Montenegro loses one representative in Europe, the champion will have to pre-qualify

The consequences of the bad, disastrous results of our clubs on the European football scene are slowly arriving.

No Montenegrin club has seen August in Europe this summer: Buducnost was embarrassed against HB Torshavn in the 2nd round of qualification for the Conference League and lost with a total score of 6:0 (previously it lost smoothly in the qualification for the LŠ with a total of 7:1 against Helsinki), Podgorica was eliminated from Albania's Ljači in the first round, and Dečić from Kosovo's Drita.

Only Sutjeska eliminated the second division team from Georgia, Gagra, in the 1st round of qualification for the Conference League, but in the second round, albeit with good resistance, they laid down their weapons against the favored Maccabi from Tel Aviv.

In total - two wins, two draws and even eight losses brought Montenegro a coefficient for this season of only 0,75 - which is better only than the performance of clubs from North Macedonia and San Marino, and equal to the performance of teams from Gibraltar and Luxembourg.

The national coefficient is calculated by adding up all points won by clubs from a given country, and dividing by the number of participants from that country.

Since, to determine the total coefficient of the country on the UEFA list, the results of the clubs are counted only in the last five seasons, this means that this summer the results from the 2016/17 season are "deleted" and are counted in the following five - 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2020/21.

For our clubs, the performance is devastating - Telekom 1. The Montenegrin football league is currently 52, out of 55 countries, and only the leagues of Estonia, Andorra and San Marino are ranked lower.

And that's not all - when the results from the 2017/18 season are "selected" next summer and the "hunt" for new points starts, Montenegro will start - from the penultimate place in Europe. The San Marino league will be ranked lower.

As all our clubs have already been eliminated from the European scene, and this summer they cannot increase the coefficient, Telekom 1. CFL will be the penultimate league in Europe in June next year - it is official!

The positions in the European Cups for the next season, 2022/23, were determined earlier, and the "battle" for the starting positions in the 2023/24 season is ongoing.

Given that the Montenegrin teams have already been eliminated from European competitions, and are out of the fight for points, it is clear that in the summer of 2023, Montenegro will lose one representative on the European stage, namely in the Conference League - instead of three, they will have two team.

Also, the Montenegrin champion, as the champion of one of the four lowest ranked leagues, will have to play pre-qualifications for the Champions League from the summer of 2023.

It is a tournament that is played at the end of June, and this summer the champions of Kosovo (Pristina), Faroe Islands (HB Torshavn), Andorra (Inter Escaldes) and San Marino (Folgore) participated in it.

Last week, therefore, the last season of the Telekom 1. CFL began, from which four teams will go to the European stage. That number will be reduced by one place from the next one.

The struggle to regain the lost position will be long and arduous...