By Tony Attwood
I have to say that in setting up this article I am not so much saying “this is how it is going to be” but hoping you will be able to write in and tell me more about how the seedings work in practice for the Champions League next season.
I have heard tell that Man City will not be in pot one. Arsenal will, of course, because we are currently ranked 6th in Europe by Uefa, one place behind Real Madrid. The group stage elimination last season did Man C no good at all.
Uefa’s system is based on a club’s performance in the five previous seasons – the more you play in the Champs League and get through the group stages the higher you get. Man City are 28th.
This is actually rather interesting in terms of the “Arsenal is a failure for not having won a trophy for x years” argument the press and on Match of the Day – and their minions in the AAA. Clubs that fail to get in the top four but win a league cup or something find they slip down the Uefa rankings. Liverpool of course had a high position because of their past success, but each year without entry sees them dropping further and further. They are 11th this year, and one more year without entry would certainly see them drop from the top seedings.
But position in the Uefa list doesn’t seem to be everything. And so as far as I can work out, here are the clubs in the Champions League, and their seeding…
Pot 1 (top seeds)
- Chelsea
- Manchester United
- Barcelona
- Bayern Munich
- Real Madrid
- Arsenal
- AC Milan
- Valencia
Pot 2
- Manchester City
- Porto
- Zenit St. Petersburg
- Benfica
- Shakhtar Donetsk
Pot 3
- Juventus
- Paris Saint-Germain
Pot 4
- Borussia Dortmund
- Olympiacos
Uncertain how the seedings will work
- Montpellier
- Ajax
- Galatasaray
- Schalke 04
- Nordsjælland
Play-off round
These clubs enter in the play off round – the round the 4th team in England usually gets placed in, and have to play a home and away tie for entry into the group stage. Obviously this year it didn’t happen that way and Tottenham have to play in the Europa League.
- Málaga
- Udinese
- Braga
- Borussia Mönchengladbach
- Lille
- Spartak Moscow
Finally there will be some clubs from the qualifying rounds who make it through. Here is the list of those excused until the third qualifying round – clubs that enter earlier tend not to make it to the group stages.
- Anderlecht
- Dynamo Kyiv
- Panathinaikos
- Vaslui
- CFR Cluj
- Feyenoord
- Copenhagen
- Motherwell
- Celtic
- Fenerbahçe
- Club Brugge
Rangers are currently banned from Europe and so Motherwell is taking their place in the Champions League play off.
—————–
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You missed Barcelona who are obviously in pot 1, and im fairly sure Porto are in pot 1 also, with Valencia in pot 2, maybe even 3. I’d also expect Juventus to be in pot 2 not 3, as although they have had a couple of years out, they have just won their title and have had strong showings in Europe in the past. Dortmund and PSG are going to be big fish in small pots that we need to avoid hopefully, unlike last year when we somehow had the misfortune of drawing Dortmund in the group stage, and then getting AC Milan even though we topped our group! Just our luck!
you forgot Barca in pot 1
.
Ideally City will draw Barcelona, Juventus and Dortmund 😀
Juventus are actually 43rd in the rankings at the moment – the reason being that they were relegated to the 2nd division in the match fixing scandal and had their two league championships removed – that sent them flying down the table.
Yes, I had Barca in pot one and then somehow deleted them – but I do so love the commentary that this slip of the typewriting brings. “This is rubbish” says Stan. No, “I think you have missed Barca” or anything even semi-civilised. A straight “This is rubbish”.
I think that is worth an oik award on its own. http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/untold-oiks
Porto are 9th and Valencia 13th in the Uefa rankings, and that’s why I felt sure both were in the first pot, the first time I looked at it. But somehow and for reasons I can’t explain when I looked at last year’s list it doesn’t always seem to work like this.
Morning all….evening here though.
So,nobody reall wanted Hazard as he’s just a wanker,but now he’s gone to Chelsea,Wenger ought to be shot for missing out in him!!!
It’s all I am reading,and I’m stunned tha so many seemingly intelligent people can be so bloody hypocritical.
Oh,and Tony,you missed bloody Barcelona lol……
So Arsenal could have
Juventus
Psg
B.Dortmond
In their group then?
If Juventus are sill around lol.
