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Of course, 1985 will always be known more for the Heysel Stadium disaster, in which 39 fans lost their lives and hundreds more were injured shortly before the final of the European Cup, than for the final itself. In the wake of that tragedy, European powerhouses Liverpool and Juventus played a controversial match in which the only score was a Michael Platini penalty kick that gave Juventus a 1-0 victory and the championship.

Next up on our countdown of World Club Ranking seasons in 1986. The 1985-86 season is known, in part, as the first season of the English Premier League's banishment from European football, which severely hurt them in the rankings eventually, though English clubs still managed to hold their own in 1986.

First off, I noticed that I forgot to put links to the international cup tournaments and to prior annual rankings in my post for 1989. If you read that post and noticed those missing, I have gone back to that post and remedied that. Sorry.

1990 seemed fairly similar to 1989 in the big scheme of things.

This installment of the Annual Rankings brings us to 1987. In the final rankings for 1987, a European club returns to the top of the rankings, though it was not the European Cup champion. That title belonged to the runners up in the Portuguese Liga, Porto, who defeated Bayern Munich 2-1 in the finals in Vienna by scoring two late goals to overcome a 0-1 halftime deficit.

There were a few continental milestones hit in 1988 with respect to the World Club Rankings annual rankings. One was a last, one was a first. The last was for CONMEBOL. Argentina's Newell's Old Boys became the final South American club to date to finish atop the World Club Rankings annual chart.

Since we didn't have many significant domestic league matches this week, and I have time to kill on a train from Amsterdam to Brussels, here is the next edition of our Annual Rankings. This time, we are up to 1989.

1989 was one of those seasons in which the European Cup winner did not manage to finish atop the World Club Rankings for the year.

(Note: Sorry that this is later than usual for the week, but the wifi in my current apartment in Buenos Aires is hit-and-miss and this week, mostly miss. I move this weekend and hopefully, this will improve.)

In 1991, for the seventh consecutive year, the club that won the Champions League did not finish on top of the World Club Rankings annual charts.

It's that time of year again. It's time for us to select the annual WCR Top 25 Clubs in the World and for us to select the 2009 WCR Club of the Year. For the third consecutive year, we have opened up voting on the top spot. In 2007, we received less than 100 votes. This season we have several hundred and we appreciate your interest.