UEFA Confirm Champions League Rule Change That Could See Five Teams Qualify In Future

UEFA have confirmed that from the 2014/15 season the winners of the Europa League will earn a place in the following years Champions League competition.

Sky Sports have confirmed that the new ruling was ratified by the UEFA Congress in London on Friday morning and it means that the winners of the 2014/15 Europa League will compete in the 2015/16 Champions League.

It’s an interesting rule change that is designed to make the Europa League a more attractive prospect for those that have shown a preference to domestic games and used the Europa League as a way to give squad players more playing time.

Teams like Tottenham have rarely taken the competition too seriously in recent years as they’ve prioritised trying to finish in the top four in the Premier League over winning the Europa League due to the financial rewards qualifying for Europe’s premier tournament brings.

But now that should all change and some may argue it could be just as easy, if not easier, to win the Europa League than finish in the top four in England, so we should see more teams going all-out to try and win the competition from 2015 onward.

It’s also understood that the Europa League winners and Champions League winners will no longer take one of the four places if they finish outside the Champions League qualification spots. So for example, if Tottenham won the Europe League in 2014/15 but finished fifth in the league behind Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal again, the Premier League would have five representatives in the following years Champions League.

However, if a repeat of last season happened again in 2014/15 – whereby Chelsea won the Europe League but finished third in the league – the Premier League wouldn’t gain a fifth spot; we’d still have four representatives (Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal) with fifth-place Tottenham missing out.

More to come on this as we get it, but from what we’ve learned so far this looks to be a positive move by UEFA.

What do you think of the rule change? Will it make teams go all-out to win the Europa League now? Get involved in the comments section below.