Subject: FAQ: Qualification and Seeding for the European Cups From: martin@inferenzsysteme.informatik.th-darmstadt.de (Martin Protzen) Date: 1997/06/03 Newsgroups: rec.sport.soccer,de.rec.sport.fussball ============================================================================= * * * 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 after the completion of each round of the European Cups. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version May 28, 1997 - what's new in this version ? - final standings as after completion of all competitions Contents - Champions' Cup - Cup Winners' Cup - UEFA Cup - UEFA Intertoto Cup - UEFA ranking list - UEFA coefficient broken down per season - Seeding (including seeding coefficients for UEFA Cup seeding) - Q & A section ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are four different European Cups - the Champions' Cup (CC), - 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 CC, 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: Originally this Cup was intended for the league winners of the member FAs of UEFA. A while ago the qualification process for the CC has been modified such that only the CC defender together with the top 23 champions enters the CC while all other champions will enter the UC. The CC defender and the 7 best champions advance directly to the league stage while the champions ranked 8th to 15th have to play a preliminary tie against one of the champions ranked 16th to 23rd. To determine the top champions (and the number of UC berths allocated to a country) UEFA maintains a ranking list - see section UEFA ranking list. New format for 1997/98 For the upcoming seaon 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 most recent UEFA ranking (see below) determined at the end of the season. Already sure to send two teams are Italy, France, Spain, Germany, The Netherlands, Portugal and England. The last spot will be taken by Turkey as per UEFA decision although Greece was absolutely equal on points. UEFA used this year's coefficient as a tie- breaker. The league stage will beplayed 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 champions of countries ranked 17 to 48 in the most recent ranking table play a preliminary round in late July. For the losers of this tie their European campaign is over. Winners play in the qualification round together with champions of countries ranked 9 to 16 and vice champions of countries ranked 1 to 8. Winners of this round advance to the league stague where they will be joined by the champions of the top ranked countries. 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 may mean that the champions of the countries ranked 8th, 16th (and 48th) are 'downgraded'. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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). It is not clear which team represents a country in case both Cup finalists play in the Champions Cup. UEFA is also considering to allow a second team from the eight top ranked countries into the CWC. How the second team will be determined has not yet been fixed. This modification will not be effective for the 96/97 and 97/98 competitions. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. For 1997/98 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 will get the berths. 