European football UEFA competitions (), referred improperly by the mass media as European football, are the set of tournaments organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), generally in professional and amateur association football and futsal. T ...

, the UEFA coefficients are statistics based in

weighted arithmetic mean The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. Th ...

s used for ranking and seeding teams in club and international competitions. Introduced in 1979 for men's football tournaments (country rankings only), and after applied in women's

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and

futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

, the

coefficient In mathematics, a coefficient is a Factor (arithmetic), multiplicative factor involved in some Summand, term of a polynomial, a series (mathematics), series, or any other type of expression (mathematics), expression. It may be a Dimensionless qu ...

s are calculated by

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

, who administer football within

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, and the

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

n parts of some transcontinental countries. The confederation publishes three types of rankings: one analysing a single season, a five-year span, and a ten-year span. For men's competitions, three sets of coefficients are calculated: * National team coefficient: used during 1997–2017 to rank national teams, for seeding in the UEFA Euro qualifying and finals tournaments. UEFA decided after 2017, instead to seed national teams based on the: ** Overall ranking of the biennial

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is an international European football competition played by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The competition was devised to minimise friendlies a ...

for the seeded draw of groups in the UEFA Euro qualification stage. ** Overall ranking of the UEFA Euro qualification stage for the seeded draw of groups in the UEFA Euro final tournament. * Association coefficient: used to rank the collective performance of the clubs of each member association, for assigning the number of places, and at what stage clubs enter the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

and the

UEFA Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual football competition organised since 2021 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It is the thir ...

. * Club coefficient (since 1990): used to rank individual

clubs Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Club (magazine), ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands a ...

, for seeding in the

, UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (until 1999) and

(since 2021). For the expanded format of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup,

has used a mixed style of seeding for the competition, with the winners of the 2021–2024 Champions League each receiving a place and the other 8 teams being chosen based on their UEFA Club Coefficient.

Men's association coefficient

The association coefficient is used to rank the football associations of Europe, and thus determine the number of clubs from an association that will participate in the

, the

and the

. The UEFA ranking determines the number of teams competing in the season after the next, not in the first season after the publication of the ranking. Thus, the rankings at the end of the 2022–23 season determine the team allocation by association in the 2024–25 (not 2023–24) UEFA season. This is unrelated to the selection of teams which will fill each allocation through the individual association leagues and national cups (which is decided in the preceding season). This coefficient is determined by the results of the clubs of the associations in the

and the

games over the past five seasons. Two points are awarded for each win by a club, and one for a draw (points are halved in the qualifying rounds). Results determined by extra time do count in determining the allocation of points, but results determined by penalty shootouts do not affect the allocation of points, other than for bonus points given for qualification into the latter rounds. The number of points awarded each season is divided by the number of teams that participated for that association in that season. This number is calculated to three decimal places then truncated (e.g. would be truncated to 2.666). To determine an association's coefficient for a particular season, the coefficients for the last five seasons are added. Bonus points are added to the number of points scored in a season. Bonus points are allocated for: Bonus Points UEFA uses this coefficient system to decide which teams gain automatic entry to the league phase and which teams must go through qualifying. For instance, the teams who occupy the top four league places in the associations ranked 1 to 4 in UEFA competition, the top three teams of the association ranked 5, the top two teams of the association ranked 6, and the champions in the associations ranked 7 to 10 gain automatic entry into the league phase for the following season's Champions League competition.

Current ranking

The ranking below takes into account of each association's performance in European competitions from 2021–22 to 2025–26, with the 2025–26 season to be underway 8 July 2025. The final ranking at the end of the 2025–26 season will be used to determine the minimum number of places for each association in the 2027–28 UEFA club competitions. The two highest annual coefficients from the 2023–24 season and onward are used to determine two additional European Performance Spots (one per association) in the Champions League for the next season. These associations are highlighted in bold; prior to the 2023–24 season only the leading association was highlighted. As of 2 June 2025, the coefficients are as follows: Notes

Liechtenstein's status and similar cases

According to the UEFA regulations a National League needs to consist of at least eight clubs to be considered valid, otherwise no participants of such a league will be allowed to enter European competitions. *There are only seven clubs that are active in Liechtenstein, all of which play in neighbouring Switzerland's league competitions. *Prior to the introduction of the Welsh Premier League, now known as Cymru Premier, in 1992, Wales also had a single participant in European competitions, the winner (or best placed Welsh team as several English teams also competed) of the Welsh Cup, in the now defunct UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.

Distribution of team competition quotas

2024–27

The following is the default access list for the 2024–25 and future seasons. Rankings in table exclude Liechtenstein which receives one Conference League qualifying berth for their cup winner.

