Tottenham Hotspur, despite a drab 2024/25 season from a domestic standpoint, beat Manchester United 1-0 in the Europa League final – and a little-known UEFA rule means they will now play in a competition that only one team has ever won.
It took Brennan Johnson to open and close the scoring at Athletic Club’s San Mames Stadium in May for Ange Postecoglou to manage his penultimate game as Spurs boss – and now they are set to play in the Champions League next season.
GIVEMESPORT Key Statistic: In his 101-game stint in charge of Spurs, Postecoglou racked up a points per match ratio of 1.53.
Alongside rubbing shoulders with Europe’s elite, the north Londoners – who finished 17th in the Premier League last season – are set to take part in an exclusive UEFA competition, and it’s not the UEFA Super Cup in August against Paris Saint-Germain.
Spurs To Take Part in Exclusive UEFA Competition
Postecoglou, despite securing European glory for the first time in the club’s history, has been sacked by Daniel Levy and his entourage – and Brentford’s Thomas Frank, 51, has been confirmed as the 59-year-old’s immediate successor, per Fabrizio Romano.
Should the intelligent Dane take over, as alluded to, one of his first jobs will be facing a star-studded PSG but, by virtue of winning Europe’s second tier competition, they are also set to take part in a little-known competition: the UEFA-Conmebol Club Challenge.
Who participates are the winners of the Europa League and the champions of South America’s Copa Sudamericana – and that means that Spurs are set to lock horns with Argentine outfit Racing Club, whose President Diego Milito is eager to set a date.
Revamped due to a renewed partnership between UEFA and CONMEBOL, the competition was launched two years ago – and the inaugural, and only, winners are Sevilla. They lifted the trophy in 2023 after welcoming – and beating – Ecuadorian side Independiente del Valle to the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.
Serie A outfit Atalanta, who won the Europa League before Spurs, and Liga de Quto – who ply their trade in Ecuador’s top flight – were set to go head-to-head in last year’s iteration – but a fixture could not be arranged and so, the match-up was cancelled.
Ahead of Spurs’ venture into new territory, there are ever-growing fears that their match could suffer a similar fate as, per Football.London, UEFA higher-ups believe that it could prove difficult to get both sides together for the showpiece thanks to the congested calendar of the capital club.
Amid the uncertainty over their managerial future, the Premier League outfit – who are – are scheduled to play three friendlies in the same number of countries over the summer. They will play Arsenal and Newcastle United in Hong Kong and Seoul, respectively, before facing Bayern Munich on European soil.