1 defending UEFA Cup Holder (only if they don't qualify for any European competition otherwise) 16 preliminary 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 For the 96/97 competition the following format had been used: - Preliminary round in July, involving 54 teams from countries with the lowest country coefficient in the 95/96 ranking - Qualifying round in August, involving 50 teams (27 winners from the qualifying round, 23 teams from the countries with low coefficients which did not play in the preliminary round) + 6 Intertoto teams. - First round in September, involving 64 teams (25 winners from the preliminary round, 8 teams eliminated from the Champions Cup, 28 teams from countries with high rankings and 3 teams qualifying through the UIC). Barring participation of teams from San Marino, Andorra and Bosnia the 97/98 competition will have 16 participants less: 24 champions of low ranked countries will not enter the UC but 16 instead of 8 CC qualification round losers will play in the first round. At least 19 teams (16 CC qualification round losers, 3 UIC finalists) will enter at the first round proper leaving 83 teams competing for the remaining 45 spots. Like last year expect a few other teams to be seeded for the first round proper based on the ranking table. The preliminary round will be played on 23. and 30. July 1997, the qualification round on 13. and 27. August 1997. 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). 60 teams are divided into 12 groups with the winners of each group qualifying for a knock-out round, from where the best 3 teams qualify for the first round proper of the UEFA Cup the following autumn. 1995 saw a slightly different format producing two UC entrants. In 1997 again some countries do not take part in the competition. Among them Italy, Spain, Portugal, England and Ukraina. France, Gerany and Belgium will have 4 entrants, Russia, Turkey, Austria, Yugoslavia and Denmark three. The remaining berths will be allocated to other countries. Group games will be played on the five weekends starting 20./21. June 1997. 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 CC 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 1997/98 UEFA Cup resp. 1998 UIC, the results from the years 1991/92 to 1995/96 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 know until 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 1992/93 through 1996/97) together with the Cup defender advance to the league stage of the CC 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 to determine the number of berths per country =============================================================================== Legend of table --------------- 90/95: coefficient including the 90/91 through 94/95 seasons, used to determine the berths for the 96/97 competition (cf. table B) 91/96: coefficient including the 91/92 through 95/96 seasons, will be used to determine the berths for the 97/98 competition used for seeding purposes for the 96/97 competition 92/96: coefficient including the 92/93 through 95/96 seasons, start value for this year's coefficient teams: starting resp. remaining teams in this year's competition 96/97: coefficient for this season alone 92/97: coefficient including the 92/93 through 96/97 seasons as after the current round Country 91/96 rank 92/96 q. 1st 2nd 3rd CL QF SF F BP st. 96/97 92/97 sum 95 96 sum rd rd rd rd teams sum Italy 61,24 1/ 1 50,58 - 15 9 4 16 8 7 2 10 7+ 10,14 60,72 Spain 43,92 4/ 3 34,92 - 11 10 6 9 7 5 2 8 5 11,60 46,52 France 45,41 2/ 2 38,61 - 18 8 5 8 7 4 0 7 8++ 7,12 45,73 Germany 42,13 3/ 4 34,80 - 17 10 4 9 7 6 4 7 7+ 9,14 43,94 Netherlands 38,70 9/ 5 30,10 - 7 3 1 8 3 0 - 3 4 6,25 36,35 Portugal 32,80 6/ 6 27,40 - 10 10 0 11 3 - - 3 5 7,40 34,80 England 30,16 5/ 7 23,41 - 8 6 3 6 6 2 - 6 5 7,40 30,81 Turkey 22,91 10/11 17,25 7 11 6 1 5 - - - 1 4 7,75 25,00 Turkey and Greece are absolutely equal on points. As the eigth rank entitles to both a second team in the CC in the upcoming competition and three berths for the 98/99 competition, it is decisive who will be ranked 8th. UEFA's rulebook says that in the case of equal coefficients the UEFA commission decides. Such a situation has occured only once before. In that case AJA Auxerre and Dinamo Zagreb played a qualification round which was the only one for the UEFA Cup until the number of participants was increased due to the emerging countries. This time UEFA decided to use this year's coefficient as a tie-breaker giving the Turkey two entrants into next year's Champions' Cup. I don't know whether this is also a prejudice for the allocation of UC spots the year after next year. I would guess that UEFA will allow three entrants from both Turkey and Greece. Country 91/96 rank 92/96 p. q. 1st 2nd 3rd CL QF BP st. r. 96/97 92/97 sum 95 96 sum rd rd rd rd rd teams sum Greece 27,00 13/ 9 21,25 - 2 7 4 - - 1 1 4 - 3,75 25,00 Austria 21,95 11/13 19,70 - 11 5 2 - 2 - 1 4 - 5,25 24,95 Russia 25,20 7/10 21,20 - 11 10 1 - - - - 6+ - 3,67 24,87 Belgium 27,80 8/ 8 19,80 - 10 10 5 5 - 1 1 5 - 4,60 24,40 Denmark 22,00 14/12 17,75 - 9 9 3 2 - 2 1 5+ - 5,20 22,95 Sweden 18,75 15/14 16,75 - 12 7 5 1 2 1 2 5+ - 6,00 22,75 Norway 15,82 20/18 15,49 - 11 2 3 - 6 2 3 4 - 6,75 22,24 Czech Rep. 17,00 33/16 17,00 - 6 6 2 - - - - 3 - 4,67 21,67 Switzerland 18,25 17/15 14,50 - 13 7 1 - 6 - 1 4 - 7,00 21,50 Poland 14,91 18/22 13,25 7 10 3 1 - 3 - 1 4 - 6,25 19,50 Scotland 16,55 16/17 14,30 - 11 3 1 - 2 - 1 4 - 4,50 18,80 Rumania 15,15 19/21 12,40 - 14 6 1 - 3 - 1 4 - 6,25 18,65 Croatia 12,50 23/25 12,50 8 8 2 - - - - - 3 - 6,00 18,50 Ukraina 15,65 25/19 15,65 - 5 2 - - - - - 3 - 2,33 17,98 Cyprus 12,65 24/24 11,65 7 6 2 - - - - - 3 - 5,00 16,65 Israel 14,42 21/23 14,42 4 3 1 - - - - - 4 - 2,00 16,42 Hungary 15,24 22/20 12,24 - 7 3 2 - - - - 3 - 4,00 16,24 Georgia 10,00 26/29 10,00 5 7 4 2 - - - - 3 - 6,00 16,00 Slovakia 10,99 30/27 10,99 8 7 0 - - - - - 3 - 5,00 15,99 Latvia 11,17 28/26 11,17 5 3 - - - - - - 3 - 2,67 13,84 Slovenia 10,33 31/28 10,33 3 3 2 0 - - - - 3 - 2,67 13,00 Finland 9,58 29/31 8,33 9 6 0 - - - - - 4+ - 3,75 12,08 Belarus 8,50 37/33 8,50 5 4 - - - - - - 3 - 3,00 11,50 Iceland 9,66 27/30 8,66 3 3 1 - - - - - 3 - 2,33 10,99 Bulgaria 9,25 32/32 8,00 5 3 - - - - - - 3 - 2,67 10,67 Macedonia 5,00 44/35 5,00 6 1 - - - - - - 3 - 2,33 7,33 Lithuania 4,00 41/39 4,00 3 3 - - - - - - 3 - 2,00 6,00 Moldavia 5,00 45/36 5,00 1 2 0 - - - - - 3 - 1,00 6,00 Nth.Ireland 5,32 35/34 4,66 2 0 - - - - - - 3 - 0,67 5,33 Wales 2,67 34/44 2,67 3 3 1 - - - - - 3 - 2,33 5,00 Liechtenst. 3,00 40/42 3,00 - 2 0 - - - - - 1 - 2,00 *5,00 Yugoslavia 1,00 12/47 1,00 9 3 2 1 - - - - 4 - 3,75 4,75 Estonia 2,00 47/46 2,00 4 4 - - - - - - 3 - 2,67 4,67 Malta 4,31 38/38 3,98 2 0 - - - - - - 3 - 0,67 4,65 Ireland 4,32 36/37 3,66 2 0 - - - - - - 3 - 0,67 4,33 Armenia 2,50 46/45 2,50 3 2 - - - - - - 3 - 1,67 4,17 Luxembourg 3,33 42/41 3,33 1 0 - - - - - - 3 - 0,33 3,66 Faroe Island 3,00 43/43 3,00 0 0 - - - - - - 3 - 0,00 3,00 Albania 3,67 39/40 2,67 0 0 - - - - - - 3 - 0,00 2,67 Azerbaidchan 0,50 48/48 0,50 3 1 - - - - - - 3 - 1,33 1,83 # Yugoslavia's coefficient has been recalculated, all points accumulated before the ban have been declared void + Italy and France get extra berths to defend CC resp. CWC; Russia, Sweden and Finland due to their Fair Play ranking; Germany, France and Denmark send a team through the UIC * Liechtenstein does not get to send a team to the UC since they don't have a domestic league. This table deserves a few comments: 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 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 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 last column of table B below which is a sum of the results of the last 4 years we notice that some of the countries who used to be big names have dropped significantly. Belgium and Russia who in 1997 resp. 1996 still were allowed to send three teams suddenly find themselves at rankings which entitle them to a single berth only. Also Scotland will loose one of their two berths unless they can improve during the upcoming season. Country 1998/99 1999/2000 ======= ======= ========= France 4 -> 3 Germany 3 -> 4 Turkey 3 -> 2 Austria 2 -> 3 Scotland, Belgium, Russia 2 -> 1 Georgia, Cyprus, 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. A