Champions League and Europa League places: Who now qualifies for Europe after Man City beat Watford to win FA Cup Final?

Tom Herbert20 May 2019

In a few days' time, four English football teams will be battling it out in the finals of Europe's two premier club competitions.

London rivals Chelsea and Arsenal will fight it out for the Europa League trophy more than 2,000 miles away in Baku, Azerbaijan on May 29, while three nights later Liverpool go head-to-head with Tottenham in the final of the Champions League in Madrid.

The Premier League is always well-represented in Europe and normally the teams who finish in the top four are guaranteed a spot in the Champions League, while the fifth-placed team goes into the Europa League.

Winners of the domestic cups are given a spot in the Europa League, while winners of the two European cups go into the Champions League.

In Pictures | Man City vs Watford, FA Cup final | 18/05/19

1/75

However, three of the teams in the European finals have already qualified for next season's Champions League through their league positions, while Arsenal have already secured a Europa League spot.

Added to this Manchester City have now won a clean sweep of domestic trophies after Saturday's FA Cup win, so what happens to their three European places?

We've decided to try and break it down to hopefully help you understand it a bit more.

How can teams qualify for Europe through their league position?

Most teams qualify for Europe by securing a top-five finish in the Premier League.

The top-four sides usually go straight through to the group stages and the team which finishes fifth is granted a spot in the group stages of the Europa League.

How can teams qualify for Europe through the cups?

Now this is where it gets confusing, since the winners of the four separate cup competitions also get their turn in Europe.

FA Cup winners are guaranteed a spot in the group stages of the Europa League, while EFL Cup winners go into the second qualifying round of the same competition.

The winners of the Champions League and the Europa League, however, get an automatic place in the Champions League group stages for the following season.

But since all four teams left in the competitions are English, things get slightly complicated. Here's how it has panned out.

What happens next?

Sixth-placed Premier League finishers Manchester United are in next season's Europa League and they have Manchester City to thank for being in the group stages after the Premier League winners took home the FA Cup at the weekend.

The rules state that if the winners of the FA Cup finish in the top five, then their European spot goes to the next-highest ranked team not in Europe.

Also, Watford's failure to win the FA Cup Final means that Wolves have qualified for Europe for the first time since 1980. They will enter the second qualifying round of the Europa League.

What happens in Europe?

Since Liverpool and Tottenham have already qualified for the Champions League through the Premier League, then the spot set aside for the winner of the trophy goes to FC Red Bull Salzburg, champions of the Austrian Bundesliga, Uefa's 11th-ranked league.

If Chelsea were to win the Europa League, then the team who finished third in Uefa's fifth-ranked league would go straight into the Champions League group stages and avoid the qualifiers - in this case, Lyon.

However, if Arsenal win, there will be five English teams in next season's Champions League with Chelsea going through because of their league position.

There is no Champions League spot for the beaten finalist in either European competition, and there can only be a maximum of five teams from one country in the Champions League.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in