Manchester United and Newcastle United both finishing bottom of their Champions League groups could potentially cost the Premier League an extra Champions League spot next season.
We know that Europe’s elite competition is set to undergo a major makeover next season (‘the Swiss model’ and that could mean changes to the Premier League’s top four as we know it.
From next season onwards, 36 clubs will take part in Europe’s most prestigious competition and will be grouped together in one big league table, as opposed to 32 teams being divided into eight groups of four.
Each team will play eight matches, four home and four away, but all against different opponents. The top eight teams go straight to the last 16, while teas placed between ninth and 24th in the table move into the play-offs.
This means the two best-performing leagues in Europe this season will be handeded one extra place for next season and the early knockout blows for United and Newcastle means the Premier League is on course to miss out.
On Tuesday night, United suffered a 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich, meaning they finished bottom of Group A and miss out on a place in the Europa League. Newcastle crashed out tonight as they lost 2-1 to AC Milan at St. James’ Park.
As a result, the Premier League is currently ranked thired with an average rating of 12.13 for UEFA’s coefficient rankings this season — Germany and Italy.
The coefficient rankings are also in play for competitions such as the Europa League and Conference League.
Both Arsenal and Man City are keeping the Premier League afloat as far as the Champions League is concerned.
This could back to bite United unless we can sort out our domestic form which has been abysmal this season, with the Reds currently sat sixth in the standings.
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