UEFA Coefficient

Tonight both the Moldovan and Lithuanian teams won their second legs so they're both ranked above us again, however the Lithuanian team went out on aggregate. Cyprus lost their CL team in the 1st round again but are still quite a bit ahead of us in the rankings.

As regards getting a 4th European qualifier, this year Serbia, ranked 21st was the lowest ranked league to get 4 representatives (not including Fair Play/Intertoto qualifiers). Leagues like Poland and Denmark still only get 3 qualifiers to European competitions so we've a long way to go.

This table http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/...ccess2007.html shows how biased the seeding system is to the top 8 countries in Europe.

Michel Platini has pledged to change this but it will be a tough task.

Of even more concern is that 2 of our rival countries below us for a UEFA seeding will now meet in the 2nd round of the CL. BATE will likely meet FH from Iceland. Both will likely gain more points and 1 of them will have 4 more games to play after this round with the good chance of a club coefficient from the 1st round of the UEFA Cup. The winners of the 2nd round tie will have a great chacne of catching us.

The win for Lithuania is still bad news. They would have been unlikely to have got anything from Rangers anyway. They have boosted the coefficient.

The 4th Euro place is a long way off. The first aim is all our 3 teams seeded which means better draws and a chance to boost the coefficient.

We really could do with a few results now.

Leaving any club loyalties behind we could also do with Derry reaching the UEFA Cup next year as they have aclub coefficient and would likely be seeded without the country coefficient.

Watch the match last night and in fairest - Derry were a poor side - sloppy defending - full backs not coming in helping the 2 central halves and then then poor passing in central midfield. And in the odd attack - it was individual play - no team work or passing a ball to a team mate in a better position. All in all - they were poor and to be honest, the other side was poor too!

Down to 35th spot now in the coefficent's - its up to the Drogs especially and hoping St. Pats can nick something

Derry did a terrible dis-service to the league, shame on you, that Armenian team were rubbish

Our only hope now is Drogheda

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Originally Posted by bennocelt

Our only hope now is Drogheda

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yeah, if drogs stick 11 men behind the ball and hold on to their away goal advantage, they might scrape through. They could definately be a banana skin for this Veritas side.

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Originally Posted by bennocelt

Derry did a terrible dis-service to the league, shame on you, that Armenian team were rubbish

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Which is more than balanced out by the points we got last year.

And precisely why do you care? Are Belfast Celtic planning a comeback in the EL sometime soon?

Whinging from fans of extinct clubs/EL clubs that won't get within a sniff of European place defines futile.

Is there some reason why you can't make a comment on foot without the team you support being dragged into it ?

On the coefficient, I said we'd be lucky to get 1 point this season and was told I was wrong. I still think we'll do well to get 1 point this season.

Pats I expect to lose. They may surprise us and grab a draw but can't see Odense slipping up at home. Drogheda simply have to win!! I'll walk away from EL if they lose :)

So we go into Round 2 with 0.833

Not great...
Hopefully a very kind draw for Drogheda may see us reach that 1 point.

Having witnessed Lithuanian teams over the previous few seasons I find it amazing we are stuck behind them. Theres somethin within the EL that makes us fear any side who are unknown. These sides are brutal.. We just have to be winning these games.

and before anyone says it
Yes I know Shels are a evil club and we brought shame on the league and we overspent and we should rot in hell and we so and so on....

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Is there some reason why you can't make a comment on foot without the team you support being dragged into it ?

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the reason for that is simple. No actual ( rational and meaningful )comeback is possible, so a patronising look down ( because/based of the club you follow) on your response is required.

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Originally Posted by OneRedArmy

Which is more than balanced out by the points we got last year

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I hope your co-efficient points keep you warm at night when you're lying back and thinking of your team's performances this year

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Originally Posted by Dodge

I hope your co-efficient points keep you warm at night when you're lying back and thinking of your team's performances this year

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I'm as annoyed as anyone on here about our European performances this year.

But anyone that has seen enough of us this season (ie our fans) had limited expectations based on our disaster of a season so far.

