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.  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.


About this document

Thanks to Lars Aarhus (larsa@unik.no), Karel Stokkermans (Karel.Stokkermans@risc.uni-linz.ac.at), James Ross (jmr@zfe1.demon.co.uk) and others

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.