The UEFA index, with its three decimal places, is abstract for most mortals. But the leaders of French football constantly keep a worried eye on this indicator, which determines the number of clubs in a country involved in European competitions. This Thursday evening, the spotlight will be on Nice, which hosts the Israelis of Maccabi Tel-Aviv.
A return barrage from the Europa League Conference (or C4), we found more exciting to bait the barge, as the start of the school year approached. But the result of the Azureans, beaten in the first leg (1-0) and not flamboyant at the start of the season, will depend (partly) on the fate of the other French clubs.
At the end of the season, the total points collected by our representatives in C1 (PSG, OM), C3 (Monaco, Rennes, Nantes) and C4 (Nice) will be divided by the number of clubs present in the group stage and in the play-off. , or six. If the Niçois are knocked out this Thursday evening, it is therefore as if they qualified for the group stage and lost their six games there. In short, the waste.
A fifth place to defend
To this day, France clings to his fifth place in the standings (with 60.081 points), far behind the English leader (106.641), followed by Spain (96.141), Italy (76.902) and Germany (75.213). But behind, Portugal (6th, 53.382) and the Netherlands (7th, 49.300) are watching for a hexagonal misstep. The UEFA index is calculated over the last five seasons, and France will quickly lose the benefit of a 2017-2018 season during which it had done better than its Portuguese and especially Dutch competitors (11,500 points against respectively 9,666 and 2,900 ).
As reminded The Parisian, if it remains 5th, France will be able to directly qualify three clubs (against two currently), in the future version of the Champions League, which will be launched in 2024-2025 (plus another club which will go through perilous preliminary rounds). The 6th will only be entitled to two guaranteed folding seats, and the 7th to only one.
The elimination of AS Monaco by PSV Eindhoven in the preliminary round of the Champions League is not great news, even if we can imagine that ASM will win more matches in C3 than they would have. won in C1. And even if his Dutch executioner was eliminated Wednesday night in the play-offs by Glasgow Rangers. For its part, Portugal will have three representatives in the pool, since Benfica, who defeated Dynamo kyiv on Tuesday in the play-offs, joined FC Porto and Sporting.
But a Nice qualification this Thursday in the Europa League Conference would be good for French football in general, despite the relative prestige of this competition launched only last season.