History

ImageSize = width:160 height:800 PlotArea = left:40 right:40 bottom:10 top:10 DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1960 till:31/12/2025 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:01/01/1960 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical format:yyyy Colors = id:Germany value:rgb(0 ,0 ,0 ) id:England value:rgb(1 ,0 ,0 ) id:Italy value:rgb(0 ,0.75 ,0 ) id:Spain value:rgb(1 ,1 ,0 ) PlotData= bar:Leaders width:25 mark:(line,black) align:left fontsize:S from:01/01/1960 till:31/12/1966 shift:(20,-4) text:"

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

" color:Spain from:01/01/1967 till:31/12/1975 shift:(20,-4) text:"

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

" color:England from:01/01/1976 till:31/12/1984 shift:(20,-4) text:"

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

" color:Germany from:01/01/1985 till:31/12/1985 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:England from:01/01/1986 till:31/12/1989 shift:(20,-4) text:"

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

" color:Italy from:01/01/1990 till:31/12/1990 shift:(20,-4) text:"

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

" color:Germany from:01/01/1991 till:31/12/1999 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:Italy from:01/01/2000 till:31/12/2007 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:Spain from:01/01/2008 till:31/12/2012 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:England from:01/01/2013 till:31/12/2020 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:Spain from:01/01/2021 till:31/12/2025 shift:(20,-4) text:"

" color:England

Following the introduction of the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

in 1971, the competition began to grow in complexity having more clubs than the European Champions Cup and the Cup Winners' Cup, reaching up to four from a single country. UEFA began to publish association rankings in 1979, to identify the number of participants for each association in the UEFA Cup. Subsequently, for statistical purposes, various rankings were introduced to portray the history of the associations. According to the prorated (extended) calculation system, only four associations have succeeded in being ranked as the top European association. Following the Heysel Stadium disaster, all English teams were banned from UEFA competitions in 1985. The ban was only lifted after five seasons, with the knock-on effects continuing to impact on English football for a total of nine years from 1986 to 1994. Having been top in 1985, England were un-ranked in 1990 and would not regain the top position until 2008.

Top associations by period

The following data indicates the three top-ranked associations in each five-year period. Data prior to 1975–1979 period has been calculated, but precedes the first published by the Confederation and has merely informative value. Note that the table take into account the results from the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, which was a non-UEFA competition that took place until 1971, whose teams in the first editions were representing cities instead of clubs. The table shows the ranking of nations with respect to the total number of years in the top three of the rankings:

Women's association coefficient

Current ranking

The ranking below takes into account of each association's performance in European competitions from 2021–22 to 2025–26. The final ranking at the end of the 2025–26 season will be used to determine the number of places for each association in the 2027–28 UEFA club competitions. As of 24 May 2025 the coefficients are as follows: Notes

History

Top associations by period

The following data indicates the three top-ranked women's associations in each five-year period. The table shows the ranking of nations with respect to the total number of years in the top three of the rankings:

Men's club coefficient

Introduced first in 1990 with various calculation principles applied throughout the years, currently the club coefficient is either the sum of the points earned by the club in the

and

over the previous five seasons or 20% of the club's association coefficient over the same period, whichever coefficient is higher. This ranking is used by

to determine a club's seeding in club competition draws, including the qualifying and group stages of the

. The clubs receive two points for a win, one point for a draw, and no points for a defeat in games of the main stages of the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League. Results determined after extra-time are included in this method, however results determined after penalty shoot-outs are not (the result is considered a draw). Bonus points for entering the Europa League or Conference League group stage / league phase are not additional to win/draw points; they provide a minimum points allowance for participating clubs, whereas bonus points for entering the Champions League group stage / league phase (and those for qualifying to the knockout stage) are additional to win/draw points. Qualifying round results are only taken into account if the club is eliminated in one of the rounds (see table below). Otherwise, the qualifying round results are taken into account only for the calculation of the association's coefficient and are halved. The clubs do not receive any points for elimination in the Champions League or Europa League qualifying because those clubs move to the Europa League and/or Conference League and receive points from participation in that competition.

Current club ranking

The ranking below takes into account of each club's performance in European competitions from 2021–22 to 2025–26, with the 2025–26 season to be underway 8 July 2025. The top 25 clubs as of 2 June 2025 are as follows.

Club point allocations

2024–25 through 2026–27 seasons

2021–22 through 2023–24 seasons

2018–19 through 2020–21 seasons

Prior to the 2018 club rankings, teams received the sum of their points earned over the last five seasons ''plus'' 20% of the club's association coefficient. Before 1999 a number of strong teams in the UEFA Cup were seeded such that those teams did not meet in the first two rounds. To determine these teams, the sum of the ratio of the number of points achieved to the number of games played by each team, was calculated for the past five seasons.

