It will soon be decided which Premier League clubs will compete in European competitions next season as the season nears its end.
The Premier League’s top five will qualify for the Champions League, but there are chances that a sixth team could also re-enter Europe’s top competition.
How can the sixth placed team get the Champions League?
As noted, clubs that finish in the top five of the Premier League will ensure qualification for next season’s Champions League.
It would certainly be a surprise at this point to see Manchester United, Liverpool and Aston Villa drop out of the top five given their eight-point gap to Brighton in sixth place, although it is not impossible.
But a sixth team could also qualify for the Champions League. There are a number of ways that could happen, including finishing sixth in the Premier League.
For this to happen, Villa would need to win the Europa League and finish fifth in the Premier League, not the top four.
UEFA’s European Performance Spots (EPS) have made the permutations incredibly complicated. Winning the Europa League and finishing fifth would mean Villa’s place in qualifying for the Champions League would move to sixth. In this case, however, the qualification place for the Europa League through the Premier League will be lost and that place will pass to another country according to UEFA rules.
If Villa finish in the top four then everything will stay the same: fifth will get the final Champions League spot, sixth and FA Cup winners/seventh will get the Europa League and eighth will get the Conference League.
However, there is also a chance for Nottingham Forest to win the Europa League and become the sixth Premier League team in the Champions League.
Europa League and Conference League: and the impact of the FA Cup
However, the number of teams that qualify for the Europa League and Conference League depends on several factors, including what Villa does.
If the EPS Champions League spot drops to sixth if Villa wins the Europa League and finishes fifth, then the Premier League would give up the Europa League spot it secures at the end of the league.
The winners of the FA Cup earn qualification for the Europa League, but there is a high probability that this place will go to the highest-placed Premier League team that has not qualified for Europe.
Manchester City will qualify for the Champions League next season, meaning their Europa League qualification spot earned by winning the FA Cup would pass to the seventh-placed Premier League team, with the eighth-placed team entering the Conference League.
For Chelsea to win the FA Cup is more complicated. If they finish outside the top seven, as they currently are, they will simply qualify for the Europa League by winning the FA Cup and seventh place would enter the Conference League.
But if they finish in the top seven, eighth place will be in the Conference League.
The other way eighth place could clinch the Conference League is for Crystal Palace to move up to seventh place and also win this season’s Conference League.
The maximum number of English teams that can qualify for Europe this season is ten. Top five in the Champions League, sixth and FA Cup winner/seventh in the Europa League, eighth in the Conference League, Crystal Palace in the Europa League as Conference League winners and Nottingham Forest in the Champions League as Europa League winners.
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