Real Madrid retain ranking lead over Barcelona
Monday, June 15, 2015
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Real Madrid CF may have relinquished their UEFA Champions League title to FC Barcelona but they remain top of UEFA's club rankings with a record total.
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Real Madrid CF may have relinquished their UEFA Champions League title to FC Barcelona but they remain ahead of their Liga rivals at the top of the UEFA club coefficient rankings – with the highest total recorded under the current system introduced in 1999 (and modified in 2009).
Latest UEFA club coefficient rankings
Madrid ended their European title-winning campaign of 2013/14 on 161.542 coefficient points, four ahead of Barcelona. Although this term Barcelona secured 38.042 points, five more than Madrid, in the five-year rankings this season's points hauls replaced those of 2009/10, a campaign where the Blaugrana outstripped the Merengues by eight points. Madrid's record tally of 171.999 across the period is therefore seven clear of Barcelona's, with FC Bayern München more than ten further back in third.
Chelsea FC held onto fourth spot while Club Atlético de Madrid moved up two places into the top five, overtaking SL Benfica. FC Schalke 04 shot up seven rungs of the ladder to seventh and FC Porto climbed two to eighth. Arsenal FC remain ninth but Manchester United FC, who did not play in Europe in 2014/15, are down four to tenth.
Bubbling under:
• Paris Saint-Germain are up six to 11th position with room to rise further as they are currently defending weak 2010/11 and 2011/12 campaigns.
• Juventus are only up two to 14th but tellingly around 85 of their 95.102 points have come in the last three seasons.
• SSC Napoli soared 11 places to 20th with their UEFA Europa League semi-final run, the largest hike in the top 50.
• Big movers just below the top 50 are Club Brugge KV, up 18 to 51, and VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach, up 17 to 64.
• AS Monaco FC are the highest new entry at 68 having ended a European absence of over five seasons which had left them out of the rankings.
• FC Dinamo Moskva have made the greatest leap in the upper part of the rankings, improving by 65 places to 77th.
• The first-ever Gibraltarian club to play in Europe, Lincoln FC, finish their debut campaign in 451st, leaving two San Marinese sides and compatriots College Europa FC behind them. Four identical seasons for Lincoln would theoretically put them level in 357th in this year's rankings, which are used for seeding in the 2015/16 UEFA club competitions.
THE FULL LIST OF 2015/16 ENTRANTS FOR THE UEFA CLUB COMPETITIONS WILL BE CONFIRMED LATER THIS WEEK