Manchester City remain as UEFA’s top-ranked club for the 2024-25 season despite losing their Champions League title to Real Madrid.
The Spanish club won their second Champions League season in three seasons — defeating Borussia Dortmund in last month’s final — but remain behind Pep Guardiola’s side, although they have leapfrogged Bayern Munich, whom they defeated at the semi-final stage, into second spot in the rankings.
UEFA, the governing body of European football, have confirmed the annual club standings — which influence seedings in draws for its club competitions — for the 2024-25 campaign.
It is determined using a point-based system over a rolling five-year period, with points dependent on the club’s performances in continental competitions which are measured using a weighted algorithm. The rankings for the 2024-25 season are based on accumulated coefficient in European competition from the 2020-21 campaign onwards.
A club’s five-season coefficient is determined by either the cumulative sum of its points in the five-year period or by 20 per cent of its association’s coefficient over the same period, whichever tally is higher.
City have stayed top for a third-successive season despite going out at the Champions League quarter-final stage to Madrid in 2023-24, while the Spanish club and Bayern complete the top three, with Liverpool fourth and Serie A side Roma in fifth.
Chelsea (ninth) are the only other Premier League club in the top 10, which is completed by Paris Saint-Germain, Villarreal, Dortmund and Inter.
Manchester United’s group-stage Champions League exit has seen them slip three places to 14th, while West Ham United have climbed seven places to 16th — moving above Atletico Madrid (down three places to 17th) and Barcelona (18th, down six).
That means that West Ham have moved above Arsenal (up three places to 19th) with Atalanta, the 2023-24 Europa League winners, in 20th.
(Stu Forster/Getty Images)
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