Top club by period

The following data indicate the top-ranked clubs in each 5-year period. Data prior to 1975–1979 period has been calculated, but precedes the first published by the Confederation and has merely informative value. Top-rated clubs listed by number of times they were top-ranked over a 5-year period since the first period officially analysed (1975–1979):

Women's club coefficient

A club's five-season coefficient is the cumulative total of its five-season coefficients from the reference period and 20% of its association's five-season association's coefficient. This ranking is used by UEFA to determine a club's seeding in club competition draws, including the qualifying and group stages of the UEFA Women's Champions League. The distribution of points is symmetrical to the distribution of points in association ranking.

2021–22 and future seasons

Current team ranking

The ranking below takes into account of each team's performance in European competitions from 2021–22 to 2025–26, with the 2025–26 season starting 30 July 2025. The top 25 clubs as of 24 May 2025 are as follows:

Top club by period

The following data indicate the top-ranked women's clubs in each 5-year period. Top-rated women's clubs listed by number of times they were top-ranked over a 5-year period since the first period officially analysed (2001–2005):

Men's amateur coefficient

UEFA calculates coefficients for each association that takes part in the

UEFA Regions' Cup The UEFA Regions' Cup is a association football, football competition for Amateur sports#Association football, amateur teams in Europe, run by UEFA. It was held for the first time in 1999 UEFA Regions' Cup, 1999 and has been played biennially sinc ...

. These coefficients are calculated to compile ranking lists that are used to determine the round in which each team enters the competition and to seed the teams for the draws. The coefficient ranking list is established for the preliminary and intermediate round draws on the basis of the associations’ results in the three most recent completed seasons at the time of the draws. For the 2022–23 competition, the coefficient ranking list is therefore based on the associations' results in the seasons 2014–15, 2016–17 and 2018–19. As of 8 December 2021 the coefficients are as follows: Points are awarded for each match played in the qualifying competition. Match points are awarded in accordance with the final scores as ratified by UEFA. Final tournament matches and penalty shoot-outs are not taken into consideration. In addition to the match points, the bonus points are awarded for each season.The points are given as follows:

Futsal tournaments' coefficient

Men's national team

Since 2020 FIFA Futsal World Cup qualification, the UEFA coefficients are based on the

Elo rating system The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess or esports. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American chess master and physics professor. The Elo system wa ...

and are constantly updated to all non-friendly matches. This ranking is used to seed national teams on UEFA competitions and to decide the number of clubs from an association that will participate in the UEFA Futsal Champions League. The rating below is the situation after the UEFA Futsal Euro 2022 qualifications have been played:

Women's national team

2020 ranking

The coefficients from 2020 used for the seeding and pot placements in the draw for UEFA Women's Futsal Euro 2022, were based on results on 2019 edition.

Men's futsal club coefficient

The club coefficient, used to determine seeds and entrance round on the UEFA Futsal Champions League, is the sum of the points earned by the club in that competition on the previous three seasons and 50% of the club's association coefficient over the same period. The association coefficient is the sum of the points earned by all the clubs of the association. Even though all calculation procedures are public for association and club coefficients, UEFA only publishes the coefficients of the clubs competing in the next season of UEFA Futsal Champions League. The coefficients for the top 16 teams competing on 2022–23 UEFA Futsal Champions League are as follows:

Youth tournaments' coefficient

UEFA Under-19

UEFA Under-17

UEFA Women's Under-19

UEFA Women's Under-17

Futsal Club's (Nation)

Youth Club's (Club)

Criticisms

The UEFA coefficient system has been criticised for being likely to preserve the status quo for rankings and seedings, as well as for favouring teams from stronger leagues.

References

Sources

League and club coefficients
at kassiesa.net
UEFA Access List
(PDF)

External links

* {{UEFA competitions

Coefficient In mathematics, a coefficient is a Factor (arithmetic), multiplicative factor involved in some Summand, term of a polynomial, a series (mathematics), series, or any other type of expression (mathematics), expression. It may be a Dimensionless qu ...

Association football rankings +

Men's association coefficient

Current ranking

Liechtenstein's status and similar cases

Distribution of team competition quotas

2024–27

History

Top associations by period

Women's association coefficient

Current ranking

History

Top associations by period

Men's club coefficient

Current club ranking

Club point allocations

2024–25 through 2026–27 seasons

2021–22 through 2023–24 seasons

2018–19 through 2020–21 seasons

Top club by period

Women's club coefficient

2021–22 and future seasons

Current team ranking

Top club by period

Men's amateur coefficient

Futsal tournaments' coefficient

Men's national team

Women's national team

2020 ranking

Men's futsal club coefficient

Youth tournaments' coefficient

UEFA Under-19

UEFA Under-17

UEFA Women's Under-19

UEFA Women's Under-17

Futsal Club's (Nation)

Youth Club's (Club)

Criticisms

See also

References

Sources

External links