Potential teams for Friday’s draw before this week’s matches are complete (assumes seeded teams win CL and EL qualifying matches):
[code]Seeded teams coef. Unseeded teams coef.
Liverpool *3 Eng 115.371 Red Star Belgrade *3 Srb 13.300
FC Porto Por 76.659 Anorthosis Famagusta * Cyp 13.099
CSKA Moscow Rus 66.758 Aris Thessaloniki *3 Gre 12.979
PSV Eindhoven Ned 66.309 Brøndby IF ** Den 12.970
Juventus *3 Ita 59.867 Grasshoppers Zürich Sui 12.675
Sporting CP Lisbon *3 Por 57.659 Rapid Wien ** Aut 11.915
Olympiakos Piraeus ** Gre 54.979 FC Timisoara *3 Rom 11.898
VfB Stuttgart *3 Ger 52.841 APOEL Nicosia ** Cyp 11.599
AZ Alkmaar *3 Ned 48.309 PAOK Thessaloniki @3 Gre 11.479
Steaua Bucuresti Rom 47.898 FC Vaslui Rom 11.398
Lille OSC Fra 46.748 Lech Poznan @3 Pol 11.008
Galatasaray *3 Tur 43.890 Montpellier *3 Fra 10.748
Bayer Leverkusen Ger 40.841 MSK Zilina @3 Svk 10.666
Paris Saint-Germain Fra 39.748 Trabzonspor Tur 10.390
Celtic @3 Sco 38.158 Sibir Novosibirsk *3 Rus 8.758
Club Brugge Bel 36.580 Wisla Kraków ** Pol 8.508
Palermo Ita 35.867 Racing Genk *3 Bel 8.080
Getafe Esp 33.894 Tavria Simferopol Ukr 7.910
Besiktas ** Tur 33.890 Karpaty Lviv ** Ukr 7.910
Manchester City Eng 33.371 Young Boys @3 Sui 7.675
Dinamo Bucuresti ** Rom 28.898 Maritimo Funchal ** Por 7.659
AEK Athens Gre 25.979 Baník Ostrava ** Cze 7.395
Aston Villa Eng 25.871 IF Elfsborg ** Swe 7.338
Lokomotiv Moscow Rus 25.758 FC Utrecht ** Ned 7.309
Metalist Kharkiv Ukr 25.410 Sturm Graz *3 Aut 6.915
Levski Sofia ** Bul 25.400 AA Gent @3 Bel 6.580
Maccabi Haifa *3 Isr 19.775 Randers FC * Den 6.470
Unirea Urziceni @3 Rom 18.898 Motherwell ** Sco 6.158
Austria Wien ** Aut 16.915 Hibernian *3 Sco 6.158
Feyenoord Ned 16.309 Sheriff Tiraspol @3 Mol 5.458
Real Mallorca Esp 15.951 DVSC Debrecen @3 Hun 5.350
CSKA Sofia *3 Bul 15.400 Dundee United Sco 5.158
OB Odense *3 Den 14.970 Omonia Nicosia @3 Cyp 4.599
Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk *3 Ukr 14.910 AIK Stockholm @3 Swe 3.838
Napoli Ita 14.867 HJK Helsinki @3 Fin 2.399
Borussia Dortmund Ger 14.841 FK Aktobe @3 Kaz 2.399
BATE Borisov @3 Bls 13.308 The New Saints @3 Wal 0.766[/code]
Partly based on strength of national league along with performances of the specific team itself in last 5 years of European competition. So they score primarily under the first criteria.*
Tell me this Bandage, say City didnt qualify for a euro comp in 20 years but the time they did qualify before that they won the European Cup, a team that qualified last year with the same nationality lost the final last year City would have a higher co-efficient?
No, it’s last 5 years’ performance so they would have no co-efficient points under that heading if they hadn’t been in Europe for 20 years irrespective of them winning it 20 years ago. The other team would have the same nationality points and then higher points by virtue of reaching a final within the previous 5 years so they’d be seeded higher.
Yes, it’s the last 5 calendar years rather than the last 5 years the team were involved in Europe. I must look it up again to get the exact details but I’m not too keen on the weighting attached to the stronger leagues. You can have a team from a weaker league making gradual strides to better their co-efficient over a period of years and then they may still be unseeded and drawn against a breakthrough team with no recent European pedigree from a bigger league, who are seeded due to the league they play in. I suppose the counter argument is that it’s harder for teams to qualify for European competition in a stronger league with more competitive teams so the league’s standing needs to be taken into account.
Your right though Bandage, ManCity can hardly remember what European Football looks like yet despite being in the top 2 of their league 8 out of the last 9 years Msk Zilina are still unseeded.
Celtic are certainly a ‘work in progress’ with a lot of issues to resolve but the others would be seeded if their European performances over the last 5 years warranted it.
True they would, and on the league system they have earned the points to be there, but i wouldn’t fancy them for much against most of those teams. Its the lowest standard of Celtic team (and Scottish league) i have ever seen.
Can you explain which one of the unseeded teams has a good record in Europe in recent seasons? The coefficients don’t do Celtic any favours because of league bias - they’re only there because they have a better recent record than the unseeded teams.
It is indeed “past glories” which has Celtic in the seeded pot - but most seedings are based on past experience. There aren’t many sports where seedings are based on future projections. In soccer’s case that history goes back 5 years, far from an eternity.
I think the coefficient system is broadly fair enough. I do have issues about the country weighting though. The round a team enters the competition is determined by the country they play in - there’s your reward for playing in a strong league. I think the benefits derived from the performances of other teams from the same league are overly generous and ensure that weak teams from strong leagues get a strong seeding too early.
I’d agree with your last paragraph alright. In a lot of the strong countries its the top 2-4 that bring up the overall standard, but underneath there are alot of average teams, your Villas, Lazio’s, Stuttgarts etc.
this europa league is some pile of shite. make it two legged knockout with the finalists qualifying for next year’s champions league and then you would have a decent competition.