Three years after becoming the first Maltese side to take part in the main round of UEFA’s Futsal Champions League, Luxol St Andrews secured the highest European ranking for a local side after being classified as the 10th-best team in the latest UEFA Coefficient ranking ahead of the new season.
Malta ranks at number 44 when it comes to its National Team while Portugal hold the top spot. The latter is reflected more clearly when considering Sporting Lisbon are Europe’s top club and Benfica are third, with Spanish giants Barcelona in between as they hold second place.
After the coefficient rankings were published, Luxol called it an ‘incredible milestone’.
“Amazing news for Luxol St Andrews Futsal!!” a statement Thursday on the club’s socials read.
“The club has ranked 10th in Europe. Thank you to all those that over the years have contributed towards this incredible milestone.”
Luxol are coming off the back of a statement season, winning the Maltese Futsal League for a seventh time as well as the Super Cup. They also faced European top-three sides Benfica and Barcelona in the Champions League and had their largest European victory of 5-0 against Dutch side Hovocubo.
Coach Gabriel Dobre, Celino Alves and Andy Mangion all won honours in the latest edition of the FMA Awards in May.
This coming season, they head straight into the main round of the Champions League with the draws taking place on Wednesday.
Luxol, taking Path A – with the top-ranked clubs including current title holders AE Mallorca Palma Futsal into the competition, will be in Pot 11 with Kazakh side MFC Ayat, Hungarians Haladas VSE, and United Galati of Romania.
From the draws, coming after the preliminary round which fills up the remaining spots of the main round, the Maltese side’s group will be determined.
The competition begins for Luxol in October with matches taking place from October 24-29. The top three teams of each group will go through. Were Luxol to qualify for the Elite round, they would play matches from November 28-December 3. The finals would eventually take place in May.
Full coefficient ranking HERE