much more complete list can be found in the RSSSF archive. Country 91/92 92/93 93/94 94/95 95/96 91/96 96/97 92/97 93/97 sum sum sum Italy 10,66 13,66 14,14 13,28 9,50 61,24 10,14 60,72 47,06 France 6,80 11,20 8,20 9,33 9,88 45,41 7,12 45,73 34,53 Spain 9,00 6,66 8,66 8,60 11,00 43,92 11,60 46,52 39,86 Germany 7,33 5,14 10,66 10,17 8,83 42,13 9,14 43,94 38,80 Netherlands 8,60 7,60 2,60 7,40 12,50 38,70 6,25 36,35 28,75 Portugal 5,40 7,20 9,80 6,00 4,40 32,80 7,40 34,80 27,60 England 6,75 3,25 8,50 7,33 4,33 30,16 7,40 30,81 27,56 Belgium 8,00 8,60 5,40 3,80 2,00 27,80 4,60 24,40 15,80 Greece 5,75 4,00 4,50 4,50 8,25 27,00 3,75 25,00 21,00 Russia 4,00 9,00 4,00 2,80 5,40 25,20 3,67 24,87 15,87 Turkey 5,66 4,75 4,75 5,25 2,50 22,91 7,75 25,00 20,25 Denmark 4,25 2,75 3,75 5,50 5,75 22,00 5,20 22,95 20,20 Austria 2,25 2,20 6,00 6,25 5,25 21,95 5,25 24,95 22,75 Sweden 2,00 4,75 1,75 7,50 2,75 18,75 6,00 22,75 18,00 Switzerland 3,75 3,50 2,25 3,75 5,00 18,25 7,00 21,50 18,00 Czech Rep. 1,00 4,00 12,00 17,00 4,67 21,67 21,67 Scotland 2,25 4,80 3,00 2,00 4,50 16,55 4,50 18,80 14,00 Norway 0,33 1,00 5,66 4,33 4,50 15,82 6,75 22,24 21,24 Ukraina 3,66 3,33 3,33 5,33 15,65 2,33 17,98 14,32 Hungary 3,00 1,66 1,50 4,75 4,33 15,24 4,00 16,24 14,58 Rumania 2,75 2,40 2,20 3,80 4,00 15,15 6,25 18,65 16,25 Poland 1,66 1,50 2,50 3,50 5,75 14,91 6,25 19,50 18,00 Israel 5,00 5,50 1,67 2,25 14,42 2,00 16,42 11,42 Cyprus 1,00 0,66 2,66 5,33 3,00 12,65 5,00 16,65 15,99 Croatia 4,00 7,50 1,00 12,50 6,00 18,50 18,50 Latvia 5,00 2,00 1,50 2,67 11,17 2,67 13,84 8,84 Slovakia 2,33 5,66 3,00 10,99 5,00 15,99 15,99 Slovenia 2,00 2,33 3,33 2,67 10,33 2,67 13,00 11,00 Georgia 3,00 6,00 1,00 10,00 6,00 16,00 16,00 Iceland 1,00 0,33 3,33 2,00 3,00 9,66 2,33 10,99 10,66 Finland 1,25 1,00 2,33 3,33 1,67 9,58 3,75 12,08 11,08 Bulgaria 1,25 1,50 1,75 1,75 3,00 9,25 2,67 10,67 9,17 Belarus 1,50 2,50 4,50 8,50 3,00 11,50 11,50 N. Ireland 0,66 1,00 1,66 1,00 1,00 5,32 0,67 5,33 4,33 Macedonia 1,00 4,00 5,00 2,33 7,33 7,33 Moldavia 1,00 0,00 4,00 5,00 1,00 6,00 6,00 Ireland 0,66 0,66 1,33 1,00 0,66 4,31 0,67 4,32 3,66 Malta 0,33 0,66 1,66 1,33 0,33 4,31 0,67 4,65 3,99 Lithuania 0,00 0,00 2,50 1,50 4,00 2,00 6,00 6,00 Albania 1,00 1,00 1,00 0,67 3,67 0,00 2,67 2,67 Luxembourg 0,00 1,33 0,00 0,00 2,00 3,33 0,33 3,66 2,33 Far.Islands 0,50 0,00 1,00 1,50 3,00 0,00 3,00 2,50 Liechtenst. 0,00 3,00 0,00 0,00 3,00 2,00 5,00 5,00 Wales 0,00 1,00 1,00 0,00 0,67 2,67 2,33 5,00 4,00 Armenia 1,00 1,50 2,50 1,67 4,17 4,17 Estonia 0,00 0,50 0,00 1,50 2,00 2,67 4,67 4,67 Yugoslavia 9,00 - - - 1,00 1,00# 3,75 4,75 4,75 Azerbaidjan 0,00 0,50 0,50 1,33 1,83 1,83 # 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 CC directly. - in the CC 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. In the CWC the ranking list is used to determine the seeded teams (16 in the first round, 8 in the second, none thereafter). This means that the same 15 teams that were exempt from the preliminary round plus FC Sion were seeded for the first round in the 1996/97 competition. In the second round Fiorentina, Paris Saint-Germain, Nimes Olympique, FC Barcelona, PSV Eindhoven, SL Benfica, Liverpool and AEK (Athinai) were seeded. No seeding from the quarter final on. The seeding for the UC uses the sum of the ratio #points achieved/# games played for each of the past five years. 