Race for the Top 4 - 2017/18

[EmperorKabir]

Are you sure this....

"So in short, a champions league winner finishing outside of the domestic league's CL positions will go into the CL again at the expense of the bottom placed CL awarded team who will get the EL instead, (again, at the expense of the bottom ranked EL awarded team who will get no european football)."

Still applies? I thought it was scrapped after the maximum five teams rule was introduced?

I'm fairly sure yes it does. I am happy to be shown that I am wrong though! This is one of the biggest issues I have with UEFA in that this rule was never updated. Merely that the Europa League spot was added.

 

[EmperorKabir]

EDITED AS I STAND CORRECTED


directly from UEFA for next season. Nothing here mentions a change to the max teams implying the daft Liverpool rule is still in place... ?


KEY CHANGES

• Twenty-six teams now gain direct entry to the UEFA Champions League group stage – including the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League winners – with six qualifying places available
• Every team eliminated in UEFA Champions League qualifying will get a second chance in the UEFA Europa League
• Seventeen teams now gain direct entry to the UEFA Europa League group stage, with ten teams directly transferring from the UEFA Champions League play-offs and third qualifying round plus 21 qualifying places in two different paths (UEFA Europa League champions and league paths)
• There will be a preliminary round in qualifying for the UEFA Champions League (played as a knockout mini-tournament) and UEFA Europa League (played as two-legged ties)
• There is no change to the formats from the group stage onwards but there will be staggered kick-offs – 18.55CET and 21.00CET – in the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League
• Useful links: 2018/19 access list, 2016/17 UEFA association coefficient rankings

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE


Group stage

• There will now be 26 teams automatically qualified as per the access list drawn up from the UEFA association coefficients at the end of 2016/17.

For 2018/19 they will be ...
UEFA Champions League holders (1)
UEFA Europa League holders (1)
Top four from associations ranked 1st to 4th: Spain, Germany, England, Italy (16)
Top two from associations ranked 5th and 6th: France, Russia (4)
Champions of associations ranked 7th to 10th: Portugal, Ukraine, Belgium, Turkey (4)

• If the UEFA Champions League holders have qualified for the group stage via their domestic championship, the vacancy will be filled by the champions of the association ranked 11th (Czech Republic), who otherwise compete in the champions path
• If the UEFA Europa League holders have qualified for the group stage via their domestic championship, the vacancy will be filled by the third-placed club from the association ranked fifth (France), who otherwise compete in the league path
• An association may have a maximum of five teams in the group stage

Qualifying

• As now there are two paths: the champions path and the league path. Teams enter as per the access list draw up from the UEFA association coefficients at the end of 2016/17.

Champions route (four group places)

This route consists of the champions of the associations ranked 11th and below, and now includes a preliminary round as well as three qualifying rounds and a play-off round:

• Preliminary round (played as knockout mini-tournament): four teams enter
• First qualifying round: 33 teams enter plus winner of preliminary round
• Second qualifying round: three teams enter plus 17 first qualifying round winners
• Third qualifying round: two teams enter plus ten second qualifying round winners
• Play-offs: two teams enter plus six third qualifying round winners

All teams eliminated in the champions path between the preliminary round and the third qualifying round will be given a second chance to compete at European level by entering a new dedicated champions path of UEFA Europa League qualifying with staggered access according to round of elimination from the UEFA Champions League. Teams eliminated in champions path play-offs enter the UEFA Europa League group stage directly.

 

[Wellspurs]

In a nutshell 4th place can only lose CL spot if the CL and EL winners finish outside top 4... & are English

 

[MyNameIsNicolaBerti]

I'm fairly sure yes it does. I am happy to be shown that I am wrong though! This is one of the biggest issues I have with UEFA in that this rule was never updated. Merely that the Europa League spot was added.

Everything I have read suggests that it's only if both the EL winners and CL winners sit outside top four that fourth place now loses out.
https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/newsid=2499801.html

That link just says five teams, not five only if there is a Europa win, and every press article I read just says that fourth misses out if both Liverpool and Arse sit outside the top four and are winners. So if Liverpool are winners and are in fifth and Arsenal lose, top four is now unaffected like it was during the Chelsea CL winning year because it would still only result in five entrants.

 

[tommo84]

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE


Group stage

• There will now be 26 teams automatically qualified as per the access list drawn up from the UEFA association coefficients at the end of 2016/17.

For 2018/19 they will be ...
UEFA Champions League holders (1)
UEFA Europa League holders (1)
Top four from associations ranked 1st to 4th: Spain, Germany, England, Italy (16)
Top two from associations ranked 5th and 6th: France, Russia (4)
Champions of associations ranked 7th to 10th: Portugal, Ukraine, Belgium, Turkey (4)

• If the UEFA Champions League holders have qualified for the group stage via their domestic championship, the vacancy will be filled by the champions of the association ranked 11th (Czech Republic), who otherwise compete in the champions path
• If the UEFA Europa League holders have qualified for the group stage via their domestic championship, the vacancy will be filled by the third-placed club from the association ranked fifth (France), who otherwise compete in the league path
• An association may have a maximum of five teams in the group stage

The bit in bold contradicts what you're saying and supports the view already held by most of us - namely that if a team finishes 5th in the EPL and wins the Champs League, this does not affect the Top 4's qualification to the Champions League. 4th place only misses out on Champs League if a country has reached its limit of 5 teams in the following season's competition.

