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For the first time, five Premier League teams could qualify for the Champions League through their league position; traditionally, there have only been four clubs who have qualified through their league place and this is the last season before the new format comes in
The Premier League are in pole position for an additional Champions League place next season.
West Ham’s 5-1 aggregate win over Bundesliga side Freiburg has given England the upper hand over Germany.
For the first time, five Premier League teams could qualify for the Champions League through their league position. Traditionally, there have only been four clubs who have qualified through their league place.
This will be the final season of the existing format – 32 teams in the group phase, split into eight groups of four, with the top two progressing.
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The change will see 36 teams competing in the competition in a ‘Swiss league’ style, allowing for an additional place to be allocated to the two countries whose clubs perform best across all UEFA competitions.
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Italy (17.714) and Germany (16.357) currently hold those positions, with England (16.250) sitting third.
Why was West Ham beating Freiburg so significant?
Two leagues will get an extra place in the competition based on performances in Europe this season, which are measured by the coefficient rankings.
Clearly, with Germany placed just above England, there was more at stake for the wider audience when David Moyes’ side faced Freiburg.
It was essentially a straight coefficient shootout – and West Ham strengthened the Premier League’s coefficient ranking while weakening the Bundesliga’s. According to Opta, England now have a 70 per cent chance of getting an extra spot.
England has five teams left in Europe with Manchester City and Arsenal having already secured their place in the next phase of the Champions League, Liverpool and West Ham through in the Europa League and Aston Villa progressing to the last eight of the Europa Conference League.
Germany, who are still marginally ahead in the coefficient rankings, have only three teams remaining after Freiburg were eliminated by West Ham – Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League along with Champions League quarter-finalists Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
With Fiorentina progressing to the Europa Conference League quarter-finals, there are four Italian teams left standing with Atalanta (EL), AC Milan (EL), Roma (EL) and Fiorentina (ECL).
How are points awarded?
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From 32 to 36 – who gets the additional places?
- One place will go to the club ranked third in the championship of the association in fifth position in the UEFA national association ranking
- One place will be awarded to a domestic champion by extending from four to five the number of clubs qualifying via the so-called ‘Champions Path’
- The final two places will go to the associations with the best collective performance by their clubs in the previous season (total number of points obtained divided by the number of participating clubs)
Regarding the final bullet point, those two associations will earn one place for the club best ranked in the domestic league behind the Champions League positions.
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Aleksander Ceferin says the growing popularity of football in the USA could see a future Champions League final being hosted there. Credit: Men in Blazers Media Network @meninblazers
For example, based on the collective performance of their clubs last season, England and Italy would have both had an additional spot in the Champions League – meaning Liverpool and Atalanta – both fifth in their respective leagues – would have entered the competition.
How does this affect the other UEFA competitions?
Qualification for the two other UEFA competitions, the Europa League and Europa Conference League, will follow the same protocols as in previous years, albeit if the fifth spot qualifies for the Champions League, the Europa League spot will go to the team finishing sixth.
Similar format changes will also be applied to the Europa League (eight matches in the league stage) and Europa Conference League (six matches in the league stage) and both will also include 36 teams in the league phase.
If England receive five CL places, does the ECL spot go down to eighth?
Yes, it does – provided the domestic cups are won by those finishing inside the top seven as seen last season, with Manchester United winning the Carabao Cup and Manchester City winning the FA Cup.
Based on last season, eighth-placed Tottenham would have qualified for the Europa Conference League and Aston Villa would have been promoted to the Europa League.
How could this impact the 2024/25 domestic leagues schedules?
Given the Champions League will almost double in size – from a total of 125 games to 225 – at least four additional matchdays will be required to fit in the extra games. This will inevitably cause issues for domestic leagues, with fewer dates to fit in all their games.
How does the new Champions League format work?
Taking the total number of teams from 32 to 36 in the Champions League, the biggest change will see a transformation from the traditional group stage to a single league phase including all participating teams.
Every club will now be guaranteed a minimum of eight league-stage games against eight different opponents (four home games, four away) rather than the previous six matches against three teams, played on a home-and-away basis.
The top eight sides in the league will qualify automatically for the knockout stage, while the teams finishing in ninth to 24th place will compete in a two-legged play-off to secure their path to the last 16 of the competition.
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Has the Premier League had five CL participants before?
Previously in 2005, when Liverpool won the Champions League but finished outside the top four, the Premier League was granted five potential Champions League berths, with the caveat of having to go through qualifiers.
During the 2015/16 season, Spain became the first association to have five teams in the Champions League group stage after Sevilla lifted the Europa League, despite finishing outside the top four in LaLiga the previous campaign, while Valencia came through the play-off round.
Remarkably, there is even a chance – albeit an extremely unlikely one – of there being as many as seven Premier League clubs in the Champions League next season based on the change in rules.
That would require both the Champions League and Europa League winners to be from the Premier League and both teams finishing outside the top five in the top flight.
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