Will we qualify for the CL?

[Nev]

The attitude that the Conference League is not worth qualifying for pisses me off but it's understandable given the SCR restrictions. There's something fundamentally wrong with the rules if teams don't want to qualify for a competition that is meant to be a reward for good performance. Is this just an English problem because teams are also trying to keep up in the PL? Part of me thinks that the dominant teams from smaller associations must be stretched pretty thin with wages too, although the UEFA prize money will be more significant to them of course.

I agree. Remember  the celebrations whem we qualified. Its a competition  in europe end of the day

The problem is once you qualify for CL the other two competitions  seem a step down

It's designed that way, and it's working. You only have to look at our attendances, tickets for the CL last season were like gold dust, my mate paid a kings ransom for a spot in the Cells when we played Celtic: "some limp fish and chips and a lanyard" was how he described it. I imagine the corporate take up is much lower this season as well. From the money and the media attention right down to the night of the week that the games are played - it's a European Super League in all but name and the smaller teams are only included as cannon fodder and ballast.

I hate saying it, but the CL is where it's at in terms of long term progression.

[algy]

If the Conference League winner also finishes in a Champions League/Europa League spot, they just qualify for the respective competition as normal. If they finish in the Conference League spot, they go into the Europa League and England has no Conference League place next season. However, if Conference League winner finishes outside the European places altogether, then England would have three Europa League places next season. As happened when West Ham won it.

As it stands, all of the top sixteen (plus Southampton) still have a theoretical chance of qualifying for Europe one way or another.

I don’t think that bit’s quite right. Places are awarded like this ….

1. Top 4/5 in the league qualify for Champions League - (transferable status irrelevant)
2. Champions League and Europa League winners qualify for Champions League - non-transferrable
3. Next highest league position and FA Cup winner - qualify for Europa League - transferable
4. Winner of Conference League - qualify for Europa League - non-transferable
5. Winner of League Cup - qualify for Conference League - transferable

Essentially teams only qualify via European competition if they haven’t qualified for the same or better competition domestically. But if they do, their domestic place can go to another team.

As an example, if Chelsea won the League Cup and Conference League, they’d take their Europa League place from Europe and their Conference League place would go to the highest non-qualifying league position. But if they won the FA Cup and Europa Conference, they’d take their Europa League place from the FA Cup so the Europa Conference winner’s position would disappear - it couldn’t be awarded to another club via the league.

You can in principle have 11 teams qualify for Europe (7 Champs League places, 3 Europa League places, 1 Conference League place), but it needs a convoluted set of circumstances where English teams win every European competition, but all of those teams underperform domestically.

[Dave]

They'd be fined massively and banned from future European competitions so that won't happen. 50,000 people a game plus sponsorship and prize money and they would still be far better off in the Conference League than not in Europe at all.

There will also be contractual obligations as well - if (for example) Sunderland qualify for Europe, then all of their sponsors and corporate partners will have it written into their agreements about extra money owed which then put requirements on the club to play their matches.

"Just pull out of the Conference League" is something for frustrated internet fans akin to "just spend what we want and take the punishment", rather than something that anyone would seriously consider doing.

[eamonn]

Winning the Europa and finishing top five means letting Chelsea or Liverpool into the CL through the back door, right? In the word of Dogtanian (H&Ver, not the muskahound), Grrr...

[eye digress]

Further confirmed here. Villa or Liverpool finish fifth and win Champions/Europa League, sixth gets Champions League.  Villa and Liverpool finish fifth and sixth (in either order) and both win their respective continental competitions, seventh gets Champions League.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c8r40164ne4o

I'm sure I was saying this about six months ago and NOBODY BELIEVED ME. I'm not even going to pretend not to be hurt.

Haha, don’t take it personally. Thanks for the clarification.

[Demitri_C]

The attitude that the Conference League is not worth qualifying for pisses me off but it's understandable given the SCR restrictions. There's something fundamentally wrong with the rules if teams don't want to qualify for a competition that is meant to be a reward for good performance. Is this just an English problem because teams are also trying to keep up in the PL? Part of me thinks that the dominant teams from smaller associations must be stretched pretty thin with wages too, although the UEFA prize money will be more significant to them of course.

I agree. Remember  the celebrations whem we qualified. Its a competition  in europe end of the day

The problem is once you qualify for CL the other two competitions  seem a step down

It's designed that way, and it's working. You only have to look at our attendances, tickets for the CL last season were like gold dust, my mate paid a kings ransom for a spot in the Cells when we played Celtic: "some limp fish and chips and a lanyard" was how he described it. I imagine the corporate take up is much lower this season as well. From the money and the media attention right down to the night of the week that the games are played - it's a European Super League in all but name and the smaller teams are only included as cannon fodder and ballast.

I hate saying it, but the CL is where it's at in terms of long term progression.

Agreed but i hope that our fans actuallh turn up (even with the high prices) for th2 wnd leg vs bologna. We could havw a fantastic  opportunity to get to the semis of a still big european competition

I would hope as you say with CL tickets being gold the same would apply with semi final game should we get there

[Dave]

Winning the Europa and finishing top five means letting Chelsea or Liverpool into the CL through the back door, right? In the word of Dogtanian (H&Ver, not the muskahound), Grrr...

If it's fifth, yes. If it's fourth or higher, no.