Coefficient update ahead of Shamrock Rovers Euro clash with Larne

Ahead of Shamrock Rovers’ Conference League game in Belfast against Larne on Thursday, extratime.com takes a look at the current state of play with the UEFA coefficient for the League of Ireland and prize money for the Hoops. 

With Pat’s reaching the Conference League play-off round and Rovers making the league stage and drawing their first league stage game, the coefficient picture is looking pretty positive. 

The League of Ireland clubs are seeking to secure a high enough ranking so that the 2025 FAI Cup winners would enter the Europa League first qualifying round. That is the reward should the country ranking be 33 or higher at the end of this European season.

That would provide a fall back into the Conference League second round should the cup winners lose that first round and so guarantees them a minimum of two rounds in Europe and €700,000 in prize money. 

This past European season the FAI Cup winners St. Patrick’s Athletic got a bye in the Conference League first qualifying round and were placed directly in the second qualifying round where if they had lost they would have earned the minimum €525,000.

As it turned out, it was a lucrative run for Pat’s in Europe who made it the Conference League play-off earning the Saints earning €1.275m.

Coefficient system

The coefficient is calculated in the qualifying rounds (including the play-off) by adding up the results for each team, with every win earning one point and a draw worth half a point.

In the group stages, the points are doubled so the late Dylan Watts’ injury time goal earning Shamrock Rovers a draw against APOEL was worth the coefficient equivalent of a win in the qualifiers.

The total is then divided by the number of clubs participating from that country (four clubs from the League of Ireland). The overall country league ranking is based on adding up the last five season’s coefficients.

Coefficient calculation for 2024/25 season so far

St. Patrick’s Athletic won three matches and drew two – adding up to four points in total from the Saints. Shels got one win and two draws - two points - while Derry City got one win and hence one point.

In the qualifiers, Shamrock Rovers got two wins and a draw, and added a full point from their draw in the league stage of the Conference league to bring their total up to 3.5 (but still below the tally from St. Pat’s). 

Should the Hoops get two more wins to go with the draw already secured that would see them most likely finish in 24th spot or better which would qualify the team for the knock out stages.

As it stands the League of Ireland clubs have earned 10.5 points this season in total, giving an average coefficient of 2.625 [10.5/4].

Overall five year coefficient

The overall UEFA coefficient is based on five years of results. Six seasons ago the LOI clubs earned only 1.25 and so that score will be discounted this year replaced by this season’s coefficient of at least 2.625. 

        Season           Points             Ranking that season           Five year ranking

1. 2024/25           2.625*            28*                                            32*
2. 2023/24           1.5                   37                                            35
3. 2022/23           3.375               31                                            36
4. 2021/22           2.875               32                                            40
5. 2020/21           1.875               34                                            37
6. 2019/20           1.25                 44                                            42
7. 2018/19           1.0                   47                                            37
8. 2017/18           1.125               42                                            39

Five year total            12.25*

*current points/ranking as per 20 October 2024

Ireland are currently ranked 28th for this season and over the crucial five year period are 32nd overall in Europe. Kosovo directly behind Ireland in 33rd and Faroe Islands (37th) can’t add to their totals as all their teams have exited Europe.

Of the countries ranked in the top 40 below Ireland, none have two teams left in Europe – with Armenia (12.0/Conference League), Latvia (11.5/Europa League), Iceland (11.333/Conference League), Finland (11.0/Coference League), Kazakhstan (10.625/Conference League) and Bosnia & Herzegovina (10.5/Conference League) each having one team playing league stage UEFA football.

Qualification out of the league stage is also worth more points. At the end of the league stage, teams ranked 25 and below are eliminated and get no additional points.

The 24th placed team gets 0.125 and this increases by 0.125 with each position so 17th get a full point all the way up to ninth place who get 2 points. The ranking jumps to 0.25 for each position from eighth to the top team who will get 4 points.

There are further bonus points for making the round of 16, quarters, semis and final (0.5 per round).

Information drawn from https://kassiesa.net/uefa/calc.html

Money update

Dylan Watts’ goal against APOEL pushed Rovers’ earnings over the €4m mark. They will also earn additional five year and ten year rankings UEFA prize money that is estimated to be around €750,000.

Each point picked up in the group stage is worth €133k (€133k for a draw and €400k for a win) and progression out of the league stage with qualification for the knockout round (last 32) of the Conference League earns €200k, with the round of 16 earning €0.8m.

Clubs 1 to 8 in the league ranking of the league phase will receive an additional €400k while clubs 9 to 16 will receive an additional €200k.

After match day one, Rovers sit joint 18th in the table.

There is a further league ranking bonus paid on the finishing position in the league stage.

The last team (36th place) gets one share worth €28k, with the bonus increasing by €28k for each position so finishing 24th (which would qualify a team for the next phase) is worth €364k, 18th €532k and the team who tops the league stage gets 36 shares (€1.08m). 

These are minimum ranking bonus figures as when there is a draw, UEFA pay out €133k to each club (€266k in total) which is lower than the €400k paid out to the winning team.

So for each draw in the league stage, UEFA take the unassigned €133k and will proportionally increase the initial value of the shares distributed to each position. There were three draws on match night one adding €399k to the pot for distribution across the 36 clubs.

Information drawn from: https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/028b-1a7880138a24-7a993e2e33d1-1000/20240322_circular_2024_13_en.pdf

Stephen McPhail on the title race and Larne Euro game: ‘Three months ago everyone was writing us off but with two games to go, we are bang in it’ https://t.co/nVyxJzRhiHpic.twitter.com/XA4RP1JqYO

— extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) October 20, 2024