Chelsea FC has qualified for the Champions League and could win the Conference League on Wednesday. Who would benefit? A look at the UEFA regulations.
It was a wet, cheerful, and loud atmosphere in the visitors’ dressing room at Nottingham’s City Ground on Sunday. Chelsea FC celebrated qualifying for the Champions League after a 1-0 away win against their direct rivals as if they had won the title—which they could do on Wednesday in the Conference League final against Real Betis. That would have curious consequences.
In principle, the winner of the Conference League qualifies for the group stage of the Europa League. However, as the Blues now have their ticket to the Champions League in the bag, they do not need the Europa League ticket, but can still pick it up if they want to.
As Conference League winners, Chelsea would have the choice
The UEFA regulations state: “If the UEFA Conference League title holder qualifies for the UEFA Champions League via its national championship, it may choose between entering the UEFA Champions League or the group stage of the UEFA Europa League.”
The competition authorities have left open the question of why a club would voluntarily forego the far more lucrative Champions League participation. In any case, Chelsea officials would not think twice if they beat Betis.
A Betis triumph would also have consequences for other clubs
But what would happen to the Europa League spot that is actually intended for the Conference League winner? This will be “occupied by the club with the highest individual club coefficient of all clubs qualified for the main path or play-offs of the competition, provided that this club is either the national cup winner or the best-ranked club in the national championship of those clubs of its association that have not yet qualified directly for the league phase of the competition,” writes UEFA.
In short: one team can skip the Europa League qualifiers and start directly in the group stage. Given the coefficient rankings for the coming season, this is likely to be either Dinamo Zagreb as Croatian cup winners or Shakhtar Donetsk as Ukrainian cup winners.
Incidentally, regardless of Tuesday’s result, one team from another country will benefit: Betis has already secured a Europa League spot via La Liga and would therefore not be dependent on the ticket reserved for the Conference League winner.