 

[MyNameIsNicolaBerti]

In a nutshell 4th place can only lose CL spot if the CL and EL winners finish outside top 4... & are English

That's the way I read it.

 

[EmperorKabir]

I can see that now. Thanks for the correction. Will edit my post.

 

[EmperorKabir]

so just to confirm, Tottenham Hotspur are the only team to have ever been screwed out of CL qualification for finishing 4th and now looks like they will remain the only team to have been screwed in this way right?


Though I have one question. Those rule changes do not explicitly mention what happens if the EL and CL winners finish outside the top 4? (I mean it's fairly obvious that 4th will lose the spot, but where is this explicitly stated by UEFA?)

 

[tommo84]

so just to confirm, Tottenham Hotspur are the only team to have ever been screwed out of CL qualification for finishing 4th and now looks like they will remain the only team to have been screwed in this way right?

Bingo - unless both the Champions League winners and Europa League winners come from the same country ranked among the top four association countries and neither has already qualified for the following season's competition via their league position.

 

[EmperorKabir]

Bingo - unless both the Champions League winners and Europa League winners come from the same country and neither has already qualified for the following season's competition via their league position.

Yep, fully understand it. I just would like to see where UEFA explicitly state this. (I'm not doubting you at all!) It would just be handy to see an official webpage somewhere I can refer back to to see this.

 

[wirE]

Pls not this shit again...

Enlighten us, please

 

[Cavehillspur]

I think Chelsea will beat them.

Unfortunately the only result that ever happens for us at wba is one all. No disaster by any means but they aren’t a good side and we should beat them. But after seeing us last night, if we play like that again it will be a struggle.

If we play like that again we'll lose on Saturday, i'll take another scrappy win though, we're almost there. Just want Liverpools league form to blow up now and hope they lose the final.

 

[nicdic]

Goodness me.

 

[EmperorKabir]

I just noticed this as well and didn't realise that we may well have lost a EL place with Man u winning the EL last year:

http://www.skysports.com/football/n...ication-is-affected-by-the-efl-cup-and-beyond

'Regardless of who wins the Premier League, Champions League, Europa League, FA Cup or League Cup, England can only have seven clubs representing them across the two European competitions.'

Though that's from Sky, who I don't doubt, but again, just like the actual removal of 4th spot, (which again, I don't doubt), doesn't seem to be explicitly stated.

This must mean we have a pecking order of priority for EL spots.

I'm guessing it goes league then FA cup then league cup... but again, no info that I can find that confirms any of this from either UEFA or the FA.

 

[worcestersauce]

Either way it's somebody else's problem, we're finishing 3rd at worst.

 

[SirNiNyHotspur]

This. It makes our decent season look pointless in comparison.

We are a better side than them too, that the annoying thing. In a big meaningful one off cup game though, well, we wouldn’t have dealt with their run of competition as well as they did. City would have knocked us out.

That's probably the saddest thing, as easy as their draw was if we had it identical we would in all likelihood have lost to City, we need to start winning when it matters most, Liverpool know how to raise their game for the big occassion, on paper City's team was much better but they found a way.

 

[cider spurs]

Must be crap being a Citeh fan. No more chat about race for top 4, already champions, money worries and player exodus as as result...nope, they can't chat about that.

Pointless talking about the weather and whether it will affect a match...always raining in Manchester.

The "will he, won't he" when linked to a player. Nope, far too much money to worry about that. If they want enough, they get.

What do they talk about. Must be boring as feck.

 

[rossdapep]

Must be crap being a Citeh fan. No more chat about race for top 4, already champions, money worries and player exodus as as result...nope, they can't chat about that.

Pointless talking about the weather and whether it will affect a match...always raining in Manchester.

The "will he, won't he" when linked to a player. Nope, far too much money to worry about that. If they want enough, they get.

What do they talk about. Must be boring as feck.

The 'actual' football?? Or am I being naive in that people still actually care about that anymore?

 

[djee]

8 games ago we were 1 point behind Chelsea in 5th position. We need to remember that instead of saying spurs never make it easy. The fact that we gained 6 points on them in 8 games in excellent

Precisely! We have also reduced the gap to Liverpool to 1 point in that time too.

Still going to have to slog it out for the remaining points, but Monday night's result was absolutely huge and puts us on the front foot again. By Monday morning we could have guaranteed top 4 and battling out for 3rd with Liverpool.

 

[worcestersauce]

Must be crap being a Citeh fan. No more chat about race for top 4, already champions, money worries and player exodus as as result...nope, they can't chat about that.

Pointless talking about the weather and whether it will affect a match...always raining in Manchester.

The "will he, won't he" when linked to a player. Nope, far too much money to worry about that. If they want enough, they get.

What do they talk about. Must be boring as feck.

They talk about United.