Changes made to Champions League and Europa League qualification procedures
With regards to timings, qualifications and so on.
By TrustMeI'mLying. on February 28, 2018 12:56 pm
Photo by Steve Bardens/Getty Images
UEFA has made a few minor alterations to its Champions League and Europa League procedures, with Europe's top leagues now guaranteed at least six spots altogether in these two competitions being the biggest one of them all.
From the 2018-19 season, the top four teams in the Premier League will gain direct qualification to the Champions League group stages, unlike the present system where the top three qualify directly and the fourth team has to go through a round of qualifiers like Liverpool had to, against Hoffenheim, earlier in the season.
This rule also applies to Spain, Germany and Italy. Also, the fifth and sixth teams from these countries will gain direct qualification to the Europa League. This is indeed good for Chelsea, who lie in 5th right now and even if we were to finish 4th, it’s good to know we won’t have to go through an extra round of qualifies.
There will now be 26 teams automatically qualified as per the access list drawn up from the UEFA association coefficients at the end of 2016/17.
For 2018/19 they will be ...
UEFA Champions League holders (1)
UEFA Europa League holders (1)
Top four from associations ranked 1st to 4th: Spain, Germany, England, Italy (16)
Top two from associations ranked 5th and 6th: France, Russia (4)
Champions of associations ranked 7th to 10th: Portugal, Ukraine, Belgium, Turkey (4)
-Source: UEFA
Aside from these changes, the kickoff times have been adjusted as well. Not all games (with the rare far eastern European exception) will kick off at 19:45 GMT. Instead there will be staggered kick offs, 17:55 and 20:00, like they do in Europa League currently. More games on your television means more money for them ( and the teams)!
Important dates for the coming season were also announced, with the Group Stage beginning on the 18th of September, 2018 and the Round of 16 beginning on 12th February, 2019, at the earliest. The Final will be held on the 1st of June, 2019, at Estadio Metropolitano, Madrid.
Any thoughts, Toothbrush Man?
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COMMENTS
Let's hope we'll get that 4th place or perhaps something even better.
By Lamps147 on 02.28.18 1:03pm
was trying to forget about all that!
By ImNotBlackImBlue on 02.28.18 1:17pm
Something better like winning the Champions League
By *RG on 02.28.18 3:42pm
What about Dutch champions?
By Don Antonio Conte on 02.28.18 1:37pm
They're 14th and have fallen below Czech
Here are the countries’ rankings
By TrustMeI'mLying. on 02.28.18 1:52pm
I was actually looking at this yesterday
Why is the Dutch league so low? Europe performances? I mean they had a finalist in the EL last year, right?
By simongabriel on 02.28.18 2:45pm
Their numbers this year are abysmal.
2.900 is as low as 20th place Romania. Last year that finalist gave them a 9.1 but this year was just so bad. But with another good year they could jump up to 11th even. Margins are tight.
By guessmyfavoritecolor on 02.28.18 3:19pm
Italy above Germany
Weird.
By guessmyfavoritecolor on 02.28.18 3:14pm
juve effect
By K.Enoch on 02.28.18 3:38pm
Not just Juve
They do better in the EL as well
By Rohaan1997 on 02.28.18 3:40pm
That and Bayern sucking all the talent out of Germany.
By guessmyfavoritecolor on 02.28.18 3:40pm
They need to realize the way Bayern operate is not good for the Bundesliga.
By jimmylauderdale on 02.28.18 6:21pm
but its good for bayern
which is practically the Germany national team.so…
By aimanbadh on 03.01.18 9:24am
The league is designed for Bayern to be on top.
No club is allowed to run a budget deficit. So the small stay small. You cant spend 30 million more this year to bring in some quality players to make more money the next year and pay it off.
By Chelsea Chuck on 03.01.18 10:41am
That toothbrush man thing was so random
Gave me a good chuckle tho
By GG021 on 02.28.18 1:44pm
80:20
I think 80% sure we will miss champions league next year with the fixtures we have…. Our team currently have no clue – how to get the job done.. Score the goddamn second goal
By trueBlue@89 on 02.28.18 1:45pm
I really thought you were predicting our possession stats against Barcelona
..at least from the looks of it.
By Broodyblue on 03.01.18 12:16am
We could just go with Pareto instead of Paredes then.
It even fits our Italian theme. 80% of our goals could come from that 20% possession.
By simongabriel on 03.01.18 12:41am
Haha..Pareto or Paredes or theory of relativity..
I don’t care as long as we score the 2nd goal ….
By trueBlue@89 on 03.01.18 4:35am
I don't like the staggered kick off times in the CL
By AMLang on 02.28.18 2:09pm
More football!
But yes the 17:55 will be a bit shit for some.
By It'sTheNopeThatKills on 02.28.18 2:42pm
For india region it will be good
By Rupant on 02.28.18 2:44pm
Good. Helps to get rid of those worthless teams from far regions
The kind that ends up in Pot 4, gets 0 points or 1 point after 6 group games, and adds nothing of value to the competition, both in the footballing sense, and in the economic sense.
By Shadow of your smile on 02.28.18 2:18pm
Makes the draw also good and balanced
By TRAORE 2 OUR RESCUE on 02.28.18 
2:29pm
The amount of disrespect...
It’s called the UEFA Champions League. Hence, champions of any country across Europe have the right to play in this competition. Worthless in your eyes, but what about their supporters? Have you seen the supporters of Ostersunds, or Belgrade after their defeats to Arsenal and how much the games meant to them, plus these ’’worthless’’ teams hardly get muller’d, like the ‘’big boys’’ of Europe do on a regular: Arsenal, Porto, PSG to name a few in recent years. It’s not about the money man, it never should be.