Following a change in the qualification rules, Aston Villa could be given a golden opportunity to qualify for the Champions League this season.
Aston Villa could benefit from a historic shift in the English Premier League during the 2023/24 season, when five teams could qualify for the Champions League.
From the 2024/25 season onwards, the competition will take on a ‘Swiss League’ format, with 36 teams competing for the title and an additional two places available to the two countries that perform best across UEFA’s competitions. As a result, clubs like Villa could miss out on a place in the Champions League if they do not finish in the top four spots in the Premier League.
For this scenario to play out, English clubs must finish in the top two of the Champions League, Europa League, and Europa Conference League. The Premier League’s usual top four will still qualify for the UCL group stages, but the two leagues with the best coefficient in the 2023/24 season will now be given an extra spot in the competition.
If England finishes in the top two, fifth place will receive a spot. Individual club performance is irrelevant, with the spot going to whoever finishes fifth in the Premier League. According to the Premier League, “we will likely only know when that fifth spot will come into play for the UCL towards the end of the season, when the geographical spread of the participating clubs in the latter stages of UEFA competitions is known.”
Five English teams have previously qualified for the Champions League, after Liverpool won the trophy in 2005 but finished fifth, behind rivals Everton in fourth. Because of the new roles, a maximum of seven clubs could qualify if the winners of the Champions League and Europa League are both from the Premier League and finish outside the top five.
It has also been confirmed that, with the new rules in place, an additional spot would have been allocated to an English team in five of the last six seasons. The countries that would have received the extra two spots are as follows:
England and Spain in 2017/18
England and Spain in 2018/19
Spain and Germany in 2019/20
England and Spain in 2020/21
England and the Netherlands in 2021/22
England and Italy in 2022/23
