Chelsea top the IFFHS club world rankings

European champions Chelsea FC reached the first position in International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) club rankings for the year 2012. Atlético Madrid who won the Europa League attained the second spot, followed by Champions League runners up Bayern Munich.

The top 10 list is given below:

Other notable mentions are Borussia Dortmund at 16, Manchester United at 19th and Liverpool at 25th position.

IFFHS has a special criteria for ranking which surprises one when Atlético Madrid are seen ahead of Barcelona who have more points than Real Madrid, even though the Blaugrana had a bad season last year by losing to arch rivals Los Blancos at their home ground, and also lost the domestic and the Champions League.

The main aspect of the IFFHS ranking is that it gives more importance to international cups than national leagues, giving the highest points to World Cup and then to Champions League. The detailed list of points awarded to each competitions is given in the list below: