EUROPEAN CLUBS ALL-TIME PERFORMANCE RANKING

1956–present

 

 

1.

In this ranking the European football clubs are not sorted by "match points" (wins, draws, losses), but by "performance points" conventionally assigned to the won titles (in official and non-official tournaments) and to the positions reached in the final rounds of the main UEFA cups.

 

 

2.

A regular and progressive system of "performance points" is assigned to the wins and to the final stages (final, semifinal) of the main UEFA cups (see below 1, 2, 3).

According to their format (single-match final, short tournament), a "bonus" is assigned to the UEFA Supercup and to the other international official competions (Intercontinental Cup/FIFA Club World Cup) (4).

A more symbolic "bonus" is attributed to some extinct competions, according to their characteristics: second level competition (UEFA Intertoto Cup), limited geographic area, non-meritocratic method of entry, lower number of participants (non-official major cups, as Inter-Cities Fair Cup, Mitropa Cup, and non-official minor cups) (5, 6).

 

Consequently, the "performance points" are calculated as follows (*):

 

"performance pts." per

1

European Cup / UEFA Champions League (1)

2

Cup Winners' Cup,

UEFA Cup/Europa League (2)

3

Conference League

(3)

4

UEFA Supercup, Intercontinental C./FIFA Club World Cup (4)

5

Intertoto Cup (5), Mitropa Cup (6),

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (7)

6

minor

non-official cups (8)

win

12

8

6

3

1

0.5

final

  6

4

3

–

–

–

semifinal

  3

2

1

–

–

–

 

(*) it's important to notice that in this scoring system, attributed points do not stack up, therefore a UEFA Champion club gets 12 points for the win, and not 22.5 points for partecipating to all the tiers of the tournament. The 6 points bonus for participating in the final match are given only to the club which disputed it but didn't win, and so on.

(1) European Champions Clubs' Cup (1956-1992)/UEFA Champions League (1993–present).

(2) Cup Winners' Cup (1961-1999); UEFA Cup (1971-2009)/UEFA Europa League (2010–present).

(3) Conference League (2022>).

(4) UEFA Supercup (1973–present), Intercontinental Cup (1960-2004), FIFA Club World Cup (2005–present).

(5) UEFA Intertoto Cup (1995-2008), was a summer football competition for clubs that had not qualified for one of the major UEFA cups.

(6) Mitropa Cup (1951, 1955-1978). The period 1927-1940 and the period 1980-1992 are not taken into account (in 1980-1992 the competition was reserved for second division clubs).

(7) Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (1955-1971), is usually recognised as the predecessor to the UEFA Cup, but UEFA declared in 2005 that «the Fairs Cup is not considered a UEFA competition, and hence clubs' records in the Fairs Cup are not considered part of their European record». Furthermore, a regular entry method for this competiton was defined only in the last years (1968-1971).

(8) Latin Cup (1949-1957), Grasshoppers Cup (1952-1957), Cup of the Alps (1960-1987), International Football Cup (or Rappan Cup, 1961-1967), Balkans Cup (1961-1994), Anglo-Italian League Cup (1969-1976), Anglo-Italian Cup (1970-1996), Intertoto Cup "E. Thommen" (1979-1982). The Balkans Cup is limited to 1989, as in the following years the competition was reserved to second division clubs.

 

 

 

3.

Tables key:

 

TABLE 1: All cups together

 

col. A: national football federation

col. B: best performance reached by the club: E = cup winner; D = finalist; C = semifinalist.

 

col. 1-11:

CC = Champions cups

UC = main UEFA cups (Cup Winners' Cup, UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League)

Conf = Conference League

SC = UEFA Supercup

FC = Intercontinental Cup / FIFA Club World Cup

 

col. C: sum of the "performance points" calculated on the basis of the col. 1-11 (UEFA + FIFA cups)

 

col. 12-13:

I-F-M = UEFA Intertoto Cup, Inter-Cities Fair Cup, Mitropa Cup

mc = minor non-official cups (indicated only for clubs included in previous columns)

 

 

 

 

TABLE 2: European Champions Clubs' Cup / UEFA Champions League

TABLE 3: UEFA Cups (Cup Winners' Cup, UEFA Cup/Europa League, Conference League)

TABLE 4: European Clubs perfermance ranking 1956-2005 (first 50 years)