Trying to make sense of the potential Europa Cup qualification outcomes for next year
Is we assume that things stayed as they are and Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool (perhaps not in this order) get the Champion league places then there are 4 ways for other teams to get into the Europa League I think:
- Football League Cup winners will enter at the Q3 stage
- FA Cup winners will enter at the Europa League Group Stage
- Fifth place Premier League team will enter at the Play-Off stage
- Fair Play winners enter at the Qualifying round 1 stage (as below)
As Manchester City have won the League Cup I think it means that the 6th place PL team will also go into the Europa Cup.
If Arsenal won the FA Cup then the runners up (Wigan Athletic, Hull City or Sheffield Utd) will then go into the Europa Cup.
Assuming (again) that things stayed as they are then it looks like Tottenham and Everton unless Manchester Utd and Southampton catch up in the remain quarter of the PL season.
Fair Play winners enter at the Qualifying round 1 stage.
This place will automatically go the three best-placed national associations in the UEFA Respect fair play rankings provided they achieve an average of 8.0 points or more. The top three associations will then be entitled to enter the club that has either won their domestic top-division fair play competition, or if they are already qualified, the runners-up and so forth.
Current Fair Play League:
- Liverpool 8.69
- Arsenal 8.6
- Tottenham Hotspur 8.5
- Manchester City 8.43
- Everton 8.43
- Crystal Palace 8.39
- Chelsea 8.33
- Swansea City 8.32
- Fulham 8.3
- Norwich City 8.23
Manchester Utd are 16th in the Fair Play League so slim chance of them making it to Europe this way, but Tottenham Hotspur and Everton are up there.