16 teams are seeded in both first and second round. The decision whether teams had to play in a preliminary round was based on a different ranking list, the so-called country coefficient. For each season under consideration the number of points and the number of games played by the team are displayed. Then the coefficient given as the sum of five quotients points over games is given. Seeded teams which were eliminated in the first round (marked +) 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. =============================================================================== Table C : seeding coefficients for UEFA Cup first and second round seeding for the 1996/97 competition =============================================================================== 91/92 92/93 93/94 94/95 95/96 Coeff seeded in first and second round (unless eliminated): Parma Ita 2 2 16 9 14 9 21 12 9 6 7,583 + Spartak Moscow Rus 5 4 15 8 15 10 5 6 15 8 7,333 Panathinaikos Gre 11 10 5 4 6 4 5 4 16 10 6,700 + Feyenoord Ned 12 8 5 6 3 4 10 6 13 8 6,375 Bayern Muenchen Ger 5 4 5 4 12 10 24 12 5,700 + Club Brugge KV Bel 14 8 13 10 10 6 3 4 5,467 Trabzonspor Tur 8 6 4 4 6 4 5 6 3 4 5,417 Sporting Lisbon Por 2 2 2 2 7 6 2 2 5 4 5,417 AS Monaco Fra 16 9 4 4 15 11 2 2 5,141 RSC Anderlecht Bel 14 10 8 6 14 10 5 6 0 0 4,967 Dinamo Moscow Rus 6 6 6 6 2 2 3 4 7 6 4,917 + Broendby IF Den 3 4 7 6 5 4 8 6 4,500 Boavista Por 4 4 4 4 12 8 4 4 4,500 Arsenal Eng 3 4 18 9 15 9 4,417 + Olympiakos Gre 7 6 6 4 0 2 6 4 4,167 + SS Lazio Ita 6 4 13 8 4 4 4,125 seeded in second round only (unless eliminated): Celtic Sco 5 4 2 4 5 4 4 4 4,000 + AS Roma Ita 7 6 11 8 11 8 3,917 Slavia Prague Czr 2 2 1 2 2 2 14 10 3,900 Internazionale Ita 1 2 22 12 2 2 1 2 3,833 FC Innsbruck Aut 7 6 0 2 5 4 4 4 3,417 + Ferencvarosi Hun 4 4 1 2 0 2 4 4 5 6 3,333 Dinamo Kiev Ukr 13 10 2 4 2 2 3 6 0 0 3,300 + CSKA Moscow Rus 2 2 11 10 2 2 3,100 + Besiktas Tur 1 2 2 2 2 4 4 4 0 0 3,000 Torpedo Moscow Rus 3 4 4 4 2 2 2,750 + Chernomorets Ukr 2 2 2 2 3 4 2,750 + Neuchatel Xamax Sui 7 6 1 2 1 2 2,167 unseeded: Aston Villa Eng 4 4 4 4 2,000 + M'gladbach Ger 10 6 1,667 OB Odense Den 0 2 1 2 9 8 1,625 + Apoel (Nicosia) Cyp 2 2 0 2 1 2 1,500 + Newcastle Eng 6 4 1,500 Karlsruher SC Ger 14 10 1,400 RC Lens Fra 8 6 1,333 + Valencia CF Esp 0 2 5 4 1,250 Vit. Guimaraes Por 2 4 3 4 1,250 CD Tenerife Esp 7 6 1,167 Hamburger SV Ger 7 6 1,167 Silkeborg IF Den 0 0 2 2 1,000 + Dinamo Tbilisi Geo - - 2 2 - - 1,000 Bodo Glimt Nor 2 2 1,000 + Legia Warsaw Pol 0 0 8 8 1,000 Rapid Bucharest Rom 0 2 4 4 1,000 + Vladikavkaz Rus 1 2 1 2 1,000 + Aberdeen Sco 0 2 4 4 - - 1,000 FC Aarau Sui 1 2 1 2 1,000 + Malmo FF Swe 2 2 1,000 + Halmstads BK Swe 4 4 1,000 + Roda JC Ned 3 4 0,750 + Germinal Ekeren Bel 1 2 0,500 + Macc. Tel-Aviv Isr 0 2 1 2 0 0 0,500 + Grazer AK Aut 0,000 RWD Molenbeek Bel 0,000 + Lyngby BK Den 0 2 0,000 + Espanol Esp 0,000 EA Guingamp Fra 0,000 + Montpellier SC Fra 0,000 + FC Metz Fra 0,000 Schalke 04 Ger 0,000 Hutnik Krakow Pol 0,000 + Nat. Bucharest Rom 0,000 Helsingbors IF Swe 0,000 Barry Town Wal - - 0,000 + ================================================================================ 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). Whether this decision will stand or not is not yet decided. 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 CC winner is from that country and does not finish first or second in the league - the country in question is one of the 8 countries eligible to send their vice champion to the CC. Q: What happens if the finalists of the domestic cup competition are eligible to play in the CC ? Who will take the CWC spot ? As far as I know this has not been decided yet. Most likely 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. ================================================================================ This FAQ has been prepared by Martin Protzen with the help of Lars Thore Aarhus , Karel Stokkermans , James Ross and others. ================================================================================ Author: Martin Protzen Last updated: May 28, 1997 (C) Copyright Martin Protzen and RSSSF 1997 You are free to copy this document in whole or part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the author. All rights reserved. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Martin Protzen Department of Computer Science Technical University of Darmstadt Germany