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Welcome to a new series on annual football club rankings in the style of World Club Rankings using data from past seasons.
The methodology that we are using here is different from that used in our weekly rankings. Those rankings are based on statistical analyses made from a variety of sources that are collected from the web. For our annual rankings, we have created formulae that will use past data to rank clubs from past years. These are based on formulas that we have used for over a decade and have recently revised in the hopes of creating greater accuracy.
We use win/loss/draw data as well as goal differential in the determination of the rankings, as well as a league coefficient that is based on concurrent international club competitions. This is similar to the league coefficients used by UEFA, but have been modified for these purposes. In addition, performance in internationally recognized tournaments and domestic cup competitions are factored into the equations.
Because of the paucity of international competitions involving clubs across confederations, some assumptions about relative league strength have had to be made with respect to non-European leagues. We’ve done our best to make reasonable approximations due to the lack of a usable dataset, but reasonable minds can differ.
We have also decided to leave off clubs if there is no available information on the league or if no league existed. For instance, the (West) German Bundesliga did not exist until the 1963-64 season and the first Brazilian national league began in 1971. Because of the unavailability of enough matches at a national level, clubs from these countries are not eligible for the rankings until the national leagues have been created.
We will continue to bring these to you periodically, during the summer and weeks where there are international breaks, just to give you something to read during those times when we do not have new rankings available.
We hope you find this series enjoyable. As with all rankings like these, what you see here should be the beginning of the discussion, not the end of it.
World Club Rankings - Top 25 Clubs in the World - 1959-60
World Club Rankings - Top 25 Clubs in the World - 1960-61
World Club Rankings - Top 25 Clubs in the World - 1961-62
World Club Rankings - Top 25 Clubs in the World - 1962-63
World Club Rankings - Top 25 Clubs in the World - 1963-64
World Club Rankings - Top 25 Clubs in the World - 1964-65
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