Morning all…i think he did not miss barca.,.please check it well…i may be wrong though
Tony
You missed Tottenham.
Oops, my mistake.
Are they the first team to be eliminated from the CL before playing a game 😀
Every year UCL is harder. I hope we get Valencia, and not get Juve or Dortmund.
And I don’t like we get Russian team, specially if we play in their place in cold temperature. And their place is also too far.
I hope we get club from Scotland, Belgium or Greece. I think Walter will happy if we get Belgium team, he will not travel too far.
ha ha @ Andys comment, makes me laugh every time
Anyone- and that includes EUFA who believes that Chelsea – even with whoever they buy this year- is a better team the Barcelona is deluding themselves massively. Will be nice to set the record straight next year.
Yeah…Hazard has gone to Chel$ki…and heard that the owner (with the help of some his cronies) is directly dealing with player transfers…while the manager is away on a holiday 🙂
SO long and short, the club is nothing but a richman’s whimsical retreat and he gets to do whatever he wishes to…so what does that make the fans? The henchmen of the owner, or just mere spectators…who are at the mercy of their leigelord (so its just the King and his Men)! I would hate it if our club ever had to go through such a situation…no one should be allowed to undermine the manager! No one…
The Hazard move is also a direct challenge to FFP which Chelsea were supposed to support. I’ll do a piece on that anon.
according to some outlets Hazard will end up costing Chelsea £80m on transfer money,agent,signing on fees and ofcourse the contract..how exactly are they planning to meet the FFP?
Scott, you can’t get all! Besides, if a player wants to go somewehere else, nothing can be done about it.
Don’t be disappointed, maybe Hazard will shine in EPL, maybe not.
A few summer ago, we want to sign Mello, but he goes to Juve. If that time he goes to Arsenal, maybe Song’s development is not like now.
We still have a lot of talent in our youth academy. We need to give them opportunity.
@Mahdain: There will be an exodus too at Chelsea with quite a few players released. Maybe that will free wages up? I don’t really know though..just guessing.
Tony, from my extensive experience playing Football Manager, clubs that don’t play in Europe are assigned a default number of points based on their home league, rather than zero.
I’m not sure if these points are equal to the UEFA league coefficients used to determine how many Champs League spots a country gets, though.
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/29052012/58/premier-league-eden-hazard-worth-35m.html
I think Wenger does not interest on him. He want number 10 role, and a little bit arrogance (going to eat hamburger with family before the game end).
I prefer Shinji Kagawa more then Hazard, Shinji also can make big impact in Japan fans, I hope Ryo can shine with us and Arsenal gets more fans in Asia. (I hate to see peoples around me wearing the another red shirt!)
Loving the oik awards! Good for a chuckle
Barcelona are in a special pot as you all should know: the Uefa pot for designated winners.
Tony,
I do not fear PSG; I watch Ligue 1 regularly, and they do not impress me at all; Javier Pastore, in particular, has had a bad season. But Ancelotti is a good coach, and he may spend gazillions of Qatari gaz to recruit a few better players. I fear Juve, Dortmund, Udinese and even Valencia. If Malaga comes out of the prelim round, they could also go on the market and buy some players to improve their squad. Lille will start to fizzle this year as they are losing several players. As to Hazard, I am happy we avoided him.
About Hazard: http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/archives/11608
my view on him last season. And until now: still not a big hit in the Belgium national team (not against big teams) and poor in the CL for Lille last season.
So I really wonder if he will be good/strong enough to shine in the PL. Wenger might have made him better in the long run but if he chooses for the big money early on…
And still some attitude problems at times….
He is a big talent but will he make it? I still have my doubts about him. Paying £40M is too much imo
Tony, not only Champions League matches count towards the UEFA Team Ranking; any official club match organised by UEFA is taken into account. In other words, the Europa League and the UEFA Super Cup are also considered. That is why Atletico Madrid is ranked eigth, having won the Europa League twice in the past three years.
For a complete list of the UEFA Team Ranking, including every club (396 in total) that has participated in European football in the past five years, have a look at http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/data/method4/trank2012.html
from wat i jst saw barca(barcelona) is not missin in pot 1 but instead Inter(internazionale) is. Inter shld b thr instead of Valencia.