It was said that the top 4 in the EPL qualify
for CL, 5th qualify for europa league..
FA cup winner Winner qualifies for Europa league. If chelsea
wins (or lose) this season's FA cup, Portsmouth would qualify for
Europa League. Portsmouth is banned from next season's europe
competition because they did not registered at all. However, they
would like to fight the ban. If the ban is unsuccessful, the Europa
league place would go to the highest placed team in the league not
already qualified for europe. Thus 6th position in
the league qualifies for europe as well.
Carling cup winner qualifies for Europa league as well. Since
manchester won and is already in europe next season, then the
Europa league place would go to the highest placed team in the
league not already qualified for europe. Thus the
7th position in the league qualifies for europe as
well.
Europa league winner gets qualification into next season's
europa league group stages regardless of their league standings in
their own league. Therefore if fulham wins, they gets
invited back to Europa league as winners to
defend.
Fair play table. If the EPL has one of the top 3 rankings in
Fair play in Europe (which they are now), the highest team in the
Fair play table not already in europe next season qualifies for
Europa league. The current standings shows arsenal, tottenham,
fulham, man utd and chelsea as the top 5. Since Arsenal, Tottenham,
Fulham, Man utd and Chelsea would most likely qualify for europe
next season. Fulham would get to qualify for Europa league next
season via the Fair Play Table, if they dont win this season's
Europa league. However, if they win, then the Europa league place
would go to the highest placed team in the Fair Play Table not
already qualified for europ, and the team that is currently
occupying this position is the recently relegated Burnley
FC.
So next season those qualifying for Europe (for sure) Chelsea,
Man Utd, Arsenal. Those likely to qualify includes Tottenham,
villa, city and liverpool. However, the team that finishes 7th is
in a precarious situation as their place in Europa League might get
revoked if Portsmouth wins the appeal for their europe ban. And
this team is likely to be Liverpool FC (worst
scenario).
The worst scenario would be Portsmouth winning the appeal,
Fulham winning the Europa league and Burnley qualifying for Europe.
That would totally shame Liverpool FC to the max, especially with
2 relegated clubs playing in the Europa league,
Europe's 2nd tier competition.
Anyway, I got a feeling that Liverpool would qualify for Europe
next season. Their 2 remaining games is against Chelsea and Hull
City. Losing to chelsea and winning hull city should be enough to
guarantee them entry into the Europa league provided that the other
teams (city, spurs and villa) falters against their rivals.
City needs to face aston villa and spurs and west
ham united. They would need at least 6 points to
be sure of Europe (win 2 lose 1). Spurs faces
City, Burnley and Bolton and needs 5 points to be
sure of Europe (Win 1 draw 2). Villa faces City
and blackburn and needs 5 points to be sure of
Europe, which is equivalent to winning both
matches. By getting the required points, they will all
finish above liverpool FC. To make matters
interesting, Chelsea must win against Liverpool to have 1 hand on
the trophy, losing or drawing against pool would allow man utd to
almost have both hands on the trophy. Therefore, Chelsea must win
against liverpool. If liverpool loses, then matters get interesting
as their rivals can "relax" as they are guarantee at least an
Europa league placing. They will still fight for CL place
though.
However, if Liverpool FC does indeed finishes 7th, I believe the
FA would definitely reject the Portsmouth Appeal and instead let
Liverpool qualify for the Europa League, given that liverpool is a
more well known club with a great history and definitely one club
that has much more appeal than portsmouth. Therefore,
Liverpool would still be in Europe next season,
albeit by the "underhanded" means. Poor
Portsmouth.
This is the best post i've seen in awhile. All facts and
no-nonsense presented, and great analysis of possible scenarios. 1
thing that i'm not sure about is Carling cup. I think they have
removed the europa slot from winner of that competition, hence
making it the mickeist of all mickey mouse cups.
