How Champions League will look next season if Uefa ignore league standings with Chelsea OUT but ninth-placed Arsenal IN
UEFA are considering using their coefficients to determine who plays in the Champions League next season.
With the top leagues across Europe all suspended due to coronavirus and no clear indication when they will be completed, the governing body are making plans to sort out who qualifies for next season.
And, as revealed by SunSport, rather than looking at current league standings or waiting for the leagues to all be completed, they could instead use their coefficient system to choose.
That would mean Chelsea, currently fourth in the Premier League and therefore on course to qualify, would miss out but - incredibly - ninth-placed Arsenal would get in.
For the Champions League, 26 teams qualify for the group stages automatically each season with the remaining six slots made up by the play-offs.
So, who would be the 26 clubs to definitely make it through to the Champions League groups for the 2020/21?
ENGLAND - 4
Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham
Champions-elect and runaway Premier League leaders Liverpool are safely in with a coefficient of 99 points.
Manchester City are actually England's highest-ranked club on 112 but their two-year Uefa ban means, as things stand, they will not be allowed to compete next season.
Rivals Manchester United jump up to second with 92, just ahead of Arsenal who are tenth across all of Europe on 91 - that is despite the Gunners not playing in the Champions League since 2016/17.
With City banned, Spurs are the beneficiaries as they nick the fourth English spot on.
Last season's beaten finalists have a score of 85, two better than Chelsea who miss out even though they are higher in the league table than three of the other clubs who would get in and beat Arsenal in last year's Europa League final.
Therefore, Frank Lampard's side would have to settle for a Europa League spot alongside third-placed Leicester and Wolves, with Sheffield United missing out completely.
SPAIN - 4
Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla
Real Madrid top the Uefa coefficient system with a whopping 134, helped by the fact they have won the Champions League three times in the years taken into consideration.
Barcelona (124) are third, behind Atletico Madrid (126) who were beaten finalists in 2016.
That means Diego Simeone's side - currently sixth in LaLiga - 'steal' Real Sociedad's place in next season's competition with the Basque side on just nine coefficient points.
Sevilla are third in the league as things stand and 11th on the Uefa standings so take the final Spanish spot.
GERMANY - 4
Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, Schalke
Unsurprisingly, Bayern Munich on 123 are Germany's top club with Borussia Dortmund second on 85.
But despite sitting third and fourth in the Bundesliga table respectively, RB Leipzig and Borussia Monchengladbach are out - even though Julian Nagelsmann's side have booked their quarter-final spot this season already.
In their place come fifth-placed Bayer Leverkusen and sixth-placed Schalke.
ITALY - 4
Juventus, Roma, Napoli, Lazio
Juventus, beaten in the 2017 final, are well out in front on 115 points.
But just like in Germany, the clubs in fifth and sixth sneak in at the expense of two of the top four.
Roma and Napoli are in the Europa League spots in Serie A but due to their recent success in the Champions League, they get in ahead of Inter Milan and Atalanta, who like Leipzig are into the final eight.
Lazio sit one point adrift of Juve at the league's summit and claim the fourth Italian spot.
FRANