4 bonus points (from 2005-2009: 3 points,
before 1996: 2 points, from 1996-2004: 1 point). And also qualification for the
first knock-out round of the Champions League yields 4 bonus points (from 2004-
2009: 1 point). Qualification for the group-stage of the Europa League is
rewarded with 2 bonus points.
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 ranking is used, because each country should know at the start of the season how many places it disposes.
For a detailed description see
UEFA Coefficients calculation method.
UEFA Team Ranking
The UEFA team coefficients are calculated as the sum of the number of points of
each individual team, and 20% of the country coefficient. From 2004-2008 the
contribution of the country coefficient was 33%, and before 2004 the
contribution of the country coefficient was 50%.
Before 2010 the calculation of the individual points for
the team coefficients does not take into account games played in qualifying
rounds.
The UEFA team ranking is computed by the sum of 5 coefficients in the last 5 years. In this list the yellow lines with country information indicate the lowest possible value for a team of that country (even if that team didn't play any game in the last five years). The most recent team ranking is used for seeding 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 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, was calculated for the past five years.
For a detailed description see UEFA Coefficients calculation method.