Liverpool miss top seeding

Liverpool will not be among the top seeds in today's Champions' League draw despite having qualified automatically.

Gérard Houllier's side were one of the top eight seeds last year, when they had to qualify after finishing third in the Premiership, but this season will have to settle for being one of the eight teams in the second rank. Arsenal and Manchester United will both be among the top seeds, meaning they will avoid playing the likes of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich in the first group stage.

The seedings are worked out through Uefa's complicated coefficient system which awards points for a club's success in European competition over the previous five seasons, with the Champions' League given far more weight than the Uefa Cup.

Last season, the defeat of Parma in the qualifying round of the Champions' League enabled Liverpool to sneak in as a top seed. This season, four Italian clubs should be in the last 32 and the Spanish champions Valencia, who missed out last season, are also there while the beaten finalists Bayer Leverkusen now have a higher ranking than Houllier's Premiership runners-up.

The draw, which takes place in Monaco at 3pm, is virtually certain to use the same system as in previous years. In that case, the 32 contestants will be drawn into eight groups of four. Each group will contain a team from one of the eight top seeds, plus a team from second, third and fourth-ranked sides.

UEFA RANKINGS AND COEFFICIENT: 1 Real Madrid (Sp) 147.233; 2 Bayern Munich (Ger) 133.495; 3 Man Utd (Eng) 125.729; 4 Barcelona (Sp) 116.233; 5 Valencia (Sp) 106.233; 6 Juventus (It) 91.334; 7 Arsenal (Eng) 90.729; 8 Internazionale (It) 88.334; 9 Deportivo La Coruña (Sp) 82.233; 10 Bayer Leverkusen (Ger) 81.495; 11 Liverpool (Eng) 79.729; 12 Galatasaray (Tur) 78.362; 13 Roma (It) 77.334; 14 Lyon (Fr) 74.176; 15 Borussia Dortmund (Ger) 73.495; 16 Feyenoord (Hol) 70.082. Others: 27 Newcastle (Eng) 43.729; 29 Celtic (Sco) 36.062.