If the English Prem ends as it now stands:
Man U
Arsenal
Newcastle
Chelsea
Liverpool
Everton
Blackburn
So’ton
Tottenham
how will the European places works out?
ManU-Arse.-Newc. to the Champions League
Chel.-'Pool.-Everton to UEFA Cup
right?
but, does Blackburn go to the UEFA Cup as well, becuase Liverpool will qualify via the league rather than the League Cup? Does this open up an extra spot?
Southampton is on regardless by either winning the FA Cup, or as losing finalists to Arsenal, right?
Can Tottenham get in from this spot, depending on Arsenal-So’ton winner?
If Man City gets the Fair Play Award spot, does one of the above teams lose their place?
sorry to ask a long series of questions completely uninteresting to many, but thanks in advance.
Not English, but an avid follower of all things Premiership related, especially Manchester United.
On the UEFA Champions League spots; The Premier League is currently entitled to four representatives in that competition, so as it stands Manchester United, Arsenal, Newcastle and Chelsea would qualify for that, this does not change if Manchester United win the Champions League, still only four from the Premiership allowed.
There are only Three qualifiers from England for the UEFA Cup as far as I am aware. These would be Liverpool ( League Cup Winners), Everton( Next higest League position of a team not already qualified for European competition) and Southampton ( Highest position of a team from a Domestic Cup Competition not already qualified for Europe). So, no, Blackburn DON’T qualify for UEFA Cup in their current league position, Southampton are guaranteed a UEFA Cup spot next season as FA Cup Winners, or Runners-up to Arsenal, who will be in the Champions League.
The Qualification of mAN cITY for the UEFA Cup via the “Fair Play” Award does not affect these qualifiers at all. The “Fair Play” award is for a team from ANY country, not just england, it is in essence a spare spot in the competition.
If any one of the four qualifiers for the Champions League fails to get past the First group stage, they will be placed into the UEFA Cup draw for the round coming next after their elimination form the Champions League.
I hope that has cleared things up for you. I have just made myself more confused there, it took me about an hour to get this post correct, and even now I dont know if all my facts are correct!!:eek:
As far as I can tell, glass onion is right on all counts. Spare places to qualify for the UEFA Cup are allowed to replace teams that enter the Champions League instead. No extra places are allowed where a team qualifies for the UEFA Cup via a domestic cup win and a high league position.
Qualification via Fair Play or the Intertoto Cup are independent of places allocated to particular countries, and don’t cost places or earn extra places via league position.
Personally I wish they would take more space to explain this kind of stuff on football websites and TV shows and less time massaging the egos of ex-pros and media hacks, but then I’m only a fan.
Of course the whole European qualification criteria is not a million miles away from TV viewing percentages, which explains why half of the English premiership seems to qualify for European competition one way or another.
Thanks everyone, that is interesting that no extra spots are made available in the case of cup winners who would have qualified via the league. I don’t know from where but I have allways been under the assumption that is was so.
So, England receives three UEFA Cup spots (not including Champions League qualifying round losers, Fair Play award, Inter-toto Cup winners, and/or defending UEFA Cup winner) and only one comes from league position. Correct?
Probably no longer GQ, but this seems intended to retain the importance of the cups, at the expense of the league, at lest for everyone outside of the top 5. Agreed?
Very nearly right. UEFA Cup spots are available for league positions to replace Cup winners if they qualify for the Champs League instead – that’s why Southampton are guaranteed a UEFA place in spite of being way off the pace in the league.
Agreed that it’s probably not quite a GQ, and also agreed that awarding UEFA places to Cup winners is intended to provide an incentive to win the domestic cups.
Don’t forget also that the UEFA has absorbed the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup too. Even the main domestic cup has only been taken seriously in England (and maybe Scotland) for years now, but awarding a UEFA place to the winners is intended to boost interest. The second domestic cup competitons (in countries that have them) are a waste of time IMHO, and the award of a UEFA place for winners in England and France is surely intended to keep the sponsors of those competitons sweet.
everton- sorry, I can never get quotes to work so I’m doing this manually.
hijack of own thread alert - is that Mac OS related, I used to be able to get them to work on my ex girlfriends’s PC?
You say, UEFA Cup spots are available for league positions to replace Cup winner if they qualify for the Champs League instead.
But not if they qualify for the UEFA Cup via the league? Thus, if it were mathmatically possible, if Arsenal slipped to 5th and won the FA Cup, Southampton would not qualify as losing finalist?
One other point is that the defending champions get automatic entry into the Champions League and UEFA Cup. I’m not certain how that affects qualifying positions (and again it doesn’t affect English teams this year), but if Barcelona were to win the Champions League they would qualify for next year’s competition in spite of being 12th in the Spanish league and four other Spanish teams would qualify based on their league position.