ToffeeWeb - Season 2007-08

The Mail Bag

Fourth or sixth on the European coefficients-list?

In the front-page article about the Uefa coefficients it says: "(Shouldn't we be sixth as we have played one more game than Arsenal and Chelsea?)"

Yhis to suggest that Everton's coefficient of 16.8360 points, equal to Chelsea and Arsenal, is less impressive because we had an extra match to reach it. But Arsenal and Chelsea got 4 (four!!) points for free as every team that plays in the Champions League group stage gets three points just for being there and another point is gained by qualifying for the round of 16 in the CL. To compare: the first "free" point earned in the Uefa Cup is given if you reach the quarter finals. These extra points are, amongst others, to make up for the 'loss' of 4 matches when the second group stage of the CL was abandoned.

So methinks we're doing great. We're the first team on the list not to have received those freebees. Only Man Utdand Hamburger SV have draw once and won the rest in Europe this year, and I dare to say that we had a tougher draw in the Uefa Cup than Hamburg had. If anything, we really should be higher in any logical sense! Just shows how much Uefa rates the CL and the Uefa Cup equally... NOT!
Erik Dols, Arnhem, the Netherlands Posted 18/02/2008 at 12:17:05

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Michael Kenrick

Thanks for that, Erik. It certainly puts a different light on things, shows Bert Kassies is on the ball, and that I know nothing about European Football!

Phil Roberts
1 Posted 18/02/2008 at 13:35:25

Checking the link to the article regarding our 4th best record in Europe, http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method3/trank2008.html , then our current co-efficient is almost 38.

Now as all financial institutions tell us, history is no guarantee of the future, but if we had gone into the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League in 2005 with this co-efficient, we would have been seeded 14th and therefore played one of the "Weaker" sides.

All we have to do now is finish 4th!

Phil Guyers
2 Posted 18/02/2008 at 15:26:50

The overall ’Team Ranking’ shows that our co-efficient is now 37.934 and we are 61st in the list. This is up from 100th at the start of the season. Tangible proof of the progress being made.

Jay Harris
3 Posted 18/02/2008 at 15:41:33

Is there somewhere we can check the basis of calculation and the factors involved.
Do we for example get a higher coefficient if we eat Brann for breakfast on Thursday

Michael Hunt
4 Posted 18/02/2008 at 16:02:53

Jay, I confess I can be superstitious on occassion and I do love a proper bacon butty for breakfast, with plenty of fried mushrooms and HP. You ain’t telling me I’m supposed to munch that orrible rabbit food ’all brann’ on Thursday are ya? Stuff that! COYB!

Erik Dols
5 Posted 18/02/2008 at 17:03:39

Jay,

You get two points for a win, one for a draw and nothing for a loss. From the quarter finals on you get an extra point just for reaching the stage.

In the CL it’s the same except for the earlier mentioned extra four points.

Add to that 33% of the coefficient of your country (don’t ask me why...) and you have your teams coefficient for the running year.

I could be wrong, but I put some time into this a few months back and I’m pretty sure this is how it works.

In general one could say that Everton needs to win at least one game in Uefa this season to be sure to have a good draw in the qualifying round of the CL if we would finish 4th.

Rupert Sullivan
6 Posted 18/02/2008 at 18:07:49

Am I right in thinking that the co-efficient used when you actually are being drawn out of a hat is based upon the last 5 years’ performance and not the co-efficient of a single year?

Andy Callan
7 Posted 18/02/2008 at 18:34:04

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Erik Dols
8 Posted 18/02/2008 at 21:08:42

Rupert, you are right. A five-year score counts. Note that for each year your total is increased with 33% of the total for your country, so even in the years we didn’t play in Europe we got quite some points.

Keith Glazzard
9 Posted 18/02/2008 at 22:28:13

The devil might be in the detail, but speaking as one with a qualification in statistics I can state without contradiction - the better you do, the better you do.

Whichever Europen comp we’re in next season, the better we do this year the better. So, let’s win a few games - all agreed?

Andy Callan
10 Posted 19/02/2008 at 13:25:42

It’s all me arse... Seeding is shite.

Other sports are the same; tennis being the prime example.

Everyone should go in a pot and get drawn out as they come.

It shold be the other way around and the worse players / teams should have a better chance of getting through, by way of the best playing each other in the earlier rounds.

That would make it fairer.