More Proof The IFFHS Is Garbage: 2008-09 Final Club Rankings.

By: chris | June 4th, 2009

Yeah, yeah, yeah – no need for further reexamination. But this one’s good – promise.

There was a little game last week, some of you may have heard. Champions League final or something. And Barcelona, the team we’ve been gushing about all year, put in a thoroughly dominating performance despite being, at least according to the British press, underdogs.

But last we checked, it didn’t end in a draw.

The whole thing beggars belief, as usual, but it’s certainly worth a look to wonder just how in the hell they finished wiped off the debris, looked at it and said, “yep, looks about right”.

The top 25:

1. (2.) FC Barcelona España/4 315,0
(1.) Manchester United FC England/4 315,0
3. (3.) Chelsea FC London England/4 276,0
4. (6.) Liverpool FC England/4 248,0
5. (5.) Arsenal FC London England/4 247,0
6. (10.) FC Shakhtyor Donetsk Ukraina/3 245,5
7. (7.) Dinamo Kyiv Ukraina/3 234,5
8. (11.) Club Estudiantes de La Plata Argentina/4 232,0
9. (8.) Hamburger SV Deutschland/4 228,0
10. (16.) Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto-Alegrense Brasil/4 222,0
11. (4.) CA Boca Juniors Buenos Aires Argentina/4 218,0
12. (13.) Juventus FC Torino Italia/4 215,0
13. (11.) FC Bayern München Deutschland/4 211,0
14. (15.) SV Werder Bremen Deutschland/4 210,0
15. (9.) São Paulo FC Brasil/4 199,0
16. (32.) SC Internacional Porto Alegre Brasil/4 198,0
17. (45.) Cruzeiro EC Belo Horizonte Brasil/4 193,0
18. (14.) FC Internazionale Milano Italia/4 191,0
19. (20.) Manchester City FC England/4 190,0
20. (21.) Olympique de Marseille France/4 189,0
21. (27.) Udinese Calcio Italia/4 187,0
22. (24.) Club Atlético de Madrid España/4 185,0
23. (35.) SE Palmeiras São Paulo Brasil/4 184,0
24. (31.) FC do Porto Portugal/3 182,5
25. (30.) PFC CSKA Moscow Russia/3 181,0

So that’s Barcelona and Manchester United on par with one another, despite ample evidence to the contrary.

And this before we discuss not one but two Ukrainian teams in the top 10 and Hamburg above, well, everyone in Germany despite finishing 5th in the Bundesliga. And Werder made the top 15 for failing to crack the top half of the Bundestable as well. Meanwhile, Juventus are better than Inter because they just won the scudetto.

Much like FIFA’s monthly rankings, this thing’s in shambles. So you’ll just need to wait until next week for our rankings and a definitive answer. (Plus a paper trophy out of construction paper.)

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Category: World Football

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Anthony

19. (20.) Manchester City FC England/4 190,0

What the fuck?
andersen

damn i meant to type 19th, wish there was an editing function.
andersen

Seriously?

Man City in 19th?

10th place in EPL no trophies in 33 years= 10th best in the world?

Good catch, ryan.
sscouser

It really is like comparing apples and oranges. The rankings themselves are only as good as the criteria used for ranking. They can be extremely deceptive, making it appear that there is an objective valid evaluation process going on when, in fact, there isn't.

If you do work, I am sure you’ve heard about performance appraisal rankings. The core element of the use of rankings is that employees are compared to each other, and given some number that supposedly indicates whether they are better than, about the same, or less effective than their colleagues. That ranking is often used to determine who will receive pay raises from a limited pool of money, or for other decision-making processes.
The criteria for ranking can range from specific and objective to totally fuzzy and subjective. For example, it is possible to rank sales staff objectively, in terms of the sales generated in a year, and identify the top salesperson, the next best, down to the bottom based on some reasonably meaningful numbers. Or, one can rank people on a set of fuzzy criteria such as "gets along well with team members".

Ranking employees, particularly for determining promotion, and pay, or even for providing developmental feedback simply makes no sense. It is not a neutral process. I will not go into details.

Ranking Clubs playing in different competitions is mathematically impossible and therefore not objective.
Even if they play in the same competition, sometimes they don't play one another. So how do you rank them? Just guess? Also, I think it is wrong to use a League Table for ranking purposes.

Rankings? Pssssssssssssssst!!!!!!!!!!!!! Are you kidding me?

"As a final note, somewhere on this planet there are people who use rankings and swear by them" - Anonymous
Ryan

Manchester City in 19th?
OhYes

Gremio lost 2-1 to SC Inter 3 times in 2 different competitions.

In Brazil's Serie A, SC inter is in 1st (4-0-0) and Gremio is 13th (1-1-2) with one of the losses coming from SC Inter.

So of course it would make complete sense to have SC Inter in 16th and Gremio in 10th.
Empshel

I much prefer www.worldclubrankings.com, but I'm biased. In any event, IFFHS always has been skewed by giving way too much weight to domestic cups and the UEFA Cup. (And, this year apparently, the group stage of the Copa Libertadores.) I'm not sure how much credit you can give to a ranking that omits AC Milan, yet has Udinese in the Top 25, but maybe that's just me.