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Uefa Champions League and Europa League places: The permutations for 2018-19 European qualification

The ins and outs of who can qualify for Europe from the Premier League
The ins and outs of who can qualify for Europe from the Premier League

This business used to be so much simpler.

In the good old days only the champions played in the European Cup (now the Champions League), the FA Cup winners in the Cup Winners’ Cup, and the Uefa Cup (now the Europa Leauge) was far more straight forward.

Well, sorry, those days are gone, and working out who qualifies for what is almost as tough as winning the competitions themselves.

Nowadays it is seven, not three, that is the magic number.


How many sides can qualify for Europe?

The Premier League can have a maximum of seven clubs participating in Uefa competitions> Traditionally, this equates to four in the Champions League and three in the Europa League.

However, there are of course caveats…


Champions League permutations

The top four finishers will, for the first time, progress automatically into next season’s Champions League Group Stages. No English side will require entry via the Play-Off qualifiers.

Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

Should Liverpool win the Champions League, their qualification place via the Premier League will NOT pass over to the fifth place finisher.

However, the Premier League will gain an additional spot in the competition should Arsenal win the Europa League, with the Gunners also moving into the Group Stages.


Europa League permutations

The permutations are most confusing regarding the Europa League.

Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images

In theory, the three qualification places consist of the team who finishes fifth, the FA Cup winners and the EFL Cup winners. The fifth-place finishers and the FA Cup winners go straight into the Group Stages, with the EFL Cup winners entering via the Play-Offs.

As Manchester City won the EFL Cup, that place is now allocated to the Premier League’s sixth-place finisher.

Should Manchester United or Tottenham win the FA Cup and finish in the top four – or Chelsea, providing they finish fifth – then the automatic qualification spot from the FA Cup drops down to the league’s seventh-place finisher.

This means that the league’s seventh-place side can then gain qualification via the Play-Offs, unless Southampton wins the FA Cup.


How the table currently looks

Pos

Team

P

W

D

L

GD

Pts

1

Man City (C)

33

28

3

2

68

87

2

Man United

33

22

5

6

37

71

3

Liverpool

34

20

10

4

43

70

4

Tottenham

33

20

7

6

35

67

5

Chelsea

33

18

6

9

24

60

6

Arsenal

33

16

6

11

17

54

7

Burnley

33

14

10

9

4

52

8

Leicester

33

11

10

12

2

43

9

Everton

34

11

9

14

-15

42

10

Newcastle

33

10

8

14

-7

41

11

Bournemouth

43

9

11

14

-15

38

12

Watford

34

10

7

17

-18

37

13

Brighton

33

8

11

14

-15

35

14

Huddersfield

34

9

8

17

-27

35

15

West Ham

32

8

10

14

-18

34

16

Crystal Palace

34

8

10

16

-18

34

17

Swansea

33

8

9

16

-19

33

18

Southampton

33

5

13

15

-20

28

19

Stoke

33

6

9

18

-33

27

20

West Brom

34

4

12

18

-25

24