Football

England Set To Secure Fifth Champions League Qualification Spot – Which Premier League Clubs Will Benefit?

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Cai Parry
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Cai Parry Sports Editor

Cai is a news and features writer that specialises in football, but has experience covering a variety of other sports, including darts, basketball, American football, MMA, boxing and more. He holds a degree in Football Journalism (BA Hons) from the University of Derby, and worked with Nottingham Forest FC and Burton Albion FC throughout his studies. Cai also has experience working in social media with the Football Association of Wales, where he worked on a freelance basis, and has also been an accredited writer in the JD Cymru Premier for both Y Clwb Pêl-Droed and welshfootie since the 2019/20 season.

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Published7 hours ago on October 29, 2024

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Champions League

England are reportedly almost certain to secure a fifth Champions League qualification spot for next season, with Premier League clubs set to benefit from UEFA’s new ruling.

According to reports, England have a 99% chance of being one of the two nations to secure a European Performance Spot, which would secure a fifth Champions League qualification spot for Premier League sides.

European Performance Spots are awarded to nations whose teams boast the strongest records across the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League throughout the season.

It comes amid the restructuring of UEFA’s continental club competitions, with the Champions League expanding from 32 teams to 36 teams this year, therefore an extra four qualification spots are up for grabs, and two of those are allocated through the European Performance Spots.

Historically, England’s strong performances in Europe would’ve warranted a fifth qualification spot in five of the last seven seasons, however an underwhelming showing last term means that they only had four spots for 2024/25.

After overtaking England’s coefficient ranking, last season’s extra spots went to Italy and Germany, securing qualification to this season’s inaugural Champions League league phase for Bologna and Borussia Dortmund.

But now, thanks to a strong start to the 2024/25 continental campaign, with all seven of their sides unbeaten in the league phase thus far, Football Rankings report that England are almost certain to have a fifth qualification position next term.

England Set To Land Fifth Champions League Spot – Who Will Benefit?

Football Ranking‘s statistics, sourced from Euro Club Index and Opta Analyst, show that while there’s a high likelihood that Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal will qualify for next season’s Champions League with four qualification spots, their chances of doing so are boosted even further if the fifth spot is confirmed.

It takes City’s likelihood from 99.3% with four spots to 99.6% with five spots, along with 95.7% to 98.3% for Liverpool and 88.7% to 94.6% for Arsenal.

Boosted by close to 20% would be Chelsea, who are currently fifth in the Premier League table, as their chances of qualifying with four qualification spots are rated at 34.9%, while their likelihood with five spots is 53.1%.

Aston Villa are also among the teams that would be given the biggest boost in qualification hopes, with their chances of advancing to the 2025/26 Champions League being rated at 45.9% with the European Performance Spot in play.

Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham and Eddie Howe’s Newcastle are both rated with 27.3% and 22.1% chances of qualifying with five spots, respectively, while Brighton are given an 18.3% chance and Manchester United 16.2%.