The London team’s triumph over Real Madrid in the Champions League secured another spot for England.
Arsenal‘s victory over Real Madrid opened up an extra spot for the next edition of the Champions League in the current English Championship. The Premier League will now have five spots, instead of four, for the 2025/26 Champions League. This is because the English league confirmed at least second place in the UEFA coefficient ranking, calculated according to the teams’ performance in the three European competitions of the season: Champions League, Europa League and Conference League.
Two extra spots for the Champions League are granted to European countries based on this ranking. With England guaranteed, Spain and Italy will fight for the second spot Germany no longer has a mathematical chance of opening up a new spot in the Bundesliga. Therefore, the top five teams in the current English Championship will qualify for the next edition of the Champions League. The sixth-placed team will go to the Europa League, while the seventh-placed team will secure a place in the Conference League, but only if no English team wins the European competitions. In this case, new places would open up in the Premier League table.
England could therefore have up to seven representatives in the continent’s top competition in 2025/26. For this to happen, Aston Villa must win the Champions League, and Manchester United or Tottenham must win the Europa League.
For now, the Premier League has the following scenario in the standings:
1 – Liverpool – 73 points
2 – Arsenal – 62 points
3 – Nottingham Forest – 57 points
4 – Chelsea – 53 points
5 – Newcastle – 53 points
6 – Manchester City – 52 points
7 – Aston Villa – 51 points
In the current Champions League, the teams that ‘benefited’ from the extra places were Bologna and Borussia Dortmund, fifth-placed in the last editions of Calcio and the Bundesliga, respectively. This is because the Italian and German leagues took the top two positions in the UEFA coefficient rankings last season. PERFORMANCE IN EUROPEAN COMPETITIONS England still has five teams in the quarter-finals of the three European competitions: Arsenal and Aston Villa in the Champions League quarter-finals, Manchester United and Tottenham in the Europa League, and Chelsea in the Conference League. Spain has four: Real Madrid and Barcelona in the Champions League, Athletic Bilbao in the Europa League, and Betis in the Conference League.
Italy has three: Inter are still in the Champions League, Lazio in the Europa League and Fiorentina in the Europa League. HOW THE RANKING SCORING WORKS The coefficient is a complex calculation, but it is basically calculated based on the collective performance of all teams from each country in the European competitions that season. The two leagues with the best average coefficient scores receive extra places. Wins are valued equally in all competitions.
Each win is worth two points, a draw is worth one point and a defeat does not generate any points. If a match goes to extra time, the score after 120 minutes is considered, regardless of the winner in the penalty shootout. The points won by all clubs in a country are added together, and the total is divided by the number of teams the country has competing in European competitions during the season. This results in the average coefficient. For example: if a country has 60 coefficient points and seven teams in European competitions, its score will be 8.571 (60/7).
HOW THE TOP 5 OF THE UEFA COEFFICIENT RANKINGS ARE
1 – England – 25,107 points (confirmed)
2 – Spain – 22,392
3 – Italy – 20,437
4 – Germany – 18,046
5 – France – 16,642
*Germany and France no longer have a chance of an extra spot
