The recent European affairs of AEK and its possibilities in view of the coming years were mentioned through his post by Andreas Dimatos.
The former Communications Manager of the “yellow and black” PAE and current UEFA executive in his analysis focused on the low coefficient of the “Union”, but also on the great opportunities that will be given to it if it increases it again. “From the new three-year period of the European competitions (2024-27) a sufficient factor could exempt AEK, for example, as the champion of Greece from the inconvenience of the qualifiers and send it directly to the groups, even if our country did not have a spot directly to the groups!“, he notes among other characteristics.
In detail, the post of Andreas Dimatos:
“The analyzes for the potential opponents and their potential are good, but both for AEK in the Champions League qualifiers and for the rest of our representatives in the European competitions, there is something else, which they have forgotten, and it has to do with their rate and the UEFA ranking.
And of course it does not honor Greek football nor the fact that three of its five representatives (AEK, Panathinaikos, Aris) participate with such a low coefficient that they would not (or will not) be strong even in the playoffs of the… underestimated by the other Conference Leagues, nor that the champion AEK with 11,000 points is behind in a coefficient of about thirty teams that won the title this season in the 54 European championships…
For Matias Almeida’s AEK, the European return to the group stage of a European competition is a given. Even with two inevitable eliminations in the crucial August – and with all the comfort of time for her planning and preparation – she knows that she will be at least in the groups of the UEFA Conference League!
Is that enough for her? No, clearly not! After the two summer eliminations (Trabzonspor and… Velez), last year’s painful European absence and a failed participation in the Europa groups three years ago with one win and five losses despite the triumphant qualification over Wolfsburg (the last European glimpse) AEK is again called upon to reaffirm its European identity, as it had signaled in the first years after its return with its completely successful participation in the Europa group of the season 2017-18 and qualification to the Champions League groups immediately after.
After the relegation and comeback adventure of 2015, AEK returned to Europe from 208th place in the standings, managed to improve its presence by 127 places three years ago to find itself in 81st place (mainly taking advantage of the 9,000 points of the 2017 season -18 with the European unbeaten run of 14 games), but from the strong minimum prospect of the top-50 he fell back to 134th place with just 11,000 coefficient points (with which he will compete in Europe this year) and starts this season even lower than 144th place in the European rankings and has only 7,000 points left on her coefficient…
What does this mean; That she will need two wins this year (we are talking about the main phase of the European competitions, since in the qualifiers the points go only to the country) just to rebuild this year’s lowest coefficient! Unless, of course, he achieves the big goal of qualifying for the Champions League groups, in which case he will only achieve it with the qualification bonus…
All this is of course mathematics but very important mathematics as the factor of the European coefficient and position in the UEFA standings is not only prestige. From the new three-year period of the European competitions (2024-27) a sufficient factor could exempt AEK, for example, as the champion of Greece from the inconvenience of the qualifiers and send it directly to the groups, even if our country did not have a spot directly to the groups!
How could this be? With the rebalancing that almost always takes place (when the holder of the trophy has both a place in the Champions League groups and from the league of his country) from the next season it is almost certain that the champion team with the highest coefficient from the path of the champions is favored of the preliminary phase.
Want an example so you don’t think we’re talking about miracles or behemoths? If we could move to the summer of 2024 with Manchester City or the European champion Inter, the Croatian champion Dinamo Zagreb, a candidate opponent of AEK and in the third qualifying round of the Champions League and also in the playoffs would… fly directly to the groups! At least based on the current planning by UEFA for the three years 2024-27!
AEK will again need a lot of work in order to build its European coefficient from scratch again after the very good 2017-18 season has left since its 5th year (when after many years it was again the first Greek team to offer points in coefficient of our country), while its participation in the groups of the Champions League, which had received the bonus of two victories only with its qualification over Vidi, also leaves from the next season.
And of course all this has a financial impact, especially when we talk about possible participation in Champions League groups. Where each position in the 10-year ranking of the 32 participating teams is also… an extra million euros. In the 2018-19 season, in its last participation, AEK was 32nd and the share from the coefficient bonus was one million. If all these years she had managed to improve her position and in this year’s event she had the 22nd best coefficient for example (very likely this year it will be very low), the one million euros of 2018 would be 10 million euros in 2023… And the confirmed 20 million revenues from participation in the groups would be… thirty!
All this requires work, but above all, consistency. AEK in 2018 had a different and very important priority, which was none other than their stadium. AEK of 2023 has better conditions to invest in its European perspective over time and not in one summer…».
Source: Sport Fm
I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
