There hasn’t been a lot of good news for Manchester City lately, so here’s some. As things stand, the top five teams in the Premier League will still advance to next season’s Champions League. look? It’s not all doom and gloom, is it?
there will be again The number of participating teams in the Champions League will increase from 32 to 36 next seasonTwo of the extra places will once again be awarded to the best-performing leagues in Europe this season.
England would have occupied one of those two spots in five of the past seven seasons. Last season, when it mattered, they didn’t; England trailed Germany and Italy, and Newcastle and Manchester United’s exit from Europe before Christmas were key early factors in a series of disappointments across all three knockout stage games.
The system used to calculate the coefficient ratings that determine which leagues come out on top is (relatively) simple.
Every win in Europe – be it the Championship, Europa League or League One – will earn your country two points, and every draw is worth one. Various bonus points will then be awarded based on ranking in the new league table and further points into different knockout rounds.
All teams participating in the Champions League stage will receive six points. You will receive an additional 0.25 points for finishing 24th at the final table, and an additional 0.25 points for each position thereafter. Therefore, 23rd place gets 0.5, 22nd place gets 0.75, and so on, with the team in first place getting a maximum of 6 points. There are no bonus points for participation in the Europa League, but it also provides 0.25 points for the 24th-placed team and 6 points for the first-placed team, the same sliding scale as the Champions League.
To keep us all on our toes, the situation in the CD is slightly different. Here, 24th place will be awarded 0.125 points, each position up to ninth will be awarded an additional 0.125 points, and each additional position after that into the top eight will be awarded 0.25 points.
To make a long story short, the team at the top of the Champions League table will receive a total of 12 points, the team at the top of the Europa League table will receive 6 points, and the team at the top of the La Liga table will receive 4 points.
Champions League teams will receive an additional 1.5 points for each knockout round (top 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals), Europa League teams will receive 1 point for each round, and divisional league teams will receive 0.5 points for each round. Teams ranked 9th through 24th in each game do not receive bonus points to advance to the playoffs.
Therefore, if you qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals by winning both legs of the last 16 tie, you will receive 5.5 points for your country: 2 points for each victory to progress to the next Stages earn an additional 1.5 points. If you get 3.5 points with one win and one loss (two points for a win, plus qualifying bonus). etc.
The total points gained by all teams in a given league are then divided by the total number of teams in that league that started the season in European competition to obtain an average rating that determines the all-important ranking.
Take last year’s top-ranked Italian team as an example. Their team scored a total of 147 points in the European competition. They started the season with seven teams in Europe, so 147 divided by 7 gives them a final score of 21.000.
Therefore, this also means that for a country that starts with fewer teams, a win in a single game is more valuable than points scored; for example, a win for any Dutch team this season will be worth more points at the end 0.333 points are added to the win because that’s two points divided by the six teams they were in contention for at the start of the season, whereas for Italy or Germany a two-point win is divided by 8 and only accounts for 0.250 points of the total.
By all accounts, it’s still early days, but as things stand Nottingham Forest and Manchester City will qualify for next season’s Champions League England currently sit second in the standings.
1) Belgium – 9.400 points
Club Brugge are vying for a Champions League play-off spot and are currently in 19th place, ahead of Real Madrid, while Anderlecht are expected to finish in the top eight of the Europa League. League Saint-Gilius is currently in 20th place, but Cercle Brugge and Gent should at least be in the Western Conference play-offs.
Total score: 47.000.
Total number of teams: five
Teams still active: five
League stage: Club Brugge (UCL), United Saint-Gillois (UEL), Anderlecht (UEL), Cercle Bruges (UECL), Gent (UECL)
2) England – 9.140 points
Newcastle and Manchester United suffered two early exits from the Champions League last year and there does not appear to be a repeat this time, with Liverpool in first place and Arsenal and Aston Villa expected to finish in the top eight. Even Manchester City, for all their antics, are currently well outside the bottom 12 and eliminated. Meanwhile, in the Europa League at least, Tottenham and Manchester United both look well-positioned for the play-offs, while Chelsea cruise comfortably in La Liga.
Total score: 64.000
Total number of teams: seven
Teams still active: seven
League stage: Manchester City (UCL), Arsenal (UCL), Liverpool (UCL), Aston Villa (UCL), Tottenham Hotspur (UEL), Manchester United (UEL), Chelsea (UECL)
3) Portugal – 9.000 points
Sporting Lisbon and Benfica both have three Champions League wins to their name, which makes a huge difference early on, while only five teams can split the total. Porto are in the top 24 of the Europa League table but Braga are in danger of exiting, while Vitoria have won four and drawn one from five games in the league.
Total score: 32.000
Total number of teams: Four
Still active teams: three
League stage: Elfsburg (UEL), Malmö (UEL), Djurgaden (UECL)
4) Sweden – 8.000 points
Although the Djurgården are vying for a top eight spot in the divisional league, these exciting heights will be short-lived, with both Europa League teams in danger of being eliminated.
Total score: 32.000
Total number of teams: Four
Teams still active: three
League stage: Elfsburg (UEL), Malmö (UEL), Djurgaden (UECL)
5) Italy – 7.750 points
Having eight teams means Italy get off to a slow start, but with the exception of Bologna, all teams are well-placed to enter the next stage, with Lazio and Fiorentina the favorites in the lower leagues.
Total score: 62.000
Total number of teams: eight
Teams still active: eight
League stage: Inter Milan (UCL), Milan (UCL), Atalanta (UCL), Juventus (UCL), Bologna (UCL), Lazio (UEL), Roma (UEL), Fiorentina (UECL)
6) Czech Republic – 7.500 points
7) Spain – 7.284 points
8) Greece – 7.125 points
9) Poland – 7.125 points
10) Türkiye – 7.100 points
