IFCF
| File:IFCF logo.png | |
| Abbreviation | IFCF |
|---|---|
| Type | Sports organization |
| Region served | Worldwide |
| Membership | 144 member associations (cycle 8) |
The International Federation of Club Football (IFCF) is the governing body that organizes several international club football competitions. This includes the IFCF Champions League, which is considered the world championship of club football. Conceived as a successor organization to UICA, it adopted many of its competition regulations, including the carry-over of its ranking system.
The IFCF was formed by a consortium of national associations after problems at UICA led to a lapse in international club competitions between the 82nd and 84th World Cup cycles. National associations become members by virtue of submitting teams for the next edition of the competitions.
Competitions
| Competition | Entries | Teams | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Champions League | 1–4 | Champions and best-placed teams | |
| Challengers Cup | 3 | Best-placed teams outside CL | |
| Cup Winners' Cup | 1 | Winner of domestic cup competition | |
| Liga B Champions Trophy | 3 | Best second-division teams | |
| Super Cup | CL, ChC, and LBCT champions | ||
| Rising Stars Cup | Youth champions, and youth teams of CL group stage clubs | ||
| Associations Trophy | Champions not advancing in the CL or ChC | ||
IFCF operates seven club competitions: the Champions League, which is the world championship for club football; the Challengers Cup, for teams which fell short of qualifying for the Champions League or were eliminated from it; the Liga B Champions Trophy, for the world’s top second-division clubs; the Super Cup, played at the end of the season between the winners of those three tournaments; the Cup Winners Cup, for champions of domestic cup tournaments, and the Rising Stars Cup, a tournament for under-19 teams. In cycle 11, the Associations Trophy was added as a competition for national champions who fail to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League or Challengers Cup.
Any association which operates a club competition is entitled to enter one team in the Champions League, three teams in the Challengers Cup, one team in the Cup Winners' Cup, and three eligible teams in the Liga B Champions Trophy. Additional places in the Champions League are granted to the top leagues in the IFCF coëfficient ranking, which takes into account results from the past five seasons of the two main tournaments. Entries to the Super Cup are restricted to clubs which qualify through another IFCF competition.
The Champions League, Challengers Cup, and Liga B Champions Trophy use a format that includes a series of preliminary rounds, a round-robin group stage, and a series of knockout rounds. All knockout ties are played over two legs with each team playing one match at home, with the winner determined by the aggregate score over the two legs. The away goals rule is used if the aggregate score is level after the two legs or after extra time, and if the tie remains a draw after extra time it is decided by a penalty shoot-out. The key exception is the final, which is played as a single match at a neutral venue. The venues for finals are chosen at the beginning of the competition from among bids submitted by the member associations. During the group stage, teams are drawn into groups of four, with each team playing others in the group twice, at home and away. The top two teams of each group qualify for the knockout stage. Ties in standings points are broken, in order, by the results of the matches between the teams in question, goal difference, goals scored, away goals scored, wins, away wins, fewer disciplinary points (based on yellow cards and red cards issued in matches played), and finally by higher club coefficient.
An overview of the competition sequence and draw restrictions for each round follows. More specific details are given in the overviews of each competition in the next section.
- Qualifying phase: Teams are divided into seeds and non-seeds based on their coefficient ranking. Teams from the same association cannot be placed into the same group.
- Preliminary rounds: the number of rounds depends on the number of entrants.
- Playoff round
- Qualifying round (Challengers Cup only)
- Group stage: Teams are drawn into groups of four and contest a round-robin. Each team plays the others in its group home and away, receiving three points for a win and one for a draw. The top two teams of each group advance to the knockout round.
- Knockout rounds: In the first knockout round, teams are seeded based on their final positions in the group stage, so group winners will always play against a runner-up, and play the second leg at home. Teams from the same group or association cannot be drawn against each other. In the Champions League, 16 teams enter the first knockout round, while 32 enter the first knockout round of the Challengers Cup and Associations Trophy.
- Second knockout round: From this point onwards, seedings no longer apply and teams from the same league or association may be drawn against each other. This would be the round of 16 in the Challengers Cup or Associations Trophy, and the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
- Final: Single match played at a venue decided in advance from bids by participating associations. The Liga B Champions Trophy final venue also hosts the Rising Stars Cup's semi-finals and final.
