The Premier League is to lose one of its automatic Champions League spots for the 2021/22 season, with other leagues potentially benefiting from it.
It won’t change a great deal to the current set up – it simply means that the club that finishes in fourth will have to play a qualifying round before the group stages.
The Premier League, Serie A, La Liga and Bundesliga have all had four automatic qualification spots for a number of years now, but UEFA is seemingly set on levelling the playing field a little.
Ultimately, this is a good thing as it’ll ensure that clubs from other leagues may get a better crack at the Champions League by going straight into the group stages.
If the fourth placed club in England can’t take on a top club from another league, and win, then they probably don’t belong with Europe’s elite.
Lars-Christer Olsson, the president of the European Leagues, said, via the Mirror: “I think some of the big leagues would be fine if they are all treated in the same way. If you are giving four positions to the Premier League and taking one away from the Bundesliga then you have a problem.
“The big leagues are prepared to participate in this discussion for something new if they are treated the same. It should be replaced by something else reflecting the current situation.”
The most notable change is purely on a financial level as the club that doesn’t automatically quality from the Premier League will see a drop in their in-comings of about £30million.
But this money will be dispersed to other clubs in smaller leagues – so that’s a bonus.