The Dean

WTF???

How do the so-called seedings work? Apparently a key element in the process is something called the UEFA Coefficient which is a sort of quality index based on recent performances in European competitions. Oh that's all right then.........

Today's draw for the group stages produced Man Utd having to face Braga, Galatasaray and CFR Cluj while Man City have to face Real Madrid, Ajax Amsterdam and Borussia Dortmund

All four teams in MC's group are champions of four of the strongest leagues in Europe.............. if they win the thing from that group, they really will deserve to be called Champions of Europe...........

Miss Anne Thrope

The coefficient thing is based on points gained by whatever stage of the various UEFA competitions a team has reached in the past 5 (I think) years. Hence City still have a relatively lowly ranking and Arsenal who have consistently made it out of the group stages (albeit rarely much further) are still in the first pot. It's a bit arsey but at least you can work it out (said points have in the past been calculated and cross-checked in our laugh-a-minute funtastic household, oh yes) and it has some transparent logic.

What baffled me which I don't remember noticing so much from previous Champions League draws was the number of restrictions on which teams could be assigned to which groups. OK, so the country thing is obvious. But why, for example, when Ajax were drawn from the third pot could they only be assigned to Real Madrid's group when other groups still had open slots and there was no other Dutch team in the draw. There were several other instances where the choice of group available when a team was drawn seemed very limited for no obvious reason. Even the BF, who is a complete football anorak (see above), was at a loss... Anybody?