With last Thursday's 3-0 loss to FC Basel in Switzerland, Maccabi Tel Aviv's European campaign came to an end. Now it's time to have a look at the benefits in the longer term
Now that Maccabi Tel Aviv's European campaign has come to a close, it's only fitting to have a closer inspection of the club's position in Europe going forward into the 2014/15 season. To start with, Maccabi's considerable achievement of a second-place finish in the group stage of the Europa League was already worth a jump of 71 places in their EUFA club ranking. The team's new ranking (105) could very well produce benefits in forthcoming seasons, particularly with respect to more comfortable positions in draws for the various stages of European competition.
This season Maccabi laboured under a relatively low ranking (176, with a coefficient of 8.075) which exposed them to the possibility of facing more difficult opponents, which in fact is what occurred. In the third qualifying round of the Champions League, Maccabi Tel Aviv were among the unseeded clubs. As a result the club were drawn against probably the most difficult opponent among the seeded clubs, FC Basel. With their current coefficient (17.875) Maccabi would have been among the seeded sides at this stage of the competition and the most difficult draws they might have faced were against Polish title winners Legia Warsaw and Moldavian champions FC Sheriff Tiraspol. Of course, even if Maccabi had made it to the play-off round even their current coefficient would not have earned them seeding, but avoiding such European powerhouses as FC Basel in the relatively early stages of the competition is still a definite plus.
So far the Europa League is concerned, Maccabi's impressive second-place finish in group F means the significant rise in their coefficient will entitle them in future group stage draws to a much more comfortable position, on paper at least, than the one they had this season. This year the club were in pot 4, with the result that they were joined in their group by three opponents with a higher UEFA ranking than themselves. Maccabi's current coefficient would catapult them into pot 2, which this season would not necessarily have spared them Eintracht Frankfurt, but for the rest might have seen them face weaker competition like Croatian side Rijeka, Norwegian outfit Tromso or Romanian competitors Pandurii.
In short, Maccabi's European campaign may have ended in defeat in Switzerland, but with value added on for future seasons. This season's impressive results in the Europa League group stage may already resound in Maccabi's European success next year. And who knows, perhaps that's just the beginning.
