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Tottenham are hoping to win the Europa League and secure Champions League qualification in the process.
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Tottenham have secured a spot in the 2025 Europa League final in Bilbao, where they will meet Premier League rivals Manchester United. Both sides will be looking to salvage what has otherwise been a miserable season when they battle for a major European trophy on May 21, but the silverware is not the only reward on the line.
Crucially for both clubs, the winner of that game will secure Champions League qualification for next season, and that will be a much needed boost - financially and otherwise - for whoever wins, given they have fallen short of European qualification in the Premier League.
But what happens to the other Premier League qualification spots? Tottenham will reluctantly remember the time they were dumped out of the Champions League despite finishing fourth when Chelsea won the Champions League in 2012, but plenty has changed since then. In fact, not only has the Champions League changed, with more teams and a very different group stage system being employed these days, but qualification for the competition, and indeed the other European competitions, has also changed. Here we run you through what you need to know.
How does Tottenham winning the Europa League impact the Premier League’s European spots?
In short, it does not. If Tottenham or Manchester United win the Europa League this season, they will, of course, secure qualification for next season’s Champions League. But in either case, if the Europa League winners prove to be an English club, they will not take the place of a club that secures Champions League qualification through finishing in the Premier League’s top five.
That was the case in the past, but those days have past. Even this season, when the Premier League has five clubs in the Champions League due to securing a top two spot in the seasonal coefficient rankings, all five teams who finish in the top five will get their Champions League spot regardless of what happens elsewhere. That is good news for top five hopefuls Aston Villa, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest, Manchester City and Chelsea.
Should Tottenham or Manchester United win the Europa League, there will be six English clubs in next season’s Champions League. That will be the first time that as many English clubs has played in the competition, which is no surprise given it was capped at four for many years.
As things stand, sixth and seventh place in the Premier League will lead to Europa League qualification, while eighth will secure Conference League qualification. The only way that can change is by Crystal Palace winning the FA Cup, with the Eagles set to play Manchester City in the final.
If that happens, the Europa League spot will go to sixth, Palace will take the other, and seventh will be a Conference League spot. Eighth would no longer be enough to qualify for the Conference League in that scenario. Should Chelsea win the Conference League, it would have no impact on the European places because they will qualify for at least the Europa League through the Premier League. In the case of the Blues coming out on top in that competition, the Europa League spot that comes from winning the Conference League would not be awarded to any club.