Ten seasons at the top: Spain's record run in the UEFA coefficient ranking
Spain led the UEFA country coefficient table for ten seasons in a row, 1956/57 to 1965/66. England, Germany and Italy have each managed nine, and England's current run stands at seven.
Five associations have ever topped the UEFA country coefficient table: France, for the first season only, and Spain, England, Germany and Italy for the seventy-one since. The longest spell at the top is Spain’s: ten seasons in a row, from 1956/57 to 1965/66. Nobody has matched it in the sixty seasons that followed. England (1966/67 to 1974/75), Germany (1975/76 to 1983/84) and Italy (1990/91 to 1998/99) each stopped at nine.
How the run began
The first table, for 1955/56, had one Spanish club in it, and that club had won the European Cup. Real Madrid’s 13 points were as many as any club earned that season, and Spain still finished second: France had the same 13.0, and the table’s order put France first. A season later Athletic Bilbao joined Real Madrid in Europe, Spain reached 25 points against Italy’s 21, and the lead it took then it did not give up for a decade.
Leaders, 1955/56 to 1967/68
five-season totals| Season | First | Total | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1955/56 |  France | 13.000 | 0.000 |
| 1956/57 |  Spain | 25.000 | 4.000 |
| 1957/58 | Spain | 35.333 | 4.833 |
| 1958/59 | Spain | 48.333 | 12.333 |
| 1959/60 | Spain | 70.833 | 30.333 |
| 1960/61 | Spain | 68.333 | 26.667 |
| 1961/62 | Spain | 71.933 | 37.267 |
| 1962/63 | Spain | 68.433 | 35.933 |
| 1963/64 | Spain | 66.833 | 27.133 |
| 1964/65 | Spain | 52.333 | 9.205 |
| 1965/66 | Spain | 53.333 | 10.651 |
| 1966/67 |  England | 45.482 | 3.749 |
| 1967/68 | England | 49.016 | 5.351 |
Who earned it
The points were Real Madrid’s first, and by a distance: five European Cups in a row, 1955/56 to 1959/60, and a sixth in 1965/66, the last season of the run. But the margin came from elsewhere. Barcelona won the Fairs Cup in 1957/58, 1959/60 and 1965/66; Valencia in 1961/62 and 1962/63; Real Zaragoza in 1963/64; Atlético Madrid took the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1961/62. A Spanish club won a European trophy in eight of the ten seasons.
The high point was 1961/62. Five Spanish clubs entered, and all three finals had one of them in it: Real Madrid lost the European Cup final, Atlético won the Cup Winners’ Cup, and the Fairs Cup final was Valencia against Barcelona. Spain’s 71.933 that season was 37.267 clear of England in second, the widest gap of the whole run.
Spain, 1955/56 to 1967/68
rank and totals by season| Season | Rank | Five-season total | Season coeff. | Clubs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1955/56 | 2 | 13.000 | 13.000 | 1 |
| 1956/57 | 1 | 25.000 | 12.000 | 2 |
| 1957/58 | 1 | 35.333 | 10.333 | 3 |
| 1958/59 | 1 | 48.333 | 13.000 | 2 |
| 1959/60 | 1 | 70.833 | 22.500 | 2 |
| 1960/61 | 1 | 68.333 | 10.500 | 2 |
| 1961/62 | 1 | 71.933 | 15.600 | 5 |
| 1962/63 | 1 | 68.433 | 6.833 | 6 |
| 1963/64 | 1 | 66.833 | 11.400 | 5 |
| 1964/65 | 1 | 52.333 | 8.000 | 7 |
| 1965/66 | 1 | 53.333 | 11.500 | 6 |
| 1966/67 | 2 | 41.733 | 4.000 | 7 |
| 1967/68 | 3 | 41.566 | 6.666 | 6 |
How it ended
In 1966/67 seven Spanish clubs entered and came back with 28 points between them, a season coefficient of 4.0 and the poorest season of the spell by some way. England went top on 45.482 to Spain’s 41.733. Spain was ninth by 1970/71, tenth a year later, and did not lead the table again until 1999/2000.
The nine-season runs, and the one still running
Three countries have come within a season of the record. England took over from Spain and stayed first through 1974/75; Germany followed for nine more, to 1983/84; Italy led from 1990/91 to 1998/99. Spain itself has two further runs of eight, 1999/2000 to 2006/07 and 2012/13 to 2019/20, which is how it comes to have been first in 26 of the 72 seasons in the table, against England’s 22, Italy’s 13, Germany’s 10 and France’s one.
England has led since 2020/21. The 2026/27 table, after the qualifying rounds, has England on 102.019 and Italy on 87.874, so the season in progress is the seventh of the run. Nine, level with the three runs above, would take it to the end of 2028/29; Spain’s ten needs 2029/30 as well, and only 2030/31 would beat it.
Coefficients 2026/27
top 5 of 55
Reading the numbers
The table has been scored in several different ways over seventy years, so a total from the 1960s is not on the scale of one from today: ranks compare across the decades, points do not. In the first five seasons the total is the running sum of every season to date, which is why it climbs from 13 to 70 and then settles. All figures are as the table stood on 30 August 2026, with the 2026/27 season in progress; the season pages linked above carry the full tables.