(Note: Due to minimal action among club participants over the past week, the weekly WCR Top 25 will be passed over for the next installment in the WCR Annual Rankings. The weekly club ranking will return next week.)

As was demonstrated in 1982, when Uruguay's Penarol became the first South American club to finish atop the annual rankings, the 1980s were the glory years for South American clubs in the annual rankings. Click to continue reading...

(Note: Since there was only minimal club action this weekend involving the WCR Top 25 Clubs, I am posting the next in my series of Annual Rankings. I hope you enjoy it – or at least find it interesting. The WCR Top 25 Clubs list will return next week.)

In the past, I've started off writing about each year by discussing events in the UEFA Champions Cup tournament. Click to continue reading...

In 1981, for the third time in five years, Liverpool took home the Champions Cup trophy. This time Liverpool won the title by defeating Real Madrid 1-0 in Paris, France on an 82nd minute goal by Alan Kennedy. As was the case in 1978, however, Liverpool was unable to secure the top spot in the World Club Rankings in 1981, despite the European Championship, because of a fifth-place showing in domestic action. Click to continue reading...

One in a row wasn't enough for Ajax, Bayern Munich or Liverpool; what makes you think it would be enough for Nottingham Forest? If your answer was "nothing," then you are correct. The 1980 European Champions Cup saw Nottingham Forest not only reach the final at the Bernabeu in Madrid, it saw Forest defeat Hamburger in the final 1-0 on the leg of John Robertson, who scored the match's only goal in the twenty-first minute. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool was unable to follow in the footsteps of Ajax and Bayern Munich with a third consecutive Champions Cup title in 1979 as they fell in the first round of the tournament to fellow English club Nottingham Forest. Forest carried the national banner valiantly, however, moving past AEK Athens, Grasshopper Club and FC Cologne on their way to the championship match. Click to continue reading...

Following in the footsteps of Ajax and Bayern Munich, Liverpool repeated as European champion in 1978. This time they did it by continuing their dominance over Borussia Monchengladbach, who they defeated in the 1977 final and the 1978 semifinals, and over Club Brugge, who they defeated in the 1976 UEFA Cup final and again, 1-0, in the European Cup final at Wembley Stadium, with Kenny Dalglish providing the winning margin in the 65th minute. Click to continue reading...

In the quarterfinals of the 1977 Champions Cup, Soviet club Dynamo Kiev defeated Bayern Munich 2-1 in aggregate, ending Bayern's three-year run as European champions. Another West German club made it to the European Cup final, but Borussia Monchengladbach fell 3-1 in the final to Liverpool in Rome, Italy. Click to continue reading...

Not to be outdone by Ajax, Bayern Munich matched the run of the Dutch club by taking its third consecutive Champions Cup title in 1976. This time around, the game took place in Glasgow, Scotland, and Bayern defeated St. Etienne 1-0 on a second-half goal by Franz Roth. Once again, Bayern Munich failed to win the Bundesliga and failed to finish on top in the WCR rankings, though they did come closer in 1976, finishing third in both. Click to continue reading...

Dynasties continued to dominate, as dynasties are apt to do, in 1975. Even though it seems odd to say that the Champions Cup, with a final between two teams from two of the top leagues in the world, was anti-climactic – so I won't – but the final did pit the ninth-place team from England against the tenth-place team in the Bundesliga. Click to continue reading...

I'm not sure if 1974 is more fairly seen as a blip in the 1970s dominance of the Dutch or the year marking the rise of the Bundesliga and Bayern Munich. Both are probably fair to some degree. After three straight years as European champions and WCR Team of the Year, Ajax failed to win its domestic league and fell to CSKA Sofia in the second round of the Champions Cup. Click to continue reading...

In 1973, Ajax cemented its position as one of the all-time great clubs in European history by becoming the first club since Real Madrid in 1956-1960 to pull a three-peat of the European Champions Cup. It also became the first team to win the (not quite as coveted) World Club Rankings Team of the Year for three consecutive years. Click to continue reading...

1972 saw Total Football become entrenched in Europe as Ajax tried to become the first club to repeat as continental champions since Inter Milan pulled the trick in 1964 & 1965 by facing that team in the finals. Two second-half goals by Johan Cruyff were all that were necessary, actually the first one was all that was necessary, as Ajax defeated Internazionale 2-0. Click to continue reading...

Feyenoord won the Champions Cup in 1970, but was unable to secure the top spot in its domestic league and was, therefore, unable to claim the top spot in the WCR Top 25, settling for second. In 1971, Feyenoord was able to win its domestic title, but still had to settle for second in the WCR rankings, sitting behind fellow Dutch team Ajax

Ajax ran wild on the Dutch domestic league despite finishing second. Click to continue reading...

1970 was the year that the Dutch began their domination of the early part of the decade in European action. The Champions Cup came to Holland for the first of four consecutive seasons as Feyenoord defeated Celtic 2-1. It wasn't quite enough to deliver Feyenoord the distinction of being the WCR Team of the year since they managed to finish only second , behind Ajax, in domestic action. Click to continue reading...

Now that the weekly rankings have come to an end for the season, it's time to publish more of the annual rankings that have been an occasional fixture on this site.

After seeing United Kingdom powerhouses in the making Celtic and Manchester United take the Champions Cup titles in 1967 and 1968, the European Championship went back to the mainland in 1969. Click to continue reading...

Just as 1967 saw the rise to prominence of a European champion whose fan base remains strong to this day – Celtic – so did 1968. Despite falling in the Premiership to its cross-town rivals, English upstart Manchester United took advantage of home field advantage, playing before 100,000 fans at Wembley Stadium, to win its first European Champions Cup. Click to continue reading...

It's been a few months since I posted an annual Top 25. The primary reason for this is because I'm saving them for the summer when the Weekly Top 25s (and the Weekly Television Schedule for the most part) go into hiatus. Now seems like a good time for an update, however.

1967 was the year that one of the world's most popular teams became such as Celtic defeated Inter Milan 2-1 in the Champions Cup final to win the European championship and, incidentally, end Internazionale's two-year run as the best team in the world. Click to continue reading...

1966 saw old champions knock long-time defending champions out of the throne to return to their rightful spots. In the Copa Libertadores, Penarol knocked off River Plate in the finals to replace two-time defending champion Independiente and become the first club with three titles. Likewise, in Europe, Real Madrid knocked out two-time defending champion (and current number one)Internazionale in the semis on its way to winning an unprecedented sixth Champions Cup.

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In 1965, Internazionale won its second consecutive Champions Cup, defeating Benfica 1-0 in the final at the San Siro. It also marked the first time that Inter Milan finished at the top of the annual WCR Annual Top 25. (They are seeking to do it again in 2008 as they are the current number one in the weekly rankings.

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You voted and I listened. Actually, I determined the year-end World Club Rankings 2007 Top 25 and then posted a meaningless poll in which you participated and, strictly by coincidence, Manchester United came in tops in both. In the vote, Arsenal actually received more than 20 percent of the vote.

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Now seems like a good time to enter Volume 5 of what will be 48 volumes sometime next week and likely 49 volumes by the time this is completed. This edition is the first truly WORLD club rankings because, unlike 1960-1963, South American teams are added.

As you may have noticed, the primary entries on this blog are weekly Top 25s, but the formulas used were created primarily to determine annual rankings. Click to continue reading...

If you've come here looking for this weekend's schedule for the Top 25, as advertised by our generous friends at Soccer Source, click here. If you've come here looking for the most recent World Club Rankings Top 25 list, click here. If you've come here looking for the home of the greatest half smoke on the planet, click here.

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Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!!! Unless, of course, you're English, in which case (a) it's not Thanksgiving and (b) you're probably not happy. As somebody who was relatively disinterested, I have to say that yesterday's game with Croatia was as exciting a game as I had hoped it would be.

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I'd like to take a second and congratulate the Houston Dynamo on their victory over the Revolution this afternoon to take the MLS Cup at RFK. I have to admit that it was nice to see a team from New England finally lose a game in ANY sport, for a change. The day was sunny, but it was a little cool at the stadium.

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I've applied my formulas for world clubs for each year going back to 1960. Unfortunately, I don't have enough South American data to adequately rank those teams until 1964, so from 1960-1963, the list consists of European teams only. Lots of people think those are the only ones that matter.

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