Why do the EPL, La Liga and Bundesliga get 4 CL spots (3 + 1 qualifying) while Serie A only gets 3 (2 + 1 qualifying), which is the same as the French and Portuguese leagues? I thought that Serie A was supposed to be on par with the former 3 and superior to the other 2.
Also, why is the 12th place Bundesliga club getting a Europa League spot? See the link.
How many places are allocated to a country depend on their UEFA coefficient, which is calculated from how well their teams perform in European competition over a rolling period of several seasons.
About 4-5 years ago people used to speak of the ‘big three’ of the EPL, La Liga and Serie A; however Serie A has been in decline since it almost completely dominated Europe in the nineties and was fast becoming the poor relation in the big 3. Over the past few seasons the Bundesliga has seen a resurgence leading people to talk of the ‘big four’, with the continued decline of Serie A making it the poor relation in the ‘big four’. Recently teams from the Ligue 1 have become major players in the transfer market (first PSG and starting this transfer window Monaco), in particular attracting a number of Serie A’s top players. It won’t suprise me if Serie A becomes Europe’s 5th best league in the next season or two.
Stuggart have qualified for the Europa league as they are due to play Bayern Munich the German Cup final. As Bayern Munich have already qualified for the Champion’s League the Europa League spot allocated to the German Cup will go to them whether they win or lose. Similarly in England, 9th place Swansea have qualified for the Europa League by winning the English League Cup and 18th place Wigan, despite being relegated (which means they will be playing in the Championship rather than the EPL next year), have also qualified for the Europa League by winning the more prestigious FA Cup.
Thanks. What’s weird is that 3 Italian teams have won the CL in the last 10 years. That’s the same number as Spain and England, with Portugal being the other country. And no German club, which will obviously change tomorrow.
I incorrectly inferred, and the ESPN page sort of suggested, that the 12th place EPL team automatically received a Europa slot - like maybe they select a random position that they reveal at year-end and some lucky crappy team gets to make Europa league revenue.
Since 2007 would be a better filter than last 10 years, since you can’t uncouple Italy’s current rank from the match-fixing scandal.
And while Italy ties Spain and England for championships in that time, the three teams above them all tend to go deeper on average. Italy has 7 quarterfinals appearances total in this time period. Barcelona has 6 by themselves and each of Bayern, Chelsea, and Manchester United have 5.
The three leagues in front of Italy have all had more success internationally in the last few years. It makes perfect sense that they’d be in front.