The English Premier League has been able to secure four Champions League spots for the season 2017-18. The last 16 exit of Juventus last year made it unfeasible for Italy to overtake England in the coefficient rankings of UEFA.
Moreover, Manchester City represented England in the Champions League’s quarter-finals. And, the Premier League will have a minimum of one team in the last eight of the Europa League. The only Serie A team that took part in the European competition in the finals was Lazio.
Last year in 2016, Arsenal was defeated by Barcelona in the Champions League. Despite this bad news, there was still some nice news for the English football clubs. The good news was that the EPL retained their four qualification spots for the Europe’s top football club competition for their 2017-18 season.
As mentioned before, the last second leg round of 16-exit of Juventus by Bayern Munich with a defeat of 4 to 2 made it impossible for Italy to take over England in the coefficient rankings of the UEFA. After this, Manchester City remained the only one England team of the English Premier League in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
In the beginning of the season 2015-16, the fourth spot of Champions League in the Premier League was under threat, since many English football clubs struggled in Europe in the recent football seasons. Serie A also puts the four places in the Champions League in danger from the next season’s start.
UEFA coefficient rankings
The UEFA coefficient rankings for now are Spain is at the top with 98.856 points, Germany is at the second spot with 77.749 points, England is at the third position with 74.284 points, and Italy is at the fourth position with 70.439 points.
This clearly shows that Spain and Germany have the top rankings, whereas England is an insurmountable four point ahead of Italy. The maximum points that are added by Lazio alone are 2.5. This means that even the glory of Europa League will not be enough for Italy to defeat England.
But, currently the English football clubs are leading with coefficient points of 3.97, which is completely out of reach for Italy. The elimination of Sampdoria from the qualifying stage of the Europa League was a big blow to Italy’s chances of defeating England.
Moreover, when Tottenham knocked out Fiorentina in the final 32, it hampered the efforts of Italy further. However, Italy can get a better chance of leaving behind England next season in the rankings. Albeit, with the sides of the Premier League, they are losing their points that they accumulated in the football season of 2011-12.
In the 2015 season, the football clubs of Serie A scored 19,000 in order to beat the English football clubs for the very first time ever since 2005-06. However, in 2016 the German and Spanish sides outscored the England football clubs.
This hampered the chances of Italy, when Sampdoria exited the 2nd-tier Europe club competition in its 3rd qualifying round. West Ham and Southampton, the two English football clubs, did not make it to the Europa League’s group stage.
However, since the coefficient ranking points are counted over the duration of 5 seasons of football, it can be a completely different thing in the next season. The football clubs gain points by recording draws or wins for their associations and thus progress through the contest. This means that the 2011-12 football campaign, wherein England scored nearly 4 points over Italy, will not be there.
There was a time, when it seemed that the season 2015-16 was bad for the English clubs and a good one for Italian football teams. This made us believe that the allocation of spots will change in the new season. However, in the knockout rounds, everything went wrong for the Italian football clubs, even after they had a strong group phase.
In fact, it was so bad that not even a single Italian football team made it to the quarterfinals. And, this was the very first time that this kind of thing happened with the Italian football teams since 2000-01. Moreover, the EPL has a small lead than Serie A with 1.952 points.
Three English Premier Leagues get 4 berths of Champions Leagues and La Liga is very much in progress and does not stand any chances of losing a spot. Thus, the Premier League has retained its 4 Champions League positions for the 2017-18 season of the most desired football club competition in world soccer.
How are ‘points’ gained?
When it comes to gaining coefficient points, let me tell you how it is done. Each football team receives 2 points when they win either of the European competition. They get 1 point, if a football match results in a draw. However, the points are broken into halves for football games in the play-off and qualifying rounds.
The football clubs that come into the final, semi-finals, or the quarter-finals of the Europa League, or the final, semi-finals, quarter-finals, or the last 16 of the Champions League, are given one additional point for every round. Additionally, 4 points are given, when a football club participates in the Champions League’s group stage.
When football clubs qualify for the last 16, then also they are awarded 4 points. Then, the total points that a country gains are divided by the number of football clubs that signify that country. So, this is how football clubs gain points.
