behind PSG, who to defend France’s UEFA coefficient?

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Every year, it’s the same story. With the European games comes the same debate and the same concerns. Will French football hold its rank on the European scene? Or will he be demoted because of his UEFA coefficient?

The threat materializes season after season and it is not the start of the 2022-2023 fiscal year for French teams in the Champions League, Europa League and Europa League Conference that will stop the trend. Because, with the exception of Paris Saint-Germain, for the moment undefeated in C1, France is skating and that could have serious consequences.

On the first two days of the three European competitions, France points to a disappointing 18th place in the UEFA coefficient by nation, behind Belgium, the Netherlands, or more “modest” countries such as the Czech Republic, Romania or Israel. The nondescript performances so far of OM (two defeats in the Champions League), Nice (two draws) or even AS Monaco (one victory and one defeat) do not allow France to garner key points in this accounting race.

Paris Saint-Germain is currently full. The capital club alone has gleaned eight of the 22.5 points collected by the six French clubs involved in the various European competitions this season. There is a feeling that France is struggling to find other soldiers to contribute to the war effort. Over the period 2017-2018 and 2021-2022, Paris collected a third of the total points of French football (33% – 112/343.5)which nevertheless had a total of 11 representatives on the continental scene over the period.

If French football retains its 5th place in the UEFA rankings for the moment, the leading wagon seems increasingly out of reach, behind the Top 4 formed by England, Spain, Germany and Italy. The time is rather to look in the rear view mirror, because the gap is closing at great speed. Last season, the good courses of Lyon, quarter-finalist of the Europa League, and Marseille, semi-finalist of Europa League Conference, have only postponed the deadline.

Portugal and even more recently the Netherlands have already come back very close to the ranking. The three countries hold just over three points with France at 52.3, the Netherlands at 50.9 and Portugal at 49.1. You should know that these UEFA coefficients are calculated as follows: we divide the number of points obtained by the total number of clubs representing an association in the various European competitions. Then this result is added to its counterparts of the previous four seasons to obtain the coefficient. This is why an early exit from the road by a French club could have a very significant impact on this average.

In 2022-2023, Portuguese and Dutch have four clubs still in contention, against six for France. But with an equal scale between a victory in the group stage in C1 compared to C3 or C4 (a victory in the group stage in each competition earns two points), the more convincing results of their teams allow them to nibble their delay day after day of European cups.

Portugal has six wins in eight matches, the Netherlands four in seven matches when France has a much less convincing ratio: five successes in twelve matches. Above all, the two most threatening pursuers for French football can count on the consistency of their standards. When PSG is the only French club to have been present on the continental scene in each of the last five seasons, the Netherlands had three (Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord), Portugal four (Porto, Benfica, Sporting, Braga ).

Maintaining its fifth place in the UEFA ranking is a crucial issue for French football. Sliding a lower rank at the end of this exercise would lead to the loss of a ticket for the group stage of the Europa League next season: the fifth in Ligue 1 would then be qualified for the Europa League Conference. More importantly: the Champions League will ensure from 2024-2025 one more place in 5th place in the UEFA ranking. If France remains 5th at the end of the next season, it will have three directly qualifying tickets for the group stage of the C1 (against two today), and one for the preliminary round. Enough to improve the exposure of the championship and benefit from significant economic benefits.

The next two days, with the posters OM-Sporting (Tuesday 6:45 p.m., then Wednesday October 12 at 9:00 p.m. on the return) and Benfica-PSG (Wednesday 9:00 p.m., then Tuesday October 11 9:00 p.m.), will therefore be scrutinized with great interest. On Thursday, Rennes (against Dynamo kyiv), Monaco (against Trabzonspor) and Nantes (at Fribourg) in the Europa League, as well as Nice (at FC Slovacko) in the Europa Conference League will try for their part to raise their heads after having been all hooked up on the second day. Part of the European future of French football could depend on it.


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