Portugal finished fourth this season. Spain secured the extra spot tonight, joining England. Sporting Braga was the Portuguese club that contributed the most in 2025/26. Next season, the advantage over the Netherlands increases considerably, but decreases over Belgium, which rises to seventh place.
Portugal ended the 2025/26 season in European competitions this Thursday, with the elimination of Sporting Braga in the semi-finals of the Europa League, finishing with a total of 20,500 points, the best season ever for Portugal in terms of points . This record translates to fourth place for Portugal in the UEFA season ranking.
Portugal’s performance came close to securing an extra spot in the Champions League group stage next season, but those will go to England and Spain . With Rayo Vallecano’s qualification for the Conference League final, Spain secured second place for the season and joined England as the two countries that secured this additional spot. Portugal had already been eliminated from contention for that top=two finish last week, and tonight, even with Freiburg’s qualification for the Europa League final, Germany can no longer overtake Spain. With this guarantee for Spain tonight, Atlético de Madrid secured qualification for next season’s Champions League, as they will always finish in the top 5. They join 12 other clubs that had already qualified, including FC Porto .
UEFA Ranking for 2025/26 (Top two secure extra spot):
1st: England, 28,125 (still has 3 clubs)
2nd: Spain, 22,094 (still has 1 club)
3rd: Germany, 21,786 (still has 1 club)
4th: Portugal, 20,500
5th: Italy, 19,000
6th: France, 18,178 (still has 1 club)
7th: Poland, 15,750
8th: Greece, 14,200
9th: Denmark, 12,250
10th: Cyprus, 12,156
Sporting Braga contributed the most to the ranking this season.
Of the 20.500 coefficient that Portugal achieved this season, the biggest contribution came from Sp. Braga, followed by Sporting, FC Porto, Benfica and, finally, Santa Clara.
Even after dividing the points earned through wins, draws, and qualifications, Sporting Braga contributed 6,450 points for ranking purposes. Sporting contributed 5,500, FC Porto 4,800, Benfica 3,150, and Santa Clara 0.600.
Already in sixth place… how does the next season begin?
Having already overtaken the Netherlands in sixth place in the UEFA ranking (based on a five-year plan) during the 2025/26 season, it’s also important to look at how the 2026/27 season will start in those same rankings, which no longer include performances from 2021/22. This comes after Portugal more than doubled the points of the Netherlands this season, who totaled 9,979.
Now, Portugal will be without the 12,916 points from 2021/22 for the start of the 2026/27 season, but the outlook is encouraging because the Netherlands will lose their best season in the last five , that is, 19,200 points. And the Dutch will actually move up to eighth place, given that Belgium will only deduct 6,600 points from 2021/22.
Thus, Portugal, which currently has 73,166 points compared to the Netherlands’ 67,929 (a lead of 5,237), will start the 2026/27 season with 60,250 points, compared to the Dutch team’s 48,729 (an increase of 11,521). In other words, the advantage more than doubles with the removal of the 2021/22 figures. On the other hand, the advantage over Belgium , currently eighth in the ranking with 62,250 points, will decrease considerably , as the Belgians will miss their worst season in the last five and will start the 2026/27 season in seventh place in the UEFA ranking with 55,650 points, well ahead of the Netherlands and 4,600 points behind Portugal.
Looking upwards, towards France’s fifth place, Portugal will close the gap , as the French will also lose the 18,416 points from 2021/22 and will have 64,939 points, which could still be a maximum of 65,224 (up 0.285) if PSG wins the Champions League this season. In other words, in the worst-case scenario, Portugal will start 2026/27 4,974 points behind the French.