Swiss suffer Champions League blow

Swiss football will have a lesser European presence in 2002/2003 Keystone Archive

Switzerland will be given just one qualifying place in football's European Champions League for the 2002/2003 season, after sliding down three places in UEFA's five-year ranking system.

This year’s Swiss champions Grasshoppers Zurich and runners-up FC Lugano are both set to represent Switzerland in the qualifying stages of next season’s competition, but the year after that will see only the league winners going through.

Switzerland will hold onto its two UEFA Cup places.

The European football association’s rolling system means that the Champions League points garnered by Grasshoppers in 1995/96 have now been removed from Switzerland’s tally, causing the Swiss to drop from 14th in the rankings to 17th.

Although Grasshoppers’ recent history in Europe is easily the best in Switzerland, the Zurich club currently occupy 84th spot in the continental standings. Their city rivals FC Zurich are the second best of the Swiss teams in 106th position, while Lausanner are third in 111th place.

Germany are among the other losers in the new rankings list. The German football association has had to surrender its fourth Champions League place to England, and will now join France and Holland with three teams in the competition.

UEFA national rankings: 1. Spain 2. Italy 3. England 4. Germany 5. France 6. Holland 7. Turkey 8. Greece 9. Russia 10. Portugal 11. Czech Republic 12. Belgium 13. Ukraine 14. Austria 15. Norway 16. Scotland 17. Switzerland.

UEFA club rankings: 1. Real Madrid (Sp) 2. Manchester United (Eng) 3. Bayern Munich (Ger) 4. FC Barcelona (Sp) 5. Lazio (It) 6. Valencia (Sp) 7. Juventus (It) 8. Inter Milan (It) 9. Atlético Madrid (Sp) 10. Parma (It)… 84. Grasshoppers Zurich 106. FC Zurich 111. Lausanne 157. Sion 167. Basel and St Gallen (equal)