Monday 9 May 2016

Let's see if UEFA will be treating Rangers as a new club or old club when seeding for 2016/17 Europa League

UEFA have a co-efficient system for seeding of UEFA club competitions. This has been in place for many years. The co-efficient points are gained over a 5 year period based on a clubs performance in Europe. If a team has not played in Europe in the last 5 seasons then the club receives the Country Co-efficient Ranking. As Rangers competed in Europe within the last 5 years in the 2011/12 season they gained some points for that I thought it would be worth checking what Co-efficienct points will be used for Rangers assuming they win the Scottish Cup and qualify for the 2016/17 Europa League qualifying rounds. This could be evidence once and for all if UEFA are classing Rangers as a new club or an old club.

If UEFA see them as the same club then they will use the co-efficient points gained by Rangers in the past five seasons. If they see them as a new club then they will ignore the points gained by them and simply give them the Country Coeffienct Ranking.

Rangers Team Co-efficient ranking is showing as 4.960 based on their performances in last five seasons which includes points gained in 2011/12 prior to the liquidation of Rangers. See link of this. Rangers are sitting in 267th ranking with 4.960 points.  UEFA Team Ranking for 2016/17 season
(Photo to be added)

The country coefficient for Scotland which would be used for a team who have not played in Europe in last 5 seasons is 3.460. This can be seen in the same link above at around 322nd on the list. (photo to be added.)

Hibs have a team co-efficient ranking of 3.960. This can be seen on the same link above at 304th on the list. (Photo to be added)

The other two Scottish teams already qualified for Europa League Qualifying Rounds are Hearts on 6.460 coefficient points  (221st on the list) and Aberdeen on 5.460 co-efficient points (247th on list).

The current UEFA Seedings and rankings for the Europa League Qualifying Rounds can be seen on the attached link. UEFA seeding and co-efficient ranking for Europa League 2016/17 (photos to be added)

You will see Hearts and Aberdeen with their co-efficient points showing for Qualifying Round 1 but the very interesting part is if you scroll down to the Qualifying Round 2 you will see they have the Scottish Cup winners to be seeded between the following coefficient range 3.460 - 3.960. (Photo be added showing this). As a reminder Hibs have a coefficient point ranking of 3.960. Rangers have a coefficient point ranking of 4.960. If UEFA were treating Rangers as the same club then the Scottish Cup winners would be showing as a ranking of 3.960-4.960. It is not. They have it listed as 3.460 - 3.960. A reminder 3.460 is the Country Co-efficient for Scotland and is only used for clubs that have not participated in Europe in last five seasons.

Therefore based on this information on the UEFA ranking website which has been used for many years and is always factual and accurate Rangers are going to be treated as a new club in the rankings if they win the Scottish Cup.  Based on this evidence UEFA will not be using the old Rangers coefficient ranking of 4.960. This is because the rules of UEFA are clear cut and set in stone. The Rangers Football Club now have a different company registration number from the team that liquidated and any points or rankings gained by the old liquidated club are not handed to the new club.