http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/5188368.stm

Chelsea dealt Europe seeding blow

Jose Mourinho has his sights on the Champions League

Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool will be among the top seeds for next season's Champions League but Chelsea have again missed out.

The Premiership champions will be among the second seeds despite the absence of Italian sides Juventus and AC Milan.

Beaten finalists Arsenal and 2005 champions Liverpool still need to qualify to take their place among the top seeds for the group phase.

Scottish champions Celtic will join Chelsea in the pot of second seeds.

The Blues now face the possibility of facing reigning champions Barcelona who knocked them out of last season's competition at the first knockout phase.

They missed out on a top seed in that campaign ensuring a difficult clash against the Catalans.

Juventus and AC Milan are set to appeal the punishments for Italy's match-fixing scandal which ruled that they could not compete in the tournament next term.

Chelsea could meet current champions Barcelona in the group stages


Even if their appeals are successful, the result would not affect the seedings of the British clubs.

The Italian FA is expected to announce on 25 July that Roma, Chievo and Palermo will join Inter Milan in the Champions League.

Should they qualify, Hearts are likely be one of the lowest seeds.

Uefa splits the 32 entrants into four pots of eight teams, divided according to their current European ranking.

Each group will contain one team from the top seeds, one from the second seeds, one for the third and one from the fourth.

The draw for the group stages will take place on 24 August in Monaco.

Not a big problem, two teams leave the group and move on. I have nothing about being the second, but first is always possible with the team we have whoever we play now.

This is not bad for us, but the top seed that seeds with us in the group.

Hopefully Chelsea are in our group. I would like to see the tradition keep going. That way it eliminates the chances of us meeting them early in the knockout rounds.

Would be interesting also to see Gudjohnsen possibly play a part against his old side.

Even if they dont make it through they shouldnt blame it on anything but themselves especially with the squad they have.

We will go through, that's a given. We are arguably better than any side in Europe at the moment, and just on pure talent and luck, we will go through.

I cant see how the rating system works. If its not domestic, then surely look at a team like, no offense, ManU. They were out before the KO rounds and didnt make Uefa cup. Also, Valencia, who were in the Intertoto cup rather than CL or Uefa cup. I am a neutral, and I think this is a bit strange that some of these teams are given higher seeds.

No big deal though, just that Chelsea will have one of the top 8 seeds below in their group should they all advance to the group stages.

1 Barcelona (Spa) 127.0pts, 2 Real Madrid (Spa) 120.0, 3 Inter Milan (Ita) 112.0+, 4 Liverpool (Eng) 105.9*, 5 Arsenal (Eng) 101.9*, 6 Man Utd (Eng) 100.9, 7 Valencia (Spa) 95.0*, 8 Lyon (Fra) 89.7.

hopefully chelsea gets in the barca group! we kick their ass out in the goup stages!

seems just as bad as the fifa rankings

"Chelsea still not officially in Europe's elite"

No No honey......................

Winners of the domestic league for the last two consecutive seasons and the only team from the premiership to consecutively progress to the latter stages for the past three years.

Fifa World Rankings-esque seeding calculation does not make a team officially in the european elite.
Dominating the best Domestic leagues in Europe and the best continental club tournaments means that officialy that satement does not have a leg to stand on.

You forget unlike the rest of y'all we have only qualified for this competition 4 times, yet we have the best record in the tournament always progressing, infact last year was the earliest we have been eliminated...............

I just thought it was a pathetic clutching at straws comment.

As for Barca we HAVE to ge them in the group stages to continue the tradition.
It would mean we would have TWO games that are not specifically interlinked, and Home advantage or away goals would not be as important.

Chelsea to win both...................................

I would laugh if we draw Valencia. Clearly we are no where near the elite that Valencia are in.

Especially when Rafa was managing them

From what I understand Chelsea not being in the top draw is due to their history in the competition, and Chelsea havent really dominated Europe in the past to be given a seeding.

Once Chelsea prove themselves then maybe.

And yes United didn't do well last season, but the history of the clubs shows a lot.

How do Uefa work out European seedings?

Paul Doyle and Rob Smyth
Wednesday July 19, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

"I see Internazionale are the third highest-ranked team for this season's Champions League, higher even than 2005 champions Liverpool," writes Martin Doherty. "So I have to ask: how the hell do they arrive at these seedings?"

Well, Martin, it's simple. Actually, it isn't. It's complicated and takes a while to explain. So make sure you're sitting comfortably and get ready to concentrate for a few minutes. A team's pedigree, or "coefficient", is determined by (i) its own European performances over the last five years and (ii) the cumulative European performances of clubs from its domestic association over the past five years.

Basically, according to Uefa's coefficient system, which was introduced in 1980-81, an association gets two coefficient points for each win by one of its clubs in the Champions League or Uefa Cup and one point for each draw (except in preliminary qualifying rounds, for which a win is worth one point and a draw is worth half a point). The total number of points earned by an association is divided by the number of its clubs that participated in the Champions League or Uefa Cup that season, thus giving the country's coefficient.

A club's coefficient is comprised of 33% of the country coefficient, plus what ever points the club itself has earned over the previous five years. Clubs earn points in the same way as associations, the only difference being that qualifying rounds do not count. So, for example, Cork City's first-leg victory over Apollon Limassol in the first qualifying round of this season's Champions League means one point will be added to the League of Ireland's coefficient next season - but not to Cork's.

Clubs get three points for qualifying for the group stages of the Champions League. They get a further bonus point if they reach the last 16, and so on all the way to the final. They also get two points for all victories, so beating Sturm Graz in the group stage would yield only one point fewer than beating Juventus in the semi-final and qualifying for the final.

So the reason Internazionale have a higher coefficient (112.02 points) than Liverpool (105.95) is, in part, because Italian clubs have generally performed better than English ones in European competition over the last five years. Juventus and AC Milan have higher coefficients than Inter, but Italian authorities have banned them from taking part in this season's Champions League because of their involvement in the match-fixing scandal.

And the reason Manchester United, serial underachievers in Europe, are above Chelsea is a) because winning your domestic title has no influence on the coefficients whatsoever, and because United have taken part in the last five Champions League tournaments, whereas Chelsea's first involvement was in 2003-04. In the two seasons before that they were humbled in the first round of the Uefa Cup by Viking Stavanger and Hapoel Tel Aviv, whereas United boosted their coefficient with various straightforward group-stage victories. But by 2008, once the five-year cycle rumbles on to include only the Abramovich years, Jose Mourinho should be sitting snugly at the top table.