As I sit here procrastinating on a paper, I decided to do some research on how I felt CONCACAF should give out spots for the CL, based on coefficients. In order to do this fairly, and not unjustly punish teams from the Caribbean and Central America who were subject to a much harsher road to the old Champions' Cup, I gave some value to their respective qualifying tournaments. I gave all final results (whether one leg or two) in the Torneo UNCAF or CFU Club Championship a value multiplied by .25 (so advancing to the next round would give a team .75 points). For the Champions League and Champions Cup, the values are as follows: (CCL Only) Preliminary round: Win = 1.5 points Draw = 0.5 points Loss = 0 points Qualifying for the knockout stages: 3 bonus points Group stages/knockout (both CCC and CCL): Win = 3 points Draw = 1 point Loss = 0 points I used the CCC from 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008, and the results thus far in the 2008-09 CCL. Using the numbers and tournaments above, I got each individual club's coefficient. Then, in order to get the national coefficient, I (stop me if you lose me), took the number of teams each country had in the team coefficient table, took the total coefficient of that country's teams, and averaged them to get the national coefficient. Then (because this alone gave Canada the top spot), I took how many years out of the 5 that I was using to calculate that the respective country placed a team in either the knockout stages of the CCC or the group stages of the CCL. I took the national coefficient, multiplied it with the number of years, to get the final coefficient, one that I think accurately reflects the play and quality of the leagues in CONCACAF.
In the end, I got these coefficients for teams - and if anyone can tell me how to put all of the years in table form (much like the MLS Attendance Analysis), I'll put up all of my information. Deportivo Saprissa (CRC) - 39.5 UNAM Pumas (MEX) - 29 Pachuca (MEX) - 22 D.C. United (USA) - 22 Marathon (HON) - 19.5 Atlante (MEX) - 17 Houston Dynamo (USA) - 17 Montreal Impact (CAN) - 16 Cruz Azul (MEX) - 16 Olimpia (HON) - 14.5 Puerto Rico Islanders (PUR) - 14.5 Club America (MEX) - 14 Santos Laguna (MEX) - 13 Municipal (GUA) - 12.5 Alajuelense (CRC) - 10.75 Toluca (MEX) - 10 Tauro (PAN) - 10 Chivas de Guadalajara (MEX) - 9 Joe Public FC (TRI) - 9 L.A. Firpo (ELS) - 8.75 Harbour View (JAM) - 7.75 Puntarenas (CRC) - 6.75 Monterrey (MEX) - 6 W Connection (TRI) - 6 San Francisco FC (PAN) - 4.25 Motagua (HON) - 4 San Juan Jabloteh (TRI) - 3.75 Portmore United (JAM) - 2.25 Perez Zeledon (CRC) - 1.5 Marquense (GUA) - 1.5 Deportivo Jalapa (GUA) - 1.5 Victoria (HON) - 1.5 Tivoli Gardens (JAM) - 1.5 Robinhood (SUR) - 1.5 Kansas City (USA) - 1 Los Angeles Galaxy (USA) - 1 New England Revolution (USA) - 1 FAS (ELS) - 0.75 Suchitepequez (GUA) - 0.75 Real Espana (HON) - 0.75 Xelaju (GUA) - 0.75 Centro Barber (NAT) - 0.75 Northern United (STL) - 0.75 Inter Moengotapoe (SUR) - 0.75 Metapan (ELS) - 0.5 Real Esteli (NIC) - 0.5 Chivas USA (USA) - 0.5
Given those numbers, my final national coefficients: Mexico - 75.5556 Costa Rica - 73.1250 Honduras - 40.2500 United States - 35.4167 Canada - 16.0000 Puerto Rico - 14.5000 Guatemala - 13.6000 Trinidad & Tobago - 12.5000 Jamaica - 11.5000 Panama - 7.1250 El Salvador - 3.3333 Suriname - 0.0000 Netherlands Antilles - 0.0000 St. Lucia - 0.0000 Nicaragua - 0.0000 The only obvious outliers here are Canada and Puerto Rico, but I figure that could be corrected by, rather than multiplying by the number of YEARS a country has been in the knockout stages of the CCC or the group stages of the CCL, use the number of teams. That, however, gives an unfair advantage to the US and Mexico, as they both had 2 guaranteed teams every year in the CCC, and still do in the CCL. So, take my numbers for what they're worth. Choose to ignore them, feel free to analyze both them and the system I used. I welcome all questions and comments. EDIT: Using that other proposed method, we get... Mexico - 181.3333 Costa Rica - 87.7500 United States - 70.8333 Honduras - 48.3000 Canada - 16.0000 Puerto Rico - 14.5000 Panama - 14.2500 Guatemala - 13.6000 Trinidad & Tobago - 12.5000 Jamaica - 11.5000 El Salvador - 3.3333 Suriname - 0.0000 Netherlands Antilles - 0.0000 St. Lucia - 0.0000 Nicaragua - 0.0000 So I guess that doesn't really change much. Moves the US and Panama up a bit, but that's it.
Also, given those numbers, if CONCACAF were to use the same allocation for spots that they already use for the CCL: Mexico - 4 Costa Rica - 4 Honduras - 2 United States - 2 Canada - 2 Puerto Rico - 2 Guatemala - 2 Trinidad and Tobago - 1 Jamaica - 1 Panama - 1 Everyone else - 3 (perhaps a qualification tournament for the countries not included, where every country sends their league champion, top 3 teams qualify?)
By awarding points to the tems in the UNCAF and CFU tournaments you are unfairly handciapping the teams that did not participate in those tournaments. Country points should be. Total number of points won by teams from a country divided by total number of teams in the competition. I personally don't think awarding teams bonus points for reaching the group stage is a fair thing to do considering how few teams there are in the tournament. Consider UEFA it is a much greater accomplishment to make the group stage there because you have to navigate 2 or 3 rounds of qualifying. Awarding bonus points for group stage in concacaf means giving half the teams bonus points based on CONCACAFs arbitrary process of making the group stage. To me the simple formula should be this. For country coefficient: Only count the actual Champions league or champions cup when determining points. 2 points for a win, 1 for a draw. 1 bonus point for each team getting to the knockout round. Divide total points by number of teams in tournament. This is the totel points for the country from that year. Coefficient takes into account the points from the last five years. Club coefficient: Similarly to UEFA CL. Clubs get points only for group stages, 1 point for a draw, 2 for a win. 1 bonus point for reaching knockout stage. Add to points total over a 5 year period 1/4 of the country coefficient points.