Pointless European Qualification Analysis

There has been a pointless, ongoing discussion on the Saintsweb Forum about the European qualification rules in various unlikely scenarios.  It is my belief that the club that finishes in fifth place in a county like England which has four automatic qualifiers for the Champion’s League will always qualify for Europe.  However, some posters on Saintweb believe that it is theoretically possible for the fifth place finisher not to qualify for Europe.  This blog is my attempt to resolve the dispute using the relevant UEFA rules.  I am using the UEFA Champions League rules for 2015-2016.  I believe these rules remain in effect for the next two seasons.  For the purposes of this article, I will assume I am talking about England, but the same analysis would apply to any association that had four automatic qualifiers into the Champions League.

A specific example of the circumstances under which some people believe the fifth place club could be excluded from Europe is when the sixth place finisher wins the Champion’s League, the seventh place finisher wins the Europa League, the eighth place finisher wins the FA cup, and the ninth place finisher wins the Capital One cup.  In other words, this scenario:

1. Don't win any cup
2. Don't win any cup
3. Don't win any cup
4. Don't win any cup
5. Don't win any cup
6. Win CL
7. Win EL
8. Win FA Cup
9. Win C1 Cup

It is my opinion that under these circumstances the first nine clubs all qualify for Europe.  I will work through the UEFA rules to show why this is correct.

Annex A of the rules provides the standard answer when there are no unusual circumstances.  Applying these rules to the above scenario we start with these results:

1. Don't win any cup       CL group phase
2. Don't win any cup       CL group phase
3. Don't win any cup       CL group phase
4. Don't win any cup       CL playoff phase
5. Don't win any cup       EL group phase
6. Win CL
7. Win EL
8. Win FA Cup                   EL group phase
9. Win C1 Cup                   EL 3^rd qualifying round

To determine what happens with the Champions League title holder we have to look at Rule 3.03 which states:

The UEFA Champions League titleholder is guaranteed a place in the group stage even if it does not qualify for the competition through its domestic championship.  If the UEFA Champions League titleholder qualifies for the UEFA Europa League through one of its domestic competitions, the number of places to which its association is entitled in the UEFA Europa League is decreased by one. The created vacancy is rebalanced accordingly and priority for the UEFA Europa League is given to the domestic cup winners (in accordance with the entry stage as per the access list).

Standing on its own, this rule makes it clear that if the Champion’s League title holder also qualified for the Europa League, England would lose one of its Europa League entries.  Implicit in this rule, in my opinion, is a determination that if the Champion’s League titleholder does not qualify for Europe at all, there would be no loss of a Europa League spot.  If this were not the case, it would make more sense to write the rule as simply stating that if the Champion’s League’s titleholder does not qualify for the Champions League through domestic competition, the association will always lose one place in the Europa League.

This means that we our scenario now goes:

1. Don't win any cup       CL group phase
2. Don't win any cup       CL group phase
3. Don't win any cup       CL group phase
4. Don't win any cup       CL playoff phase
5. Don't win any cup       EL group phase
6. Win CL                           CL group phase
7. Win EL
8. Win FA Cup                   EL group phase
9. Win C1 Cup                   EL 3^rd qualifying round

Rule 3.04 provides:

The UEFA Europa League titleholder is guaranteed a place in the competition as a minimum in the play-offs. It will have priority filling a vacancy created in the group stage or in the play-offs by the UEFA Champions League titleholder.

This rule is clear.  The Europa League titleholder always enters the Champion’s League and has a priority filling a vacancy created at the group stage by the Champion’s League titleholder.  In our hypothetical scenario, no such vacancy exists because our Champion’s League qualifier is also from same association and did not earn a Champion’s League place on its own.  This means in our scenario the Europa League Titleholder would enter in the playoff rounds of the Champion’s league.  So we are now here:

1. Don't win any cup       CL group phase
2. Don't win any cup       CL group phase
3. Don't win any cup       CL group phase
4. Don't win any cup       CL playoff phase
5. Don't win any cup       EL group phase
6. Win CL                             CL group phase
7. Win EL                             CL playoff phase
8. Win FA Cup                   EL group phase
9. Win C1 Cup                    EL 3^rd qualifying round

Rules 3.05 and 3.06 make it clear that the Europa League titleholder gets to play directly in the group phase if it qualifies for the group phase through its domestic competition and that it gets to play in the playoff phase if it qualifies for the playoff phase directly through domestic competition.  In our scenario neither of these two circumstances occurs. 

