Europa League winners could earn Champions League place

[Red Gunner]

Europa League winners could earn Champions League place

Uefa will announce on Friday whether the Europa League winners will be rewarded with a Champions League qualifying spot from 2016.

The move would be designed to boost interest in Europe's secondary club tournament.

The decision follows months of discussions between the European Club Association (ECA) and Uefa officials.

Meanwhile, Berlin's Olympic Stadium has been revealed as the venue for the Champions League final in 2015.

That year's Europa League decider will be at Warsaw's National Stadium, which staged the opening game of Euro 2012.

The Europa League generates far less income and media attention than the Champions League.

The governing body has tried a number of initiatives to increase interest, with previous attempts including the change of name from Uefa Cup to its current title in 2009.

Currently, teams who finish third in their Champions League group drop into the competition.

This season's final was contested between two teams who entered that way, Chelsea beating Benfica 2-1 in Amsterdam.

Uefa is also expected to announce it will raise the maximum number of Champions League qualifiers per country from four to five, if the winners of the Europa League from 2015-16 do not finish in their domestic league's qualifying places for the Champions League.

Should the winners of both European competitions come from the same country and not finish in their league's qualifying places, both would be in the Champions League the following season.

Uefa is keen to avoid a repeat of the scenario that happened in the Premier League in 2011-12 when Chelsea won the Champions League and Tottenham were placed into the Europa League despite finishing fourth in the top flight.

[QuartzGooner]

Good idea.

When the Champions only were in the European Cup, the other two European tournaments held some interest.

But the Champions League killed off the Cup Winners Cup and has severely dented the appeal of the UEFA Cup/Europa League.

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This next suggestion may not be fair, but it would increase interest in the domestic cups.

Post-season play offs involving the fourth and fifth placed league teams, the FA Cup winners and the League Cup winners.

The prize?

The Champions League qualifying spot usually reserved for the fourth placed league finishers.

[augie]

Winning the Europa league will then become two trophies for wenker - there will be the actual trophy that the winners get and then of course there is the more prestigious virtual champions league place trophy

[_James_]

Seems a fair idea, if you win the Europa league then you deserve a Champions league place, but as Europa league winners often come through the Champions league from finishing 3rd in the group I wonder how many winners in the past would have needed an extra space in the Champions league.

[donaldo]

Not fair at all.The Champions league places should be decided where a team finishes in the league.Fulham reached the Europa league final a few years back .Chelsea won it this season and had already got a CL place so who would get the extra place Benfica or the 5th place team in England total bollocks
What next a CL place for the FA cup winners?

The recent talk of a 3rd place play off was another load of bollocks

Anyway it wont bother us Arsenal dont do trophies

[Top Londoner]

Not fair at all.The Champions league places should be decided where a team finishes in the league.Fulham reached the Europa league final a few years back .Chelsea won it this season and had already got a CL place so who would get the extra place Benfica or the 5th place team in England total bollocks
What next a CL place for the FA cup winners?

The recent talk of a 3rd place play off was another load of bollocks

Anyway it wont bother us Arsenal dont do trophies

The European Cup is so diluted nowadays, it's not fair that a team that does not win their domestic league can win it either don.

[Revgoon89]

Agreed that they should let the winners of each countries top domestic cup get a spot in the Champions League. As others have said, it would help reignite interest in such cups and provide something extra to play for. You can't really call the competition the Champions League when only one team can actually win the league.

[Ziegler1988]

Not fair at all.The Champions league places should be decided where a team finishes in the league.Fulham reached the Europa league final a few years back .Chelsea won it this season and had already got a CL place so who would get the extra place Benfica or the 5th place team in England total bollocks

I think they'll just drop an association from group stage to playoff to make room for the Europa League winner, and then if the winner has already qualified for CL they'll reclaim their spot in the group stage.

[goonersid]

Now confirmed.

[northbank123]

If they want the second-tier competition to be respected and competitive here's a better idea...

... how about not making the premier competition so bloated and uncompetitive? At the start of the CL campaign you can probably highlight 8-10 teams who have very little to no chance of qualifying and another 15-18 who have a negligible chance of winning the thing.

It's bad enough that 20% of teams in Spain, Italy and England qualify for the CL but when the competition is won by a team who was actually knocked out of the CL the same season it makes a bit of a mockery of the competition.

[Blade]

Ha ha, Scum got pawned again.Chelsea got 2 ECL spots 5th would have been enough -for next year!..

They must severe persecution complex.

[northbank123]

Ha ha, Scum got pawned again.Chelsea got 2 ECL spots 5th would have been enough -for next year!..

They must severe persecution complex.

Don't think it works like that - from what I've read a country only gets 5 slots if the EL winners don't qualify via the domestic league (to avoid 4th place getting shafted).

[spendsum4uckingmoney]

It's a stupid system. So if a side outside the top 4 wins it they go in CL, making it 5 teams in the Cl. That I am fine with. My problem is that the team that wins the cl itself and finishes outside the top 4, takes 4th's space. The priorities don't make much sense.

IMO I think it should be:

A)If a side wins the CL and they finish outside the top 4, they qualify for the CL not taking 4ths spot
B)If a side with the UEFA cup and they finish out the top 4, they qualify for the Cl not taking 4ths spot, unless the same scenario occurs of A, in which A gets the reward not B.

[northbank123]

Yeah I thought it was a bit strange that 4th are protected from EL winners qualifying from that route but still no suggestion that they'd be protected if a team won the CL.

The statement UEFA released was actually pretty short and I think they'll iron out some of the unresolved issues at a later stage, wouldn't be surprised if they changed the policy on CL winners taking the final domestic place and showed a willingness to extend that to 5.

As I said the easiest and arguably most effective thing they could do to make EL more competitive is stop dumping 3rd-placed CL teams in there. Having failed to progress past the first stage of their competition why should they get a second bite at the cherry? Completely devalues the cup when Chelsea have a horror of CL campaign yet still manage to win it.

[spendsum4uckingmoney]

I think they should just scrap it and extend the CL TBH.

It would reduce the income disparity as well.