Champions League
Most associations are entitled to enter one club in this competition, but based on ranking some associations are entitled to enter up to four clubs. The defending champions of the Champions League and Challengers Cup gain automatic entry to the group stage, and these generally do not affect an association's normal entries. During the qualifying phase, teams are divided into a champions path and non-champions path. Eight teams from each path qualify for the group stage. Up until the first knockout round, teams eliminated from the Champions League enter the subsequent round of the Challengers Cup:
- Teams eliminated in the Champions League first preliminary round enter the Challengers Cup second preliminary round.
- Teams eliminated in the Champions League second preliminary round enter the Challengers Cup third preliminary round.
- Teams eliminated in the Champions League third preliminary round enter the Challengers Cup playoff round.
- Champions path teams eliminated in the play-off round enter the Challengers Cup group stage.
- League path teams eliminated in the play-off round enter the Challengers Cup qualifying round.
- Teams finishing third in the group stage enter the Challengers Cup first knockout round.
In the group stage, the defending champions of the Champions League and Challengers Cup and the champions from the top six ranked associations are automatically placed in pot one. Other pots are determined by coefficient ranking.
Challengers Cup
Each association may enter up to three teams in the Challengers Cup. During the qualifying phase, teams entering from the Champions League and the highest-ranked clubs by coefficient are seeded for the draw. The group stage features 12 groups of four teams each. The top two teams of each group advance to the first knockout round and are joined by eight teams finishing third in the Champions League group stage (a total of 32 teams). In the draw for the first knockout round, the group winners and best four teams from the Champions League are seeded.
With the launch of the Associations Trophy in cycle 10, some losing teams in the playoff round and fourth qualifying round were randomly drawn to enter the third-tier tournament. Beginning with the 3rd Associations Trophy (cycle 13), this changed so that third-placed teams in the group stage entered the Associations Trophy round of 32.
Cup Winners' Cup
Each association may enter the winner of its domestic Cup knockout tournament. The competition is contested as a series of two-legged knockout rounds. This tournament is the continuation of the Cygnus Cup, which was not part of UICA but also encountered organizational difficulties in the same time period.
Liga B Champions Trophy
This competition features second division winners and best-placed teams.
Rising Stars Cup
Super Cup
The Super Cup is a single round-robin between the three participating champions of the Champions League, Challenger's Cup, and Liga B Champions Trophy.
Coefficients
Each association and club has a coefficent based on its performance in the previous five editions of the Champions League and Challengers Cup. They are awarded points based on progress in stages of the competition, as well as results in the group stage. Results in the other competitions do not count towards the coefficients. Club rankings determine seeding within the tournaments. Association rankings are particularly important because they grant additional entries and byes in the qualifying phase for that association's clubs.
Club coëfficient
Clubs are awarded points based on their progress in the Champions League and Challengers Cup, and in addition they earn 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw from the group stage onwards.
A special case applies for teams reaching the Challengers Cup group stage, who earn a minimum of 3 points but obtain no bonus. Hence, Team A eliminated at the group stage with one win and one draw would earn the same 3 points as a Team B reaching the same stage which lost all its matches. However, Team A's association would be awarded 3 points and Team B's zero.
A club's minimum coëfficient is 20% of its association's total coëfficient, meaning it will have that coëfficient if the points it has earned in its own right are less than 20% of the association's points. Below is a summary of coëfficient points awarded to the club for reaching a given stage of the Champions League and Challengers Cup:
| Round | Points | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Champions League | ||
| Preliminary rounds | n/a | Eliminated teams enter the Challengers Cup. |
| Group stage | 4.0 | In addition, 2.0 per win, 1.0 per draw |
| Round of 16 | 4.0 | In addition, 2.0 per match win, 1.0 per match draw (one tie is made up of 2 matches) |
| Quarter-finals | 1.0 | |
| Semi-finals | 1.0 | |
| Final | 1.0 | |
| Challengers Cup | ||
| Extra preliminary rounds | 0.3 | Points awarded for reaching the preliminary rounds are only given if the team is eliminated at that stage. |
| First preliminary round | 0.5 | |
| Second preliminary round | 1.0 | |
| Third preliminary round | 1.5 | |
| Play-off round | 2.0 | |
| Qualifying round | 2.5 | |
| Group stage | minimum 3.0 (see notes) |
2.0 per win, 1.0 per draw. If a club does not earn at least 3 points from its results, it is awarded 3 points. |
| Round of 32 | 0.0 | In addition, 2.0 per match win, 1.0 per match draw (one tie is made up of 2 matches) |
| Round of 16 | 0.0 | |
| Quarter-finals | 1.0 | |
| Semi-finals | 1.0 | |
| Final | 1.0 | |
In case of a tie in rankings, clubs will be ranked by:
- points earned by the clubs themselves (disregarding the association coefficient)
- points earned by the clubs themselves in each most recent season
- their respective associations' rankings
Association coëfficient
The association coëfficient is the sum of the association coëfficients earned in the previous five seasons. Each season's association coëfficient is calculated as the sum of the coëfficient points earned by its clubs divided by the mean of the number of clubs from the association which would be entitled to participate in the Champions League and Challengers Cup according to its coëfficient rank (disregarding primary or secondary status of the association) and the number of clubs that actually participated in the Champions League and Challengers Cup that season. In the special case that an association enters more clubs than its allocated number because of titleholders or participation in a multiassociational league, the points earned by its clubs are divided by the actual number of clubs from the association that took part in the Champions League and Challengers Cup.
Below is a summary of coëfficient points awarded to the association for every club reaching a given stage of the Champions League and Challengers Cup:
| Round | Points | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Champions League | ||
| Preliminary rounds | see notes | 1.0 per match win, 0.5 per match draw (one tie is made up of 2 matches) |
| Group stage | 4.0 | In addition, 2.0 per win, 1.0 per draw |
| Round of 16 | 4.0 | In addition, 2.0 per match win, 1.0 per match draw (one tie is made up of 2 matches) |
| Quarter-finals | 1.0 | |
| Semi-finals | 1.0 | |
| Final | 1.0 | |
| Challengers Cup | ||
| Preliminary round | see notes | 1.0 per match win, 0.5 per match draw (one tie is made up of 2 matches) |
| Group stage | see notes | 2.0 per win, 1.0 per draw. |
| Round of 32 | 0.0 | In addition, 2.0 per match win, 1.0 per match draw (one tie is made up of 2 matches) |
| Round of 16 | 0.0 | |
| Quarter-finals | 1.0 | |
| Semi-finals | 1.0 | |
| Final | 1.0 | |
Rankings based on the association coëfficient determine the number of clubs an association may enter into the following season's competitions as follows:
| Rank | Champions League | Challengers Cup |
|---|---|---|
| 1st-4th | 4 teams; champion and runners-up enter group stage | 3 teams; 1st and 2nd seed enter group stage |
| 5th-8th | 3 teams; champion enters group stage | 3 teams; highest seed enters group stage |
| 9th-12th | 2 teams; champion enters group stage | |
| 13th-32nd | 2 teams | 3 teams |
| 33rd and below | 1 team |
Top ten associations and clubs
At the completion of the 13th IFCF cycle, the top ten associations and clubs in the world according to the coefficient ranking are:
| Associations | Clubs | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Association | League | Coefficient | Rank | Club | Coefficient | |
| 1 |  Chromatika (CMT) |
Chromatik Red League | 61.429 | 1 |  Lakewood United (TMB) |
116.0 | |
| 2 |  Kelssek (KSK) |
Kelssek Championship | 55.974 | 2 |  Chromatik (CMT) |
105.0 | |
| 3 |  Pasarga (PAS) |
Pasarga Superliga | 52.412 | 3 |  Raynor City United (VAL) |
95.0 | |
| 4 |  Tumbra (TMB) |
T-League | 51.514 | 4 |  CA Paulinthal (PAS) |
94.0 | |
| 5 |  Darmen (DAR) |
Series A | 48.358 | 5 |  Myana (CMT) |
87.0 | |
| 6 |  Valanora (VAL) |
Valanora Premiership | 47.400 | 6 |  Kirkenes FC (KSK) |
87.0 | |
| 7 |  Squornshelan Remnant States (SRS) |
Superleague | 46.800 | 7 |  Herzegovina City FC (BNJ) |
86.0 | |
| 8 |  Zwangzug (ZWZ) |
Zwangzug First Division | 45.276 | 8 | Ephesian FC (ZWZ) |
83.0 | |
| 9 |  Quebec and Shingoryeo (QUE) |
Q-League | 44.381 | 9 | St. John's Arsenal (QUE) |
75.0 | |
| 10 |  Sylestone (SYL) |
League Number One | 42.950 |  Scott City FC (DAR)
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