With the race for European places the only aspect of the Premier League still keeping fans engaged at this point of 2024-25, we look at how many teams could be in Europe next term.
So much was settled so early in the Premier League this season, with the title and relegation places confirmed considerably sooner than is normal.
But the idea that there’s nothing left to play for simply isn’t the case. The fight for European places – if that’s your thing – arguably has never been more exciting than in 2024-25.
Not only is the table tight, but there are additional complications caused by Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea all qualifying for European finals, and Crystal Palace – 12th in the Premier League table – reaching the FA Cup showpiece.
Understandably, all the moving parts make it difficult to clearly work out how many Premier League teams will be in Europe next season.
At the moment, there is no truly definitive answer. However, here we attempt to provide some clarity…
What’s the bottom line? How many Premier League teams will be in Europe next season?
Straight to the point – fair enough. The long and short of it is there will be nine Premier League teams in Europe next season as a minimum.
How are the nine made up?
Well, six Premier League clubs are guaranteed to be in the Champions League alone.
The Premier League automatically gets four UCL spots anyway, but because English clubs have performed well in Europe this season, England will at least finish the campaign second in UEFA’s association coefficient rankings. That guarantees an extra place in the Champions League for 2025-26 by virtue of the European Performance Spots (EPS) initiative. Hence, the top five will go straight into next term’s UCL.
So, six clubs but not the top six.
The sixth UCL place will be taken up by either Man Utd or Spurs as they’ll contest the Europa League final on 21 May, and the winners will return to Europe’s top table next term as titleholders because neither have done well enough to qualify domestically.
That’s your six UCL qualification spots, then.
The knock-on effect of fifth now going into the UCL is that sixth place takes up the Premier League’s only guaranteed UEL spot.
Wait, the Premier League isn’t always guaranteed to have two Europa League representatives and one in the Conference League?
Strictly speaking, no. The FA Cup winners earn a Europa League spot, while the EFL Cup victors qualify for the Conference League. However, if the winners of either (or both) cup competitions qualify for the Champions League or Europa League via their placing in the top-flight table, then the Premier League does take the extra slots for the UEL and Conference League.
So, in addition to the six UCL places, there’s one automatic qualification spot from the Premier League for the UEL (that makes seven PL teams in Europe), another for the winners of the FA Cup final, which will be contested by two top-flight clubs (that makes eight…), and then the winners of the EFL Cup, who were Newcastle (that makes nine), get a place in the UCoL.
Now, that’s about as simple as the situation can be explained; there will be at least nine Premier League clubs in Europe next season. That is an unequivocal, absolute fact.
But there’s still plenty of confusion around who some of those nine clubs will be and which competitions they’ll be in, predominantly because three of the teams in the hunt for European places in the league have either already won (Newcastle) or still have to play (Manchester City and Chelsea) a final that secures them a route into Europe.
The scenarios and permutations in that respect are still very complicated and almost endless because there’s only six points separating second (Arsenal) and seventh (Nottingham Forest) with two games left. A lot can change over the next nine days so, suffice to say, we aren’t going to try and outline all of those possibilities.
Didn’t you say nine Premier League clubs in Europe was the minimum?
While there are almost endless scenarios regarding the exact makeup of the clubs representing the Premier League in Europe and which competitions they’re in, explaining the possibility of 10 English teams securing European football is, mercifully, slightly easier.
So yes, it’s possible that half of the Premier League is competing in European competition in 2025-26.
But how?
Crucially, Crystal Palace would need to win the FA Cup.
Oliver Glasner’s men are one of four clubs to have won or are still to play a final that could secure a route into Europe. However, they’re the only one of the four who can’t qualify for Europe via their league position. Well, we say “can’t”. They can technically finish eighth, it’s just extremely unlikely as it’d require them to win their last two games, have a whole load of results – involving Brighton, Brentford, Bournemouth and Fulham – go their way, and benefit from a massive goal difference swing.
Essentially, beating Man City in a one-off game is far more likely, and doing so would get them into the Europa League.
The other requirements for 10 clubs to enter Europe in this scenario would be that Chelsea finish seventh but win the Conference League to qualify for the Europa League, and Newcastle finish in the top five. That would leave sixth going into the Europa League with Palace and Chelsea, while the team in eighth takes Newcastle’s EFL Cup-winners spot in the UCoL.
Or, Chelsea come sixth and win the UCoL, the latter securing them Europa League football, and Newcastle finish seventh, joining them in the UEL by taking the Blues’ league-position allocation. Their place in the UCoL would pass to the team in eighth. You then add Palace and Man Utd/Spurs to get 10 Premier League clubs in Europe.
So, there you have it: in 2025-26, there will be no fewer than nine Premier League clubs competing in European competition and there could potentially be as much as half the English top tier on adventures across the continent.
Nevertheless, don’t suddenly expect 10 English clubs competing in Europe to become the norm.
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