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Uefa to offer Europa League winners Champions League spot

By on May 23, 2013
Under new rulings Europa League winners are set to be given a Champions League spot, starting in 2015

Under new rulings Europa League winners are set to be given a Champions League spot, starting in 2015

Uefa is reportedly set to announce a new Champions League qualifying rule that will hand Europa League winners a spot in the Champions League in a bid to make the Europa League more attractive. The new rule is set to be amongst other principles Uefa will announce on Friday, all of which will first apply for the 2014/2015 season, as the regulations of European competitions run in three-year cycles, the next of which beginning in 2015.

Uefa’s executive committee have been eager to make the Europa League more attractive, which is not taken seriously by many clubs who enter, since the competition replaced the Uefa Cup in 2009. The League mainly features top sides’ reserve players, and Uefa would jump at the chance to boost the competition’s importance.

Although Uefa decided against awarding a Champions League spot to the Europa League runners-up, Uefa are considering allowing top nations to enter five clubs in the Champions League and expanding the amount of Europa League spots currently available. The European governing will also add a rule that forbids teams who win the Champions League or Europa League but finish outside their league’s Champions League qualifying zone to take the place of a domestic rival in the Champions League. Instead, the Uefa would let both sides enter the elite competition. But in the unlikely situation in which teams from the same country win both the Champions League and Europa League, yet one of the sides finishes outside of the maximum of five Champions League places offered in their domestic league, only the European champions top three placing sides in the domestic league would take a place in the Champions League.

With the new rules, the fate that befell Tottenham Hotspur in 2011/2012, where Chelsea won the Europa League but finished in sixth in the English Premier League, letting them steal Spurs’ Champions League spot, would not happen.

The only time five teams from the same nation took place in the Champions League was in 2005 when no rules were placed against it happening, and Liverpool won the Champions League but finished in fifth place in the Premier League. Because of the odd situation, Uefa announced that a maximum of four sides from one country were allowed to take place in the Champions League the following summer.

Meanwhile, Uefa confirmed that any player or official disciplined for racism would receive a minimum 10-match ban. Any racism in the stands a during a Uefa competition would lead to a partial stadium closure, and bans from attending matches for the fans. The new measures will be put before Uefa’s congress of Friday, and will likely be approved as Uefa have been pushed to toughen their line on racism after various incidents.

Among other desicions, Uefa have also announced that the 2015 Champions League final will be held in Berlin, Germany, while the 2015 Europa League final will be held in Warsaw, Poland.

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.