UEFA confirm early Champions League boost for Liverpool ahead of 2025/26 season | OneFootball

Liverpool may have exited the Champions League at the round-of-16 stage this season, but their exploits in this competition haven’t gone unnoticed by UEFA.

The Reds finished top of the expanded 36-team league phase in the first year of the competition’s controversial new format, but their reward for that achievement was a tie against eventual tournament winners Paris Saint-Germain.

Arne Slot’s side saw their hopes of a Premier League and Champions League double ended at Anfield in March as the French giants triumphed in a penalty shoot-out following a 1-1 draw on aggregate across the two legs.

Liverpool climb one place in UEFA club coefficient

With the 2024/25 European season having now concluded, UEFA has confirmed the final club coefficient rankings, and there’s good news for Liverpool.

The Reds earned 29.5 coefficient points from their continental endeavours this term, enough to see them climb one place to fourth in the overall ranking (only Real Madrid, Manchester City and Bayern Munich are placed higher).

(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Liverpool somewhat rewarded for this season’s Champions League endeavours

It may seem surprising that we’ve actually moved above PSG in the rankings in the season that they won the Champions League, but the coefficient is calculated over a five-year period, and the French side duly saw their advantage from 2019/20 (when they also reached the final and LFC exited in the last 16) wiped out this year.

Liverpool were always set to be seeded in Pot 1 as soon as they guaranteed their place in Europe’s premier club competition for next year, and some may argue that the seedings pots are no longer relevant under the new format, as each team plays two opponents from every pot irrespective of where they’re ranked.

Nonetheless, with the Reds’ performance in 2024/25 counting towards their coefficient for the next five years, their near-flawless league phase return has reaped dividends to some extent, even if it didn’t prevent them from the misfortune of landing PSG in the round of 16 in March.

Supporters might also derive a sense of satisfaction not just from moving ahead of the eventual trophy winners in the UEFA ranking, but also that they’ve secured Pot 1 status again for 2025/26 while domestic rivals Arsenal have to be content with inclusion in Pot 2.

While this season has shown that there’s no overriding benefit from finishing top of the league phase, Liverpool will want to place in the top eight so that they avoid an additional play-off round in February.

Hopefully the Reds can achieve that again next season and have better luck with how the draw for the knockout rounds plays out than they did this year!