IFCF
| File:IFCF logo.png | |
| Abbreviation | IFCF |
|---|---|
| Type | Sports organization |
| Region served | Global |
| Membership | 74 member associations (cycle 2) |
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, CC, and LBCT champions | ||
| Rising Stars Cup | Youth champions, and youth teams of CL group stage clubs | ||
IFCF operates six club competitions: the Champions League, which is the world championship for club football; the Challengers Cup, for the best-placed clubs that did not qualify 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 the under-19 teams.
Any association which operates a club competition is entitled to enter one team in the Champions League, three teams in the Challenger's Cup, one team in the Cup Winners Cup, and four 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: 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 first leg at home. Prior to the quarter-finals, teams from the same group, same association, or the same league cannot be drawn together. In the Champions' League, 16 teams enter the first knockout round, while 32 enter the first knockout round of the Challenger's Cup.
- Quarter-finals: From this point onwards, seedings no longer apply and teams from the same league or association may be drawn against each other.
- Final: Single match played at a venue decided in advance from bids by participating associations.
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 Challenger's 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 Challenger's Cup:
- Teams eliminated in the Champions' League first preliminary round enter the Challenger's Cup second preliminary round.
- Teams eliminated in the Champions' League second preliminary round enter the Challenger's Cup third preliminary round.
- Teams eliminated in the Champions' League third preliminary round enter the Challenger's Cup playoff round.
- Champions' path teams eliminated in the play-off round enter the Challenger's Cup group stage.
- Non-champions' path teams eliminated in the play-off round enter the Challenger's Cup qualifying round.
- Teams finishing third in the group stage enter the Challenger's Cup first knockout round.
In the group stage, the defending champions of the Champions' League and Challenger's 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 Challenger's 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.
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 coefficient
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. During the knockout rounds, 2 points are awarded for winning the tie over two legs, and 1 point to both teams if the tie is decided in a penalty shootout.
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 coefficient is 20% of its association's coefficient, meaning it will have that coefficient if the points it has earned in its own right are less than 20% of the association's points. Below is a summary of coefficient points awarded 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 Challenger's Cup. |
| Group stage | 4.0 | In addition, 2.0 per win, 1.0 per draw |
| Round of 16 | 4.0 | In addition, 2.0 for winning the tie, or 1.0 each if the tie is decided in penalty shootout. |
| Quarter-finals | 1.0 | |
| Semi-finals | 1.0 | |
| Final | 1.0 | |
| Challenger's Cup | ||
| First preliminary round | 0.5 | Points count only towards the association coefficient. |
| 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. Associations gain only the points earned for wins and draws. |
| Round of 32 | 0.0 | In addition, teams are awarded 2.0 for winning the tie, or 1.0 each if the tie is decided in penalty shootout. |
| 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 coefficient
The association coefficient is the sum of its club's mean coefficients in the previous five seasons. Each season's association coefficient is calculated as the sum of its clubs' coefficients divided by the number of clubs from the association which participated in the Champions League and Challengers Cup that season.
Rankings based on the association coefficient determine the number of clubs an association may enter into the following season's competitions as follows:
| Rank | Champions' League | Challenger's Cup |
|---|---|---|
| 1st-3rd | 4 teams; champion and runners-up enter group stage | 3 teams; 1st and 2nd seed enter group stage |
| 4th | 4 teams; champion enters group stage | 3 teams; highest seed enters group stage |
| 5th-8th | 3 teams | |
| 9th-12th | 2 teams | |
| 13th-32nd | 2 teams | 3 teams |
| 33rd and below | 1 team |
Top ten associations and clubs
At the completion of the 3rd 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 |  Nephara (NPH) |
Nepharim Premiership | 62.869 | 1 |  Directus (EUR) |
93.0 | |
| 2 |  Audioslavia (AUD) |
National League | 61.067 | 2 |  1830 Cathair FC (AUD) |
92.0 | |
| 3 |  Turori (TUR) |
V-League | 52.667 | 3 |  Sabrefell Moths (NPH) |
91.0 | |
| 4 |  Eura (EUR) |
Euraleague | 50.429 | 4 |  Northern Union (BRE) |
84.5 | |
| 5 |  Brenecia (BRE) |
Brenecia A-League | 49.714 | 5 |  Hondo FC (VAL) |
72.5 | |
| 6 |  Eastfield Lodge (EFL) |
ICEL Premier League | 43.000 | 6 | Brinemouth (NPH) |
69.0 | |
| 7 |  Zwangzug (ZWZ) |
Zwangzug League | 42.817 |  Crisisbless (NPH) |
69.0 | ||
| 8 |  Valanora (VAL) |
Elven Premier League | 42.715 | 8 |  Turoki Tide (VIL) |
68.0 | |
| 9 |  Pasarga (PAS) |
SuperLiga | 37.950 | 9 |  AC Izotz Zubia (AUD) |
67.5 | |
| 10 |  Vilita (VIL) |
V-League | 37.657 | 10 |  Shamrock Cathair (AUD) |
66.0 | |