UEFA coefficient refers to statistics used for placement and ranking of soccer teams both in the club and international competitions. There are three categories of coefficients applicable to men’s soccer, which include the National team coefficient, country coefficients, and the club coefficients.
The national team coefficient is used for ranking national teams to aid in seeding teams for final tournaments and the qualifications for the UEFA Euro. UEFA derives these statistics from the results of each of the teams in Europe.
The calculation of these coefficients happens every second year in November. This is the time when all the teams are through with playing for the European championship tournament or the world cup of the upcoming year.
The major role of these coefficients is in the compilation of official UEFA ranks for the various teams, along with the grouping of the teams for the European Championship final tournament. Before the adoption of these statistics, the UEFA national team coefficient was also used for seeding teams for the qualification of the world cup for the European teams.
This kind of ranking was established in 2003 and was a vital tool in seeding teams for the world cup qualification of the year 2006 along with the European final tournament of 2004.
The coefficient for this case was achieved by dividing all the points garnered by a team playing in the two recent rounds of the European Championship or the World cup, ignoring all friendlies and other matches.
The new method of calculating coefficients uses a different approach. It is calculated on the same date as above, also after two years. However, the system now uses all games that a team plays in any two recent full cycles of tournaments or qualifications for the world cup and the European championship along with additional negative or positive points for each game result.
The UEFA country coefficient is used in ranking performances for each of the club associations for member countries of the European Union. This is instrumental in determining the number of places each of the country club association gets for the two major leagues, the UEFA champion’s league along with the UEFA Europa League, and the stage at which the respective teams join the tournaments.
This ranking determines the number of teams to compete in the season two years after the computation of such results. The computation of the UEFA country coefficient involves the points a team collects playing in the last five seasons of the two competitions along with bonus points. The total number of points is divided by the number of participating teams for each of the seasons before rounding down to three decimal figures.
UEFA club coefficient is used in determining the ranks of the individual clubs that participate in the UEFA Europa League along with the UEFA Champion’s league. The computation of this coefficient relies on the results of each of the teams while playing in each of the last five seasons of the two championships in addition to the value of 20% of the club’s standing rank in its governing association.
