How many English teams will be playing in Europe next season?
EUROPEAN football will be awash with English teams next season.
Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur will be hoping to join their ranks with a massive clash in the Europa League final.
It’s make or break for Ruben Amorim and Ange Postecoglu in Bilbao with a place in the Champions League up for grabs.
That’s despite the two clubs dwelling at the bottom of the Premier League table after horrendous domestic campaigns.
SunSport has everything you need to know about next season’s European football.
How many English teams will be playing in Europe next season?
In a usual season, English clubs get seven allocations to European football:
- The top four reach the Champions League
- Fifth and the FA Cup winners go into the Europa League
- The Carabao Cup winners reach the Europa Conference League.
However, a variety of permutations have seen these numbers jump up.
There will be a record SIX Premier League teams in the Champions League next season.
There could also be as many as TEN overall, depending on what happens on the final day of the season.
Champions League
The Champions League has bumped up from four to SIX places.
One extra spot has been handed to the Premier League as the two leagues with the best set of collective results get a fifth team in the competition via the European Performance Spots (EPS).
The Premier League was one such club to earn this spot – it was confirmed on April 8 when Arsenal beat Real Madrid.
The sixth place in the competition will be won tonight, with the winner of the Europa League earning that place.
Liverpool and Arsenal have already sealed their spots in the competition next season.
But there’s a massive final day of Premier League football ahead with Man City, Newcastle, Chelsea, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest all in contention.
Two of those sides will miss out, with Chelsea and Nottingham Forest facing each other what amounts to an eliminator at the City Ground.
Europa League
Crystal Palace, who could still finish in the bottom half, are guaranteed a place the Europa League after their FA Cup win over Man City last weekend.
There will be another English team in the Europa League but there are several complicating factors that affect who that could be.
Chelsea and Newcastle will have the most say on the outcome, both are still able to finish in the top five and earn a Champions League spot.
However, as EFL Cup winners, Newcastle are already guaranteed a place in the Europa Conference League.
So if they finish in the top six, that Conference League place transfers to the team that finishes seventh.
Chelsea take part in this season’s Conference League final next Wednesday, where they are favourites to beat Real Betis.
Should they list the trophy, they would be guaranteed a position in the Europa League as winners.
However, like Newcastle, they could still finish in a Champions league slot – which would have knock on effects to other teams.
If Chelsea also MISS out on the European slots and finish seventh themselves, but then go on and win the Conference League, they would still jump into the Europa League.
That would mean the team that finish eighth in the Premier League – either Brighton or Brentford – would then earn a Conference League spot.