There have been five Champions League participants from one country in a single season on a few occasions in the past. However, six teams from one league have never participated in Europe’s highest international club competition at the same time. That will change in the coming season.
When representatives of FC Bayern Munich, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, and the two remaining Champions League participants from the Bundesliga gather at the start of next season for the draw for the league phase, there is a good chance that chance will give the clubs an opponent from the island. That’s because six clubs from the English Premier League will be competing in the Champions League in 2025/26.
This has been certain since Thursday evening, when Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur secured an all-English Europa League final. The winner of the competition will receive a place in the Champions League if they have not already qualified via the league.
Struggling finalists secure additional place for England
If the winner is already in a Champions League spot, the additional spot will be distributed according to UEFA’s access list and will not remain in the respective country. However, as both finalists are far behind expectations in the league – ManUnited is 15th, Spurs 16th – the ticket will remain with the Europa League winner and thus go to England.
In addition to the four starting places allocated to the top four leagues and the place via the Europa League, the fifth-placed Premier League team also qualifies for Europe’s highest club competition this year. This is because England has already secured one of the European Performance Spots (EPS), which go to the two countries with the highest points total in the UEFA one-year ranking. A Spanish club (currently Villarreal) can look forward to the second spot.
Germany has twice entered the competition with five teams
This is a first for the English. Never before have more than five participants from one country competed in the Champions League. Germany, for example, competed twice with five teams, in 2022/23, before the CL reform due to Frankfurt’s Europa League victory, and last year due to the EPS.
As things stand, champions Liverpool, runners-up Arsenal, Manchester City, Newcastle United, and Chelsea, as well as the winner of the Europa League final between Manchester United and Tottenham, would be in the draw. However, only champions Liverpool are certain of third place with three games—or one final—to go. Nottingham and Aston Villa also still have a chance of finishing in the top five via the league.
Seventh starting place would have been possible
Incidentally, in theory, it would have been possible for seven Premier League teams to qualify. For that to happen, an English club that had not yet qualified for the Champions League through the league would have had to win the title. As things stand, that would have been Aston Villa (currently 7th), but they were knocked out by Paris in the quarter-finals.
