As things currently stand, the top five places in the Premier League would all get a place in next season’s Champions League.
There will once again be 36 rather than 32 teams in next season’s Champions League, and two of those extra places will once again be awarded to the leagues who have been deemed to have performed best in Europe this season.
In five of the last seven seasons, England would have claimed one of those two spots. Last season, when it mattered, they didn’t; England trailed in behind Germany and Italy, with Newcastle and Man United’s pre-Christmas exits from Europe a key early factor before a series of disappointments across all three competitions in the knockout stages.
The system for working out the co-efficient rating that decides which leagues come out on top is (relatively) simple.
Every win in Europe – whether Champions, Europa or Conference League – is worth two points to your country’s tally, and every draw one. There are then assorted bonus points to be awarded based on finishing positions in the bumper new league tables as well as further points for reaching different knockout rounds.
All teams competing in the Champions League phase are awarded six points just for being there. You get an additional 0.25 points for finishing 24th in the final table, with an extra 0.25 points on offer for each position from there up. So 23rd gets 0.5, 22nd gets 0.75 and so on all the way up to six points for the table-toppers. The Europa League has no bonus points for competing, but again offers 0.25 points to the team that ends 24th and six to the team finishing first on the same sliding scale as the Champions League.
Just to keep us all on our toes, it’s slightly different again in the Conference. Here you get 0.125 points for 24th, and an extra 0.125 points for each position up to ninth, and then 0.25 points for each extra position you can climb in the top eight.
Long story short, the table-toppers in the Champions League will get 12 points altogether, Europa League toppers six points, and Conference League four.
Champions League teams will get an extra 1.5 points for each knockout round they participate in (last 16, quarter-final, semi-final, final), Europa League teams one point for each round, and Conference League teams 0.5 points. There are no bonus points on offer for reaching the playoff round that teams finishing between ninth and 24th in each competition have to deal with.
So if you qualify for, say, the Champions League quarter-final by winning both legs of your last-16 clash, you collect 5.5 points for your country’s tally: two for each win and a bonus 1.5 points for reaching the next stage. If you get through with a win and a defeat it’s 3.5 points (two for a win, plus the qualification bonus). And so on.
The total number of points accrued by all teams from a particular league are then divided by the total number of teams from that league who began the season in European competition to obtain an average rating that determines the all-important standings.
So taking last year’s table-toppers Italy as an example, their teams between them amassed 147 points across their European campaigns. They started the season with seven teams in Europe, so 147 divided by seven gives their final score of a nice neat 21.000.
This also therefore means individual match wins are worth more to the score for a country that had fewer teams involved to begin with; a win for any Dutch side this season, for instance, is worth 0.333pts to the final tally because it is two points divided by the six teams they had in contention when the season began, while for Italy or Germany a two-point win is worth only 0.250pts to the total after it has been divided by eight.
It’s very early days in every conceivable way, but as things currently stand Nottingham Forest and Manchester City would qualify for next season’s Champions League with England sitting second in the current standings.
1) Belgium – 9.400pts
Club Brugge are in contention for a play-off spot in the Champions League, currently sitting 19th above Real Madrid, while Anderlecht look good for a top-eight spot in the Europa League. Union Saint-Gilloise currently sit 20th, but both Cercle Brugge and Gent should make the play-offs at least in the Conference.
Total points: 47.000.
Total teams: Five
Teams still active: Five
League phase: Club Brugge (UCL), Union Saint-Gilloise (UEL), Anderlecht (UEL), Cercle Brugge (UECL), Gent (UECL)
2) England – 9.140pts
A repeat of last year’s damaging pair of early Champions League exits for Newcastle and Manchester United doesn’t appear to be on the cards this time around, with Liverpool top, and Arsenal and Aston Villa set for a top-eight spot. Even City, for all their antics, remain clear of the bottom 12 and elimination for now. Meanwhile, Spurs and Man United both look well placed for the play-offs at least in the Europa League while Chelsea are cruising through the Conference with almost embarrassing ease.
Total points: 64.000
Total teams: Seven
Teams still active: Seven
League phase: Manchester City (UCL), Arsenal (UCL), Liverpool (UCL), Aston Villa (UCL), Tottenham (UEL), Manchester United (UEL), Chelsea (UECL)
3) Portugal – 9.000pts
Sporting and Benfica have each picked up three Champions League wins, which carry plenty of early heft with only five teams to divide the total by. Porto are in the top 24 on the Europa League table but Braga are in danger of dropping out, while Vitoria have four wins and a draw from five games in the Conference.
Total points: 32.000
Total teams: Four
Teams still active: Three
League phase: Elfsborg (UEL), Malmo (UEL), Djurgarden (UECL)
4) Sweden – 8.000pts
These heady heights will be short-lived with both Europa League sides in danger of elimination, though Djurgarden are in contention for a top-eight spot in the Conference League.
Total points: 32.000
Total teams: Four
Teams still active: Three
League phase: Elfsborg (UEL), Malmo (UEL), Djurgarden (UECL)
5) Italy – 7.750pts
Having eight teams means a slow start for Italy but all but Bologna are well placed to go through to the next phase, with Lazio and Fiorentina among the favourites for the lowlier competitions.
Total points: 62.000
Total teams: Eight
Teams still active: Eight
League phase: Inter Milan (UCL), Milan (UCL), Atalanta (UCL), Juventus (UCL), Bologna (UCL), Lazio (UEL), Roma (UEL), Fiorentina (UECL)
6) Czechia – 7.500pts
7) Spain – 7.284pts
8) Greece – 7.125pts
9) Poland – 7.125pts
10) Turkey – 7.100pts