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Qualification for European competitions |
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Qualification for European competitions
Bolton Wanderers and Fulham compete in the FA Cup.
The top four teams in the Premiership qualify for the UEFA Champions League, with the top two teams directly entering the group phase. The third and fourth placed teams enter the competition at the third qualifying round and must win a two-legged knockout tie in order to enter the group phase. The fifth placed team automatically qualifies for the UEFA Cup, and the sixth and seventh placed teams can also qualify, depending on what happens in the two domestic cup competitions. If the FA Cup winners and runners-up both finish in the top five of the Premier League, the FA Cup's UEFA Cup spot goes to the sixth placed team in the League. If the League Cup is won by a team that has already qualified for Europe, the League Cup's UEFA Cup spot also goes to the next highest placed team in the League (unlike the FA Cup spot, it is never transferred to the losing finalist). The highest placed team that has not qualified for the UEFA Cup is allowed the opportunity to compete in the UEFA Intertoto Cup, provided they have applied to enter the Intertoto Cup in the next season. The winner of the Intertoto Cup is automatically entered into the UEFA Cup.
Technically, the FA can nominate any team in the league system to represent them in Europe; however, understandably and just as in all the other major leagues, only the teams that finished top of their highest league are sent. This issue presented itself in 2005 when Liverpool won the UEFA Champions League, but failed to finish high enough in the Premier League to be entered into the following year's tournament. Initially, this would have meant that for the first time in the competition's history the defending champions would not have been allowed to defend their trophy. In fact, a similar situation had occurred at the start of the 2000/01 Champions League, when defending champions Real Madrid from Spain did not finish high enough to qualify. In that situation, they were allowed to qualify by sacrificing the fourth placed qualifier that year. However, the FA insisted on its policy of only entering the four highest qualifiers. In addition, Everton (who finished fourth in the Premier League that year) bemoaned the fact that they would lose their place, which they insisted that they had earned. UEFA, although initially reluctant to alter the rules, were forced to admit five English teams to the Champions League that year after receiving support from their own president Lennart Johansson,[11] FIFA president Sepp Blatter,[12] and prominent members of the game such as Franz Beckenbauer.[13] Subsequently, UEFA demanded that the defending champions of the trophy must qualify for the competition the following year regardless of their domestic league placing. This means that, in future, if an English team wins the Champions League but finishes outside the top four in the Premier League, the team will be entered into the next season's Champions League at the expense of the fourth-placed team.
The Premiership was recently promoted to second in the UEFA rankings of European leagues based on their performances in European competitions over a five year period, behind Spain's La Liga and now above Italy's Serie A.[14] The top three leagues in Europe are currently allowed to enter four teams into the Champions League, although the new UEFA president Michel Platini has proposed changing the rules so as to limit any league's Champions League contingent to three at some point in the future. |
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