Ekstraklasa is the 18th best league in Europe. At least that’s what the UEFA ranking shows, which all Polish teams playing in European cups work on every year. In recent years, the best season was 2022/23 – that’s when Lech Poznań reached the quarter-finals of the Conference League. Mainly thanks to this, Polish teams collected as many as 7,750 points for the national ranking.
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Polish clubs far behind in UEFA rankings. Uneven play doesn’t help them. The greats also have something to play for
There is another, separate classification. Individual football clubs also have their own coefficients. Lech Poznań, by winning consecutive matches in the Conference League, gave points not only to Polish football, but also strengthened its own position. These points count later, for example, in the draws and seedings. That is why it is worth playing in cups regularly.
And Polish teams have always had problems with this. Lech Poznań is classified in the latest UEFA club ranking in 76th place – the highest of all Polish clubs! One good season in European cups was enough for this. Of course, the club from Poznań will not improve this result this year.
The best clubs in Europe are also learning how important it is to play regularly and at the best possible level in the cups. For them, it is not just a matter of draws, but also of prestige. And above all, a clear indicator of whether the team is successful. Thanks to their great results in the Champions League, Manchester City can boast that at the beginning of the 2024/25 season they are the best European club. Real Madrid is right behind them. Roma may not have impressed in the Champions League in recent years, but they have done great in the Europa League and the Conference League, so they are currently the 5th best club in the classification – and this is despite the fact that these competitions are valued worse in points by UEFA. FC Barcelona, although they constantly compete with Real for titles in Spain, has not been doing well in Europe for a long time in line with the expectations of their fans – and currently only ranks 18th in the club ranking.
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The best Polish clubs lose out on the irregularity caused by the league’s equal level. Jagiellonia Białystok, which plays in the Champions League qualifiers, has never qualified for European cups in recent years. For this reason, it approaches the qualifiers with a base coefficient of 5.075 – calculated from the UEFA league ranking. The same applies to Śląsk Wrocław (which has only collected 2,000 “own” points, so it adopts the league coefficient) and Wisła Kraków.
The importance of consistency can be demonstrated by the example of Raków Częstochowa. Częstochowa players have not played anything great in the cups yet – they have only once won promotion to the group stage, but thanks to that they already have 8,000 points. Not much, but thanks to that in the UEFA club ranking they are already 100 positions higher than Jagiellonia, Śląsk and Wisła. It would be significant if Raków played in the qualifications.
If Polish clubs want to be more important in Europe, they have to play regularly in the cups. However, this can only be achieved by achieving success in Poland. And this is difficult for everyone.
UEFA Ranking at the start of the 2024/25 season:
- 1. Manchester City – 123,000
- 2. Real Madrid – 119,000
- 3. Bavaria Monachium – 108,000
- 4. Liverpool – 96,000
- 5. Roma – 90,000
- 6. Paris Saint-Germain – 85,000
- 7. Villarreal – 82,000
- 8. Borussia Dortmund – 79,000
- 9. Chelsea – 79,000
- 10. Inter – 76,000
- 11. Bayer Leverkusen – 72,000
- 12. FC Porto – 70,000
- 13. RB Leipzig – 70,000
- 14. Manchester United – 70,000
- 15. Benfica – 69,000
- 16. West Ham United – 69,000
- 17. Atletico Madrid – 67,000
- 18. FC Barcelona – 67,000
- 19. Arsenal – 62,000
- 20. Atalanta – 61,000
- …
- 76. Lech Poznan – 19,000
- 88. Legia Warsaw – 15,500
- 148. Rakow Czestochowa – 8,000
- 242. Pursuit Szczecin – 5,000
- 249 – 253. – Śląsk Wrocław, Wisła Kraków, Jagiellonia Białystok, Lechia Gdańsk, Piast Gliwice, Cracovia – 4,700