I don't really care about the minutae of coefficient points for reasons I'm tired of stating, and I think the fact we were seeded this season showed that it isn't necessarily the Holy Grail of European football. The team still needs to go out and play.

We didn't and we got knocked out.

On a wider scale however I think the fall in performances is entirely predictable and simply reflects the fact that the League as a whole has been paying unsustainable wages and the quality of football was overstated at the top clubs. The league has lost over a dozen top players in the last season or so, as well as Shels implosion.

Last season a couple of people tried to inject some reality into the discussion by suggesting it was improbable that European results would simply improve or even consolidate every year, based on the huge improvements in the past few years.

This has been proved true.

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Originally Posted by OneRedArmy

I'm as annoyed as anyone on here about our European performances this year.

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I wasn't only talking about europe...

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Originally Posted by OneRedArmy

Which is more than balanced out by the points we got last year.

And precisely why do you care? Are Belfast Celtic planning a comeback in the EL sometime soon?

Whinging from fans of extinct clubs/EL clubs that won't get within a sniff of European place defines futile.

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as an Eircom League fan....of course i care about irish football

but yeah you are right, Derry did the league proud last year, its just so dissappointing to see them go out to a poor team this year:(

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Originally Posted by Dodge

I wasn't only talking about europe...

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Originally Posted by OneRedArmy

I'm as annoyed as anyone on here about our European performances this year.

But anyone that has seen enough of us this season (ie our fans) had limited expectations based on our disaster of a season so far

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Neither was he :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by higgins

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Having witnessed Lithuanian teams over the previous few seasons I find it amazing we are stuck behind them. Theres somethin within the EL that makes us fear any side who are unknown. These sides are brutal.. We just have to be winning these games.
.

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They are technically better than our irish players and can slow a game down without hoofing, and in europe that wins matches.



kdjac

I had no expectation that the points gained this seasons would match those of the last 2 seasons but I still expected to beat the low total of 1.333 from 3 season ago which now looks unlikely.

You can talk about last season but Derry still let the league down with only a draw against an unseeded team. If the Armenians were good they would not have been unseeded.

It seems unlikely Pats will add to their points but with a difficult draw at least they have contributed.

Drogs may have been hopeless to give up a draw but at least they have time to make up for it. Unfortunately looks like its reliant on an easy draw in the 2nd qualifying round now.

The eL has consistently beaten Lithuanian sides yet they still ahead of us :(

The Armenians will probably be seeded next year Pete. They were among the higher non-seeds. Obviously it depends on what they do in the next round and beyond.

I expected Derry to beat Pyunik at home, but was not at all surprised by the result in Armenia.

As for the Lithuanian sides, they tend to do less well against British style teams but have a decent record against other European teams.

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Originally Posted by GavinZac

yeah, if drogs stick 11 men behind the ball and hold on to their away goal advantage, they might scrape through. They could definately be a banana skin for this Veritas side.

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Are Veritas the crowd that publish religious books?
Libertas, on the other hand, are a San Marinese team that are coming to Dalymount on Thursday.
Must be hard for some langers to hope the Drogs win a game, especially as you shower contributed nothing to the co-efficient this year. :D

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Originally Posted by Cymro

The Armenians will probably be seeded next year Pete. They were among the higher non-seeds. Obviously it depends on what they do in the next round and beyond.

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The Armenians won't be anywhere near being seeded next year. They're 44th in the rankings; 37th-ish is the seeding cut off.

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Originally Posted by pete

If the Armenians were good they would not have been unseeded.(

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And how do you explain Derry's and all the other EL unseeded victories over the last few years?

Seeding is an indicator of past average performance, not a right of passage.

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Originally Posted by OneRedArmy

And how do you explain Derry's and all the other EL unseeded victories over the last few years?

Seeding is an indicator of past average performance, not a right of passage.

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The eL has been improving in recent seasons. Armerian has not. The eL gained more ranking points last year than Armenia have in the last 5 years. Thats the size of the gap. Derry City do get credit for not being as bad as Drogs ;)

Good to see Drogs fans unable to defend their teams performance. By having a go Cork City ye seem to have forgotten Drogs gained its their first ever Uefa ranking points the previous season.

:rolleyes: