Barcelona best team in modern football era

The International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) has put together an all-time club world ranking.

For reasons stated below the ranking only covers the period from 1 January 1991 until 31 December 2008.




1. Barcelona (Spain) 757
2. Manchester United (England) 678
3. Juventus (Italy) 621
4. AC Milan (Italy) 611
5. Real Madrid (Spain) 605
6. Inter Milan (Italy) 567
7. Bayern Munich (Germany) 563
8. Arsenal (England) 550
9. River Plate (Argentina) 503
10. Chelsea (England) 442
11. Liverpool (England) 435
12. Porto (Portugal) 425
13. Boca Juniors (Argentina) 420
14. AS Roma (Italy) 405
15. Ajax Amsterdam (Holland) 400
16. Parma (Italy) 373
17. São Paulo (Brazil) 367
--. Valencia (Spain) 367
19. Glasgow Rangers (Scotland) 364
20. Lazio Roma (Italy) 342


See the full ranking here



An All-time Club World Ranking can only be meaningful and useful if it can be determined by taking account all the results of the national championships, the national cup competitions, the club competitions of the six continental confederations and the FIFA. It is therefore only possible to determine an All-time Club World Ranking from January 1st, 1991 – when the Club World Ranking began taking all these details into consideration.

The period from 1872 to 1990 can only be asssessed subjectively, mostly by using national and international champions as a guide. It follows that teams placed in the individual competitions cannot be taken into consideration, even if their titles were won easily or in spite of many defeats. It is simply not possible to establish a basis for giving all participating clubs an equal opportunity for the period 1872 to 1990.

The IFFHS has therefore has decided, logically, that the All-time Club World Ranking should be determined from January 1st, 1991 using the annual Club World Ranking (the situation at 31st December annually). For this it will take into consideration the "Top 50 Clubs", annually and award them points from 50 points for the top club down to 1 point for the club in 50th place. Adding the points from the individual years for each club will provide the All-time Club World Ranking.