25/08/05
Champions League Draw, UEFA Club Rankings -
Categories: Chelsea to face Liverpool in Group Stage
Is it just me, or is there something strange about the way UEFA ranks teams for the Champions League group stage draw? For example, Chelsea has made it to the Champions League semi-finals each of the last two seasons and are the reigning English Champions. Yet they are given a #2 seed. Manchester United have finished 3rd in the English Premier League each of the last two seasons and have not advanced past the quarter finals in the Champions League over that time, but they are given a #1 seed. How can this be?
Click on "Europe" at the top of this page for the full Champions League Group Stage Draw
It's because UEFA bases their rankings on a team's performance in Europe over the past five years. Five years is a lifetime in professional football. How many players that are currently on a team were there five years ago? Chelsea only have three players who were with them in 2000 (Carlo Cudicini, John Terry, and Eidur Gudjohnsen). Yet Chelsea are punished because the team they fielded four and five years ago did not earn points in European play. On the flip side, teams like Manchester United are rewarded for the being the dominant English team several years back. Does this make any sense? At least weight the most recent year's performance more heavily than four and five years ago.
What makes the UEFA seedings even more dubious is the fact the UEFA has one standard for qualifying for the Champions League (performance in domestic leagues last season) and quite a different standard for ranking teams once they qualify (performance in Europe over 5 years). This discrepancy means that teams earning automatic qualification for winning their leagues (like Chelsea, Lyon, and Juventus) can be ranked lower than other teams from the same league that had to go through the qualifying rounds just to make the tournament (like Inter Milan, Liverpool, and Manchester United).
In fact, Liverpool are only in the tournament because UEFA gave them a special dispensation. Having finished fifth in the EPL last year, Liverpool were on the outside looking in until UEFA modified its policy. But Liverpool were told they would have to go through all the qualifying rounds just to make the group stage. I have no problem with that, but when they get to the group stage, how can they be given a #1 seed when they really didn't even qualify for the tournament?
Also, Liverpool were told they wouldn't get "country protection" in the group stage, meaning they could get placed in a group with another English team. I guess this was meant to be some sort of punishment for Liverpool for having to change the rules to let them in, but it also punishes the other English team that gets placed in their group, Chelsea.
When the system that's in place produces results like this (the 3rd place team in Italy seeded higher than the Italian Champions, the English Champions seeded lower than the 5th place team from England), it's time to rethink the rationale for the UEFA club rankings. If entry into the Champions League is based solely on last season's domestic league performance, shouldn't the seedings be based on that criteria too, at least in part?
Here is a modest proposal. Factor in the team's performance in Europe over the last 2 years and their domestic performance from the previous year. So reigning Champions would be rewarded and teams that are far different from ones that competed five years ago would not be punished for the failings of previous players and coaches.
In this system, these teams currently with #2 seeds would would get #1 seeds: Chelsea, Juventus, Lyon, and PSV Eindhoven. All of these clubs won their domestic league last year and have enjoyed success in the Champions League over the past two years. The current system favors the same big clubs that once dominated Europe by giving them easier roads to the knockout phase. If Manchester United had to play AC Milan, Schalke, and Fenerbahce instead of Villarreal, Lille, and Benfica, I think it would be much harder on them. Yet PSV Eindhoven, Dutch Champions and Champions League semi-finalists from last year, have to do just that. While Man United, 3rd place in the EPL and eliminated earlier in the Champions League get the easier route.
To conclude, he's an interesting statistic.
The average domestic finish of #1 seeds: 2.38
The average domestic finish for #2 seeds: 1.63
Only two of the top seeded clubs won their leagues last year (Barcelona, Bayern Munich), while 4 of the #2 seeds won their leagues (Chelsea, PSV, Lyon, Juventus).
Comments:
25/08/05 @ 18:27
26/08/05 @ 12:21
26/08/05 @ 12:42 