The 50 greatest European club sides

May 31, 2011 by Miguel Delaney

How it works?

The key factor to calculating Europe’s all-time club side was to quantify a team’s dominance of their given era. This was the only comparable characteristic that universally cut across every time period.

To do this, a weighted scale of points was created for performances in various competitions.

So, for example, 100 points were awarded for a first-place finish in a 20-team major league, 90 for second, 85 for third and so forth; 120 for first in the Champions League, 110 for getting to the final; 50 for first in a domestic cup, 40 for getting to the final and so on down. Bonus points were also awarded for actually winning competitions.

This meant that in the 2004-05 season for example, when Chelsea won the Premier League and League Cup, got to the semi-final of the Champions League and fifth round of the FA Cup, they achieved 260 points out of a potential 390. That worked out at 67% domination of the season. So, when that Chelsea 2004-07 side’s stats for their three seasons were put together, they ended up with 62%; or a dominance figure of 620 points.

However, this created the obvious problem that a team who briefly blazed a trail to win a treble in one season would end up with 1,000 points (for 100%). By contrast, Ajax 1965-73 would only get 770 for eight seasons, despite the fact they achieved 100% in one season (1971-72) and that their sustained excellence was probably the greater achievement. By the same token, Steaua Bucharest 1985-89 would get over 800 points because of the relative ease (and corruption) of the Romanian league, while Milan 1987-91 would only get 620 points despite playing in one of the most statistically competitive divisions of all time, as Serie A was in the late 80s.

As such, all dominance figures were weighted against the number of years involved and the relative quality of the competitions according to Uefa coefficients.

Since three-five years were the average length of a team’s ‘cycle’, this timescale was used as a mean amount. So, if a side’s era was determined to only last two years, their dominance figure was multiplied by 0.9, one 0.8, six 1.1, seven 1.2 and so forth.

In order to get as complete a quantification of a team’s quality as possible, however, it was decided to award scaled bonus points for characteristics such as how difficult they were to beat, how awesome they were in attack and how disciplined they were in defence. Those are below.

However, it was also acknowledged that excellence is partly determined by dramatic achievements as well as dominance and specific abilities. So the following bonus points were awarded for feats like trebles, three-in-a-rows and so forth.

Points scales

Hauls Major Minor
Treble 100
League and European Cup double 75
Minor league and European Cup 65
Major domestic treble 60
Major League and Cup double 50
Minor domestic treble 40
Cup double 40
Two leagues in a row 25 5
Three leagues in a row 50 10
Four leagues in a row 75 25
Five leagues in a row 100 50
Six leagues in a row 125 75
Seven leagues in a row 150 100
Eight leagues in a row 175 125
Nine leagues in a row 200 150
Two European Cups in a row 200
Three European Cups in a row 300
Four European Cups in a row 400
Five European Cups in a row 500
Undefeated European Cup 30
One defeat 15

Bonuses

European Cup 50
Major league 30
Uefa Cup 20
Minor league 15
CWC 15
Major Cup 10
Undefeated European Cup 30
One defeat 15
European Cup all-time top scorers 30
Second band of top scorers 25
Third band 20
Fourth band 15
European Cup all-time defensive record 30
Second band 25
Third band 20
Fourth band 15
Major league best points average 50
Second band 40
Third band 35
Fourth band 30
Major league top scorers 30
Second band 25
Third band 20
Fourth band 15
Major league defensive record 30
Second band 25
Third band 20
Fourth band 15
Undefeated season 50
One defeat 30
Two defeats 20

Champions League/European Cup

Win 150
Runner-up 110
Semi-final 80
Quarter-final 60
Last 16 40

Uefa Cup

Victory 100
Final 70
Semi-final 50
Quarter-final 40
Last 16 20

Cup Winners Cup

Victory 80
Final 50
Semi-final 40
Quarter-final 30
Last 16 10

Major League 20-team

Victory 120
Second 90
Third 85
Fourth 80
Fifth 75
Sixth 70
Seventh 65
Eighth 60
Ninth 55
10th 50
11th 45
12th 40
13th 35
14th 30
15th 25
16th 20
17th 15
18th 10
19th 5
20th 0

Major League 22-team

Victory 120
Second 91
Third 86
Fourth 82
Fifth 77
Sixth 73
Seventh 68
Eighth 64
Ninth 59
10th 55
11th 50
12th 46
13th 41
14th 37
15th 32
16th 28
17th 23
18th 19
19th 14
20th 10
21st 5
22nd 0

Major League 24 teams

Victory 120
Second 92
Third 88
Fourth 84
Fifth 80
Sixth 75
Seventh 71
Eighth 67
Ninth 63
10th 59
11th 54
12th 50
13th 46
14th 42
15th 38
16th 33
17th 29
18th 25
19th 21
20th 17
21st 12
22nd 8
23rd 4
24th 0

Major League 18 teams

Victory 120
Second 88
Third 83
Fourth 77
Fifth 72
Sixth 66
Seventh 61
Eighth 55
Ninth 50
10th 44
11th 39
12th 33
13th 28
14th 22
15th 17
16th 11
17th 6
18th 0

Major League 16 teams

Victory 120
Second 88
Third 82
Fourth 75
Fifth 69
Sixth 63
Seventh 57
Eighth 50
Ninth 44
10th 38
11th 32
12th 25
13th 19
14th 13
15th 7
16th 0

Medium League

Victory 80
Second 50
Third 46
Fourth 42
Fifth 38

Major Cup

Victory 70
Final 40
Semi-final 30
Quarter-final 20
Last 16 10

Medium Cup

Victory 50
Final 30
Semi-final 20
Quarter-final 10
Last 16 5

Minor Cup

Victory 30
Final 20
Semi-final 10

 

Contents

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