Madrid stay top of rankings, Schalke soar

Real Madrid CF have consolidated their position at the top of the UEFA club coefficient rankings – indeed, the UEFA Champions League holders have strengthened their grip on first place after six successive victories in the competition.

The European champions began the season with a ranking of 161.542, ahead of FC Barcelona (157.542) and FC Bayern München (154.328). Generally, clubs now have a lower coefficient than at the start of the season as the entire 2009/10 campaign has been replaced by the first half of the current campaign in the calculation; however, victory in the UEFA Super Cup and six wins from six in the UEFA Champions League group stage have helped increase Madrid's overall ranking to 162.514.

Barcelona and Bayern remain second and third, although their rankings are now 148.514 and 145.254 respectively. Chelsea FC are still fourth (139.706), above SL Benfica (118.043) and Club Atlético de Madrid (115.514), while FC Schalke 04, who began the season 14th, are up to seventh on 109.254.

Arsenal FC (107.706), FC Porto (105.043) and Manchester United FC (102.706) complete the final top ten of 2014, while there are big movers elsewhere in the top 20. Borussia Dortmund rise four places to 11th (99.254), Manchester City FC climb from 22nd to 14th (86.706) and Bayer 04 Leverkusen are now 15th (85.254), having started the campaign in 24th position. AC Milan, meanwhile – who, like Manchester United, are not in UEFA competition this term – kicked off 2014/15 in 11th but are now down to 20th spot.

Elsewhere PFC Ludogorets Razgrad's prize for reaching the UEFA Champions League group stage for the first time is to jump from 104th to 75th – one rung below AS Monaco FC (27.183), who are in Europe for the first time since 2004/05. NK Maribor leap from 120th to 91st, while FC Dinamo Moskva's prize for winning all six UEFA Europa League group games is a hike to 86th place (23.199); they commenced the campaign in 142nd.

UEFA calculates the coefficient of every club and association each season based on the clubs' results in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The rankings cover the five most recent UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League seasons; a club's individual season coefficient is calculated by adding the total number of points it obtains in a given season to 20% of its association's coefficient for that same season.