Despite the first defeats for Belgian teams in the European group stages, Belgium did another good job on Thursday evening in the coefficient ranking of UEFA, which decides which European tickets our country will receive. Thanks to the European victories of Club Brugge and Union, our country is a bit further out at number ten and is closer to number eight in the standings.
The two new victories gave our country 0.800 extra points this round (compared to 1,400 in the previous two rounds). This puts us better than closest competitors Scotland, which is eighth in the ranking, and saw its European participants Celtic, Rangers and Hearts all lose against RB Leipzig (3-1), Liverpool (2-0) and Fiorentina (0- 3). As a result, the Scots have only taken 0.200 points in the entire group stage so far. Belgium is already at 3,600. The difference with the number eight has therefore fallen to 1,800 points.
It is interesting that Club Brugge can guarantee our country one full bonus point in one fell swoop when qualifying for the eighth finals of the Champions League. If Union can keep its first place after the Europa League group stage, that would give our country an extra bonus point: 0.200 points for having a team in the eighth finals and 0.800 points for the group winner. As number two, Union would go to the eighth finals with 0.600 bonus points. There is therefore a real chance that we will be in the ranking for Scotland before New Year.
The lead on number ten Austria increases
In the meantime, our lead over number ten Austria, which we passed earlier this season, has increased somewhat. The Austrians were good for one win, one draw and one defeat. RB Salzburg beat Dinamo Zagreb 1-0, Sturm Graz kept Lazio at 0-0 but Austria Vienna was dealt a heavy 5-0 by Villarreal.
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Number eleven Serbia is a bit catching up with us. That’s because his two remaining representatives could both win. Partizan Belgrade 0-1 at Köln, Red Star Belgrade 4-1 against Ferencvaros. Because Serbia only has four teams in Europe, those victories weigh more heavily and they score 1 full coefficient point.
Directly participating in the Champions League again from 2024 for the time being
In the standings of the European campaign 2022/2023, Belgium remains in a good fifth place despite the defeats of Anderlecht and AA Gent. Only England, Spain, Liechtenstein (!) and Germany do better than our country. Liechtenstein’s handsome third place is due to the 6,500 coefficient points that FC Vaduz was the only emissary from the country to collect. Belgium currently has an average of exactly 6,000 coefficient points.
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Our coefficient, which adds up the results of our European participants over the past five seasons, determines which European tickets our country will receive. Because Belgium had fallen out of the top ten strongest European competitions after the previous European campaign, our European tickets devalued. As a result, both our champion (in the Champions League) and our numbers two and three (in the Champions League and Conference League) have to enter a preliminary round earlier. As a result, the upcoming Belgian champion will not automatically qualify for the Champions League.
This season, however, our clubs have recovered and partly because our lesser 2017/2018 year is no longer in the calculation, it looks like our country will have a direct representative in the Champions League again in 2024.
The score with in brackets the points that were added this round:
8. Scotland 35,800 (+0,000)
9. Belgium 34,000 (+0.800)
10. Austria 32,600 (+0.600)
11. Serbia 30,375 (+1,000)