Rule 3.07 details what would happen in all other possible situations.  It is confusing, but I think I have sorted it out.  The relevant scenario is the fourth one on the list where there is “No vacancy in the group stage or play-offs” because the “UCL titleholder does not qualify for the competition and comes from an association ranked 1 to 12 in the access list.”  In our scenario, England is ranked 1, 2, or 3 on the access list.  Therefore, the Europa League title holder enters the Champions League in the Play-offs on the League path.  So there is no change in the current list.

Rule 3.08 provides:

Exceptionally, an association may be represented by five clubs in the competition if the UEFA Champions League and/or UEFA Europa League titleholder does not also qualify through its domestic championship.

This tells us that our current scenario is wrong because we have six clubs in the Champions League and, implicit in 3.08, is a five club limit on Champions League entries from a single association.  However, we have not yet encountered the rule that tells us what to do about this problem.  Rule 3.09 is that rule:

If the UEFA Champions League titleholder and the UEFA Europa League titleholder come from the same association and do not qualify for the competition through their domestic championship, one of the following scenarios applies:

It then goes on to list six possible scenarios.  The third scenario is the one that applies to our hypothetical:

If the association is entitled to four places in the UEFA Champions League and neither titleholder qualifies for the UEFA Europa League through its domestic championship, the lowest-placed of the association’s UEFA Champions League representatives is automatically transferred to the UEFA Europa League (into the UEFA Europa League group stage and the access list will be rebalanced accordingly). In this case, the association of the titleholders is entitled to one additional place (total of five) in the UEFA Champions League and one additional place (total of four) in the UEFA Europa League.

This rule clearly states that the association can have nine total entries into Europe.  Applying this rule to our hypothetical scenarios we end up like this:

1. Don't win any cup       CL group phase
2. Don't win any cup       CL group phase
3. Don't win any cup       CL group phase
4. Don't win any cup       EL group phase
5. Don't win any cup       EL group phase
6. Win CL                             CL group phase
7. Win EL                             CL playoff phase
8. Win FA Cup                   EL group phase
9. Win C1 Cup                    EL 3^rd qualifying round

The one thing that is not clear to me is what rebalancing the access list “accordingly” means exactly.  There is a potential reference to this subject in Annex A which states:

If the access list needs to be adjusted once all the participants are known and admitted, priority for the UEFA Champions League will be given to the winners of the domestic championship (in accordance with the entry stage as per the access list). The adjusted list will be announced by circular letter.

This suggests that the actual process of rebalancing the access list is not a simple one and cannot be decided until the actual facts are known.  I would guess that this means that someone gets kicked out of the Europa League group phase to make room for the extra club from England.  Possibly, it would be the 5^th place English club being bounced out of the group phase.  In any case, this would cause a cascade effect on all the earlier qualifying rounds and could, I suppose, bounce England’s Capital One cup winner down to the 2^nd qualifying round.  On the other hand, the rebalancing might always be to the detriment of lower ranked associations.  I simply don’t know and haven’t found anything in the rules that addresses this issue.  (I have not read the entire 94 pages of the rules—just the portions that seemed potentially relevant.) 

I think the best way of understanding the European qualification rules is to understand that both European title holders will always qualify for the Champions League.  Also, any club that qualifies for Europe through their domestic competition cannot lose their place in Europe because another club from the same association wins a European title.  However, a club can be dropped from the Champions League into the Europa League or placed into an earlier qualifying found because another club from their association (or from some other association) won a European title.

Finally, I am going to try to blog more regularly during this off season (or should I say close season). I intend to devote an hour a day to my blog.  This does not mean I will blog every day because some of my blog posts require more work than an hour and also because I am certain there were be days when I cannot spend any time on the blog—for example, when I am out of town on vacation (holiday) or work (work).

In any case, if any regular (or irregular) readers of my blog have any suggestions for subjects they would like me to write about, I would certainly appreciate the suggestions.