The final didn’t go far. At the end of a suspenseful encounter, FC Bruges was unable to do better than a 1-1 draw against Fiorentina, thus putting an end to the dream of all of Belgium to see one of its representatives in the final of a European competition for the first time since 1993. The only positive point of Wednesday evening: the division of Bruges allowed Belgium to recover 0,200 additional points in the UEFA coefficient, allowing our championship to reach a total of 14,400. This total is the record for our country, while the highest mark previously achieved was last year with 14,200.
In terms of the teams concerned, Bruges will undoubtedly remain our best representative with 21,000 acquired individually. If the recent appearance of the Conference League, the increase in the number of matches and the changes to the scales help, Bruges have quite simply reached the highest number of UEFA coefficient points in all history for a Belgian club. Behind, Ghent (10,000), Union (8,000), Genk (7,000) and Antwerp (6,000) also added their stone to an increasingly solid edifice.
Sixth best championship of the season, behind the usual top 5, Belgium has largely consolidated its eighth place in the UEFA coefficient by recovering 3,400 points from Portugal, seventh. At the start of next season, the gap will only be “only” 6,700 points, undoubtedly too high to hope to move up the rankings in the short term. Behind, the Czech Republic will start the season chasing Belgium and will be 6,650 points behind. Concretely, it seems unlikely that Belgium’s position in the ranking will change at the end of next season.
Important clarification: being eighth or ninth has no influence on European tickets. On the other hand, being seventh allows the winner of the Cup to compete in the Europa League without going through a play-off.
Why Club Bruges can harbor eternal regrets in the Conference League
