Since there is an international break in club action this weekend, we are going to take advantage
of the break to bring the next entry in our series of Annual Club Rankings.
For the second time in three years, Juventus headed the top of the Annual Rankings despite
finishing as runner-up in the European Champions Cup.
A complete 360 took place in the 1996 rankings from 1995. In 1995, Ajax won the European Champions
Cup only to finish second to Juventus in the rankings because of the lower ranking of the
Eredivisie. In 1996, Juventus defeated Ajax on penalty kicks in the final of the European Champions
Cup, but still finished behind Ajax in the rankings because AC Milan was able to take the Serie A
title away from Juventus.
We'll be back early next week with our fourth annual World Club Ranking pre-season edition. In the
meantime, we'll return to a place where we haven't been in a while. The past.
In 1995, we saw an end to three consecutive years in which the top ranked club of the year was the
UEFA Champions Cup (now, Champions League) victor.
