Seedings for next season based on current rankings:
1 AC Milan 128.572
2 FC Barcelona 118.808
3 Liverpool 109.329
4 Internazionale 107.572
5 Arsenal 104.329
6 Real Madrid 103.808
7 Valencia 98.808
8 Chelsea 97.32
9 Manchester United 97.329
10 Olympique Lyon 95.706
11 Newcastle United 94.329
12 Juventus 92.572
13 FC Porto 89.107
14 Sevilla 82.808
15 PSV Eindhoven 81.995
16 AS Roma 78.572
17 Villarreal 77.808
18 Bayern Mnchen 73.640
19 Benfica 67.107
20 Ajax 65.995
21 AZ Alkmaar 63.995
22 Werder Bremen 63.640
23 Celtic 62.064
24 AJ Auxerre 61.706
25 AC Parma 61.572
26 Deportivo La Corua 60.808
27 Schalke 04 60.640
28 AS Monaco 59.706
29 VfB Stuttgart 58.640
30 Espanyol 56.808
31 Panathinaikos 55.415
32 Middlesbrough 55.329
… http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method3/trank2007.html
Celtic are ranked 23rd at the moment which would make them 3rd seeds if they and everyone above them qualified for the CL group stages.
Unlikely to qualify out of those ranked higher are:
Newcastle United - no chance
Juventus - no chance
Villareal - no chance
Bayern Munich - 5 points behind with 4 games to play
One of the Dutch teams - they only have 2 representatives so one must drop out
Valencia were beaten yesterday so could be caught by Zaragoza or Atletico Madrid (who also lost yesterday) - both are 3 points behind Valencia with 6/7 games to go.
I’ve read a few places saying that Celtic look likely to get a 2nd seeding in the CL but I can’t see it happening from that data. Anyone know anything different?
I don’t know myself but losing the points from Seville is emphasised by the fact that Benfica were in our original group as 3rd seeds this season and even though we did better than them in Europe they’ve still passed us out.
We haven’t lost the Seville points yet - that disaster is waiting for us in 2008/09. Our coefficient is higher for next season than it was for this season and we’re ranked one place higher 23rd instead of 24th. It’s just that teams like Deportivo La Coruna have dropped to below us this year so we’ve less Newcastles and the likes to promote us up the order.
If we perform next season as we did this season then at a rough estimation we will be ranked 31st next season. If we don’t get beyond the group stages then it will be more like 45th (where the huns are) and if we don’t get to the group stages then we’re looking at 52nd. Realistically we want to be 3rd seeds or thereabouts after this season is over so getting out of the group stages again would probably do that for us. In fact coming 3rd in the group and picking up some handy points in the UEFA Cup might even be better.
Looking at the top ranked teams for this season Espanyol and Sevilla are 1 and 2 - UEFA need to look at giving more points to the CL than the UEFA Cup to balance it up. It’s not just that we’re not in the UEFA Cup but the bigger countries like England and Spain have so many UEFA Cup representatives that Newcastle 22.19 points this season compared to Celtic’s 13.23 which is a blatant misrepresentation of our respective achievements.
Totally agree on the CL/UEFA Cup balance. Middlesboro’ rocketed up ridiculously last season in their first ever season in Europe. Lucky they didn’t qualify for the UEFA Cup this season and had another run and they’d have been up in the top 10. It’s wrong.
The table is based on each side’s performance in Europe over the past 5 seasons. There’s points awarded for wins, draws etc but it’s slightly strange in that there’s very little difference in the points awarded for a Champions League or UEFA Cup win.
There are also points awarded for how other clubs in your country have performed in Europe this season:
HOW UEFA RANKINGS ARE DETERMINED
FACTOR ONE: CLUB’S PERFORMANCE OVER LAST 5 YEARS
For every match that the club plays in either the UEFA Cup or Champions League (excluding qualifying rounds in either competition) the club is awarded:
2 points for a win
1 point for a draw
0 points for a loss
These points apply to both legs of a knockout round so if you win both legs you get 4 points.
In addition the following bonus points are awarded:
Reaching group stages of CL: 3 bonus points
Reaching last 16 of CL: 1 bonus point
Reaching QF,SF or Final of CL or UEFA Cup: 1 bonus point each round
FACTOR TWO: OTHER CLUBS FROM SAME COUNTRY’S PERFORMANCE
33% of the UEFA Country coefficient is added to each club from that country’s score. The country coefficient is the sum of all the points earned by each club from Country X in European competition that season divided by the number of clubs from Country X in European competition.
THE SUM OF FACTOR ONE AND FACTOR TWO DETERMINES THE OVERALL RANKING.
The below graph shows how the various countries’ rankings have changed over the years
Possible qualifer opponents for Celtic in Q Round 3:
Celtic will be seeded so the unseeded teams are likely to be from this bunch (some of those could move up to become seeded if a seeded team gets knocked out in Q Round 2).
Sparta Prague - Czech Rep
Fenerbahce - Turkey
AEK Athens - Greece
Dinamo Bucharest - Romania
Rosenborg (1 qualifier to negotiate first) - Norway
Spartak Moscow - Russia
Red Star Belgrade (1 qualifier to negotiate first) - Serbia
Toulouse FC - France
FC Copenhagen (1 qualifier to negotiate first) - Denmark
Dinamo Zagreb (2 qualifiers to negotiate first) - Croatia
Racing Genk (1 qualifier to negotiate first) - Belgium
2nd Place Team in Czech Rep (likely to be Slovan Liberec, with 1 qualifier to negotaite first) - Czech Rep
DVSC Debrecen (1 qualifier to negotiate first) - Hungary
FC Zurich - Switzerland
FC Salzburg (1 qualifier to negotiate first) - Austria
APOEL Nicosia (2 qualifiers to negotiate first) - Cyprus
Some tough games there. Spartak Moscow (they’ll be well back playing by then as well I’d imagine), Fenerbahce, Athens, Sparta Praha.
We can’t play the huns because:
a. there is country protection in qualifier rounds (can’t meet opponents from the same country)
b. they too will be seeded
The points list for next season is well updated by now. The only reason we don’t have a definitive list of possible opponents yet is because we don’t know who’ll progress through the early qualifying ronds.
