Premier League: Does sixth place qualify for Europa League? | OneFootball

The final day of the 2023/24 Premier League season threw up a fair amount of drama as teams contested the title, European places and relegation.

The Champions League qualifiers had long been decided bar Aston Villa, who secured a top-four berth after Tottenham Hotspur's defeat to Manchester City. That left Spurs battling for fifth place, with the likes of Chelsea, Newcastle United and Manchester United all hopeful of sealing their spots in either the Europa League or Conference League.

While sixth is usually enough to guarantee Europa League football, Chelsea have a little bit of waiting to do before knowing for certain which UEFA competition they will contest in 2024/25.

Does sixth place in the Premier League qualify for Europa League?

Chelsea will play in Europe next season / Ryan Pierse/GettyImages

Provisionally, sixth place is a Europa League position in the Premier League. Chelsea finished there after a fine late season run of form and have secured European football of some sort, though they have to wait until the result of the FA Cup final to find out whether they will play in UEFA's second-tier competition or drop down in the Conference League.

The winners of the FA Cup automatically claim a spot in the following campaign's Europa League. Manchester United, who will contest the showpiece event at Wembley Stadium against local rivals Manchester City, finished outside the top seven, failing to qualify for European football through the league.

However, if they manage to overcome Pep Guardiola's title winners, the Red Devils would claim the second Europa League qualification spot alongside Tottenham Hotspur, who finished fifth. Such a result would see Chelsea stripped of their Europa League spot and dumped into the Conference League, where they would take the place of seventh-ranked Newcastle United who would go without any continental action in 2024/25.

Manchester City ended up claiming the Premier League title ahead of Arsenal on the final day of the season, with Liverpool falling out of contention around a month or so before the climax.

They all qualified for the Champions League alongside Aston Villa, who enjoyed a remarkable campaign under Unai Emery and ended up pipping Tottenham to a top-four place.

Spurs are definitely in next season's Europa League after coming fifth, while Chelsea and Newcastle still need to await the result of the FA Cup final to discover which competition they will play in or - in the latter's case - if they will travel around the continent at all.