The English Premier League is set to retain its four Champions League spots for the 2017-18 edition of the most coveted club competition in world football. UEFA officials came to this conclusion following Juventus’ exit from the competition as the Italian side slumped to a 4-2 defeat against Bayern Munich in the second leg of the round-of-16 fixture.
The Italian Football Federation was hoping to overtake England in UEFA’s coefficient ranking this season, thus moving to the third position in order to claim a Champions League berth at the FA’s expense.
However, Juventus’ exit from the Champions League on Wednesday leaves just Lazio as the sole Italian team in this year’s European competitions. The Biancocelesties can secure a maximum of 2.5 coefficient points provided they win the Europa Cup. However, the English clubs are currently leading with 3.97 coefficient points – which is completely out of Italy’s reach.
England has a single team which has advanced to the quarterfinal stage of the Champions League and it is highly likely the same will occur in the Europa League as well with Manchester United and Liverpool pitted against each other and Tottenham Hotspur trailing by three goals versus Borussia Dortmund.
Italy outperforms England
Last season, the Serie A clubs had scored 19,000 to outperform the English clubs for the first time since 2005-06.
This year, however, only the Spanish and the German sides have been able to outscore the clubs from England. Italy’s chances were hampered badly by Sampdoria’s exit in the third qualifying round of the second-tier club competition of Europe. Southampton and West Ham – the two English clubs – failed to qualify for the group stage of the Europa League as well.
However, FC Fiorentina’s defeat at the hands of Spurs was a crucial factor in the whole England – Italy saga and Juventus’ exit from the Champions League is just the final nail in the coffin for the Italian clubs.
It could be a completely different story next season as the coefficient standings are based on a five-year period. Therefore, when the 2011-12 score will be reset at the end of the current season, Italy will get 3.893 points in order to get level with the other leagues.
However, there is a possibility that the current admission system in the Champions League could get scrapped from 2018-19 with the prospective inception of a European Super League.
