Maccabi Tel Aviv's current success in European competition has catapulted them nineteen places in the UEFA rankings
Last month Maccabi Tel Aviv Football club climbed to position 157 in the UEFA rankings, published after the end of the first round of group stage matches in the Champions and Europa League competitions. The UEFA rankings are an adjusted calculation resulting from the club's European achievements of the past five years topped up by 20% with the cumulative coefficient awarded to the team's domestic football association. In the case of Maccabi Tel Aviv, their UEFA ranking at the end of the 2012/13 season was 176 with a coefficient of 8.075 for the past five years. Now that the list of participants in the group stage of the various European competitions has been finalised and the first matches in those groups have been played, it is possible to get an initial picture of Maccabi's standing in Europe. Obviously as the results of more matches in the Champions League and the Europa League roll in, the club rankings will be subject to change. But as things stand, Maccabi Tel Aviv are on the rise.
UEFA's coefficient system awards points to clubs according to the stage at which they exit European competition. Teams that are relegated from the competition in the qualifying stages receive points in accordance with the qualifying round at which they depart topped up by points for the further achievements of other clubs from the same country participating in European competition. In the case of Israel's representatives, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Hapoel Ramat Gam were relegated in the third play-off round of the Europa League and received from UEFA 1.550 points each, one point for departing at the third play-off round and, for the time being, an extra 0.550 cumulative points for Israel's general representation in European competition.
In the case of Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa, both of whom are still competing in the Europa League, most of the points they'll be awarded at this stage will be relative to the two clubs' results in the competition's group stage. Clubs receive two points for a win, one for a draw and no points at all if they lose. The latest ranking, calculated the day following Maccabi Tel Aviv's first Europa League group stage match against APOEL Nicosia, also gave them an extra 1.550 points, one for the draw with APOEL and the same 0.550 cumulative points for Israel's general representation in European competition.
Israeli teams like Ironi Kiryat Shmona and Bnei Yehuda, who are not involved in this year's competitions but have done so in the recent past, will also be receiving the 0.550 cumulative top-up earned by the Israeli Football Association for their clubs' European participation. This in-absentia arrangement has benefitted, for example, clubs like German side Eintracht Frankfurt, who despite having been out of European competition since 2006 landed in this year's relatively comfortable pot 3 for the Europa League group stage draw with a coefficient of 15.992, largely on the coattails of the annual European achievements of other German clubs like Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
With their recent point adjustment and the deduction of points earned in the 2008/09 season, now beyond the five-year statute of limitations, Maccabi Tel Aviv now have a cumulative coefficient of 9.275. This new coefficient catapulted the club to the 157th place in the UEFA rankings, with the two points earned through their victory at Bordeaux still to be calculated. This holds out the prospect of the club passing the ten point mark after six meagre seasons. Looking forward, this improved coefficient may very well help the club in European draws in seasons to come. Due to their paltry cumulative coefficient in recent years, Maccabi this season "suffered" from relatively "difficult" European draws. Just to understand how significant this is, the Swedish side Elfsborg landed in pot 3 of this season's Europa League draw with a coefficient just 0.050 higher than that of Maccabi. So the more European points Maccabi can collect this season, the better will be their position in the European arena in the coming five years. But no doubt Maccabi fans will be thrilled by the club's European successes no matter what the coefficient.
