Fifth Champions League place for Premier League? Now hanging in the balance | OneFootball

An interesting week regarding Champions League qualification hopes for next season,

The new look extended Champions League next season will have more clubs qualifying and potentially a fifth from the Premier League.

This all depends though on which countries gets the best set of results from their clubs this  season, in all three European competitions.

A complicated formula (see below) decide on each league’s ‘co-efficient rankings’ and the top two rated countries this season, get an extra Champions League place next season.

This midweek saw the following European results for English clubs:

Arsenal 2 Bayern Munich 2

Real Madrid 3 Man City 3

Bayer Leverkusenn 2 West Ham 0

Aston Villa 2 Lille 1

Liverpool 0 Atalanta 3

UEFA co-efficient rankings now updated as per ESPN:

1) Italy – 18.428

2) Germany – 16.785

3) England – 16.750

4) Spain – 15.062

5) France – 14.750

As you can see, Italy in a very strong position at the very top of the rankings.

Then it is increasingly looking like Germany or England for the other extra Champions League place.

Everything depends on the European results from this point…

Premier League official site report – 15 December 2023:

Two leagues in Europe will be rewarded with an extra place in the revamped UEFA Champions League (UCL) next season based on the record of their clubs in all of UEFA’s competitions this campaign.

So, for the Premier League, this could lead to the top five clubs entering the 2024/25 UCL rather than the traditional top four.

How does it work? UEFA calculates which two leagues will be rewarded by adding up coefficient points based on the performances of clubs from each league across the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League.

Every win, no matter the competition, earns each league two points, while a draw gets one point, and there are no points for defeat.

The further that teams progress in their competitions, additional bonus points are awarded, which are weighted according to the competition.

Champions League bonus points Group stage – four Round of 16 – five Quarter-final, semi-final, final – one

Europa League bonus points Group winners – four Group runners-up – two Round of 16, quarter-final, semi-final, final – one

Europa Conference League bonus points Group winners – two Group runners-up – one Semi-final, final – one

The points of all participating clubs are totalled and then divided by the number of clubs who started the season in UEFA competitions, to calculate the coefficient average.’

This is how the Premier League table currently looks on Saturday (13 April 2024) morning::

As you you can see, currently it looks very much between Aston Villa and Tottenham, in the battle for fourth and fifth and guaranteed /  potential Champions League qualification.