For a long time, almost since gaining independence and the first opportunity for its clubs to play in international competitions, that is, since the summer of 2007, Montenegro has had four representatives in Europe.
Competitions have changed - once, alongside the Champions League, there was the UEFA Cup, since 2009 it has been replaced by the Europa League, and in 2021 the Conference League was introduced - but the number of our representatives on the international stage has not changed, it has been "fixed" - four teams.
Until the summer of 2023, when the long-standing poor results of our teams, with only occasional flashes (Zeta 2012, our only team that played in the play-off round of the qualifiers), came to an end - and Montenegro lost one representative in Europe, remaining with three teams.
Gloomy days, months, years of Montenegrin club football, and then, when our league hit rock bottom, a short-lived awakening followed. The brilliant European results of Mornar two summers ago, Dečić as well, with the occasional breakthrough of Buducnost and Sutjeska - lifted Montenegro and restored the "elevation" of the team in international competitions four times.
This is how the season is currently being played, in which almost half of the league - four out of nine teams, not counting Arsenal, which is suspended - will have a place in Europe next summer. The champion will play in the Champions League qualifiers, and the second and third-placed teams, as well as the Cup winner, will qualify for the Conference League. Such a league makes much more sense, the clubs have something to fight for, to invest in...
However, everything will only last one summer. This season, our teams' results were again devastating, with Buducnost leading the way, having a great chance to make a name for themselves in Europe as the seed in the Champions League qualifying draw, but were eliminated by the representatives of Armenia and Moldova.
And the consequences will again be catastrophic for our club football, because from the summer of 2027, Montenegro will return to three teams! And that number is, obviously, a harsh reality, a natural habit of Montenegrin football.
The national club coefficient is calculated by adding up the points won by clubs from a given country and dividing it by the number of participants from that country. To determine the overall coefficient of a country on the UEFA list, the clubs' results in the last five seasons are counted only.
Montenegro slipped to 51st place last night out of 55 European leagues, thanks to the jump of North Macedonia, whose champion Shkendija brought points with a victory over Shelburne (1:0) and enabled their country to make a considerable jump - an escape from the last five, whose countries each have three representatives.
Montenegro is, therefore, returning to the bottom - as things stand now, it will remain there for a longer period, and only the leagues of Gibraltar, Georgia, Wales and San Marino are ranked lower than ours.
For a new leap and a new escape from the "red zone", there are all chances, it will be necessary for one of our clubs to play in the league phase of the Conference League as soon as possible. Montenegro is the only ex-Yugoslav country, and among only three in Europe, along with Andorra and San Marino, whose teams have never played in the main phase of any of the three European competitions - can it be more devastating than that.
By forming the Conference League, UEFA has enabled even the lowest-ranked countries to play in the league phase, so teams from Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Wales, Northern Ireland, Malta... Europe, however, has not yet reached Montenegro.
51.
The Montenegrin league is ranked 1st in Europe, out of 55 countries, on UEFA's list of national club coefficients as of yesterday. Only Gibraltar, Georgia, Wales and San Marino are ranked lower than Montenegro.
Bonus video:
