Uefa Cup Challenge, 2008-09

For the third time in four seasons, ToffeeWeb chronicles Everton's European Tour in the Uefa Cup

Everton qualified for the Uefa Cup in May 2008 by finishing a very creditable 5th in the Premier League — the first time under David Moyes that improvement was achieved in successive seasons. 

• Uefa Ranking Coefficients
• First Round

How Everton progress should be down to playing football on the day, but there is the not-so-small matter of the Uefa Ranking Coefficients on which seeding is based to consider.

Uefa Ranking Coefficients

This season, Everton's Uefa Ranking coefficient has improved dramatically on the back of last sason's good run in the Uefa Cup. Everton are ranked 50th with a ranking coefficient of 43.996,  A club's ranking coefficient is based on their performance in European competition over the previous five season, as the sum of all five team coefficients.  For Everton, the sum of their team coefficients in each of the last five seasons includes a massive increase over last season thanks to a team coefficient of 22.8985 for getting as far as we did until Fiorentina dumped us out last season. is:

• 2003-04    2004-05    2005-06   2006-07  2007-08          Total
• 3.7125  +  5.1385  +  6.7610  +  5.4860  +  22.8985   =  43.996

EFC got some recognition for 2005-06 and 2007-08,  but since Everton only competed in three of these five seasons, where do all those other numbers come from?

The other numbers represent the country coefficient for each season — a value determined to reflect how well teams from the club's home country did in Europe.  If the team itself did not compete in Europe in any of the previous five seasons, then it takes the value of country coefficient for that season.

We did not compete in 2006-07, so we were assigned the country coefficient value for England of 5.4860.  The Uefa country coefficient for a given season is determined by the number of points earned by teams from that country playing in Europe, divided by the number of participating teams.  In 2006-07, eight English teams earned 133 points for country average of 16.625.  Points are assigned as follows:

• 2 points for a win; 1 point for a draw in full European competition
• 1 point for a win; 0.5 points for a draw in a qualifying round
• Bonus points are awarded for... what?

Thus, in 2005-06, Everton lost two qualifying-round games in the Champions League (null points) and we lost one (badly!) but won one in the Uefa Cup proper, earning 2.0 points!  Everton did far, far better in 2007-08,

The team coefficient in a given season is determined by the number of points earned through participation in he European competitions proper, added to 33% of the country average.  The 33% of the country average represents the base value of the team coefficient for any team from that country in a given season in which they did not compete.  If they did compete, then their points earned are added to the con.

To illustrate the team coefficient for Everton in 2007-08, we competed in 10 European ties and earned 17 points.  Added to the country coefficient for England in 2007-08 (5.8985), that gave Everton a coefficient for 2007-08 of 22.8985.  Similarly, the country ranking coefficient is the sum of the previous five years.

First Round

Everton were joined by 47 other teams from the major leagues across Europe, who qualified automatically for Round 1 of the 2008-09 Uefa Cup by various means:

• 1 defending cup holder
• 16 teams eliminated from the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League
• 2 third-placed teams from countries ranked 7-8
• 5 fourth-placed teams from countries ranked 4-8
• 8 fifth-placed teams from countries ranked 1-8
• 3 sixth-placed teams from countries ranked 1-3
• 13 cup winners from countries ranked 1-13

To make up the total of 80 teams, they were joined in Round 1 by 32 teams winning through from the Uefa Cup qualifying rounds. Of the 80 teams in Round 1, Everton were ranked inside the top 40 teams and that was enough for the club to be seeded in Group 4, that should have had the Blues playing one of the 'lesser' teams with a lower ranking coefficient.

But incredibly, they were drawn against one of the teams dropping out of the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League, Belgian Champions Standard Liege, who had put up such a good fight against Liverpool.

A tense home tie against Standard Liege resulted, with Everton conceding not one but two away goals in a 2-2 draw that almost certainly sealed their fate.  The return leg in Belgium was an uphill struggle that was finally lost 2-1 as Everton searched for that second away goal, when Standard scored their second.  And so Everton were dumped out at the first attempt, compounding a truly awful start to the season that saw them, incapable of winning at Goodison and already out of the Carling Cup....

Ah well — better luck next year!