UEFA rule change may help United
NEWCASTLE United could be set to benefit from a new change to the UEFA Champions League from 2024 onwards – but they’ll need help from Manchester City and other Premier League heavyweights along the way.
UEFA have confirmed the number of clubs competing in the Champions League will increase from 32 to 36 in two years’ time. Teams that qualify for the tournament will be guaranteed at least eight games in a “Swiss league” system amid a shake-up to the group stage.
There had been initial plans to award qualification based on a team’s coefficient, handing underachieving historic clubs a route into Europe’s premier competition. Instead, two extra places will now go to the highest performing countries in UEFA competitions each season.
If the rules were to be applied this season, the extra places would go to clubs from England and the Netherlands. In four of the last five seasons, and six of the last 10, England would have received one of the extra places.
With last season’s Champions League final taking place between Chelsea and Manchester City, the 2019 spectacle featuring Liverpool and Tottenham, and the fact that another all-English final was second away this year – it looks likely the Premier League will scoop up an extra spot more often than not.
For Newcastle it is a timely bonus as they look to break up the so-called ‘Big Six’.
Success won’t come overnight and finishing in the top four remains a long way off.
But for a club that in the coming seasons will be looking to emulate the likes of West Ham, Leicester and Wolves, Newcastle could find themselves battling it out with the likes of Tottenham and Arsenal for that fifth spot in the competition.
Newcastle co-owner Amanda Staveley has pulled no punches when it comes to talking up the ambition of those at the top.
“We want to see it get those trophies. At the
top of the Premier League, in Europe,” she said on the day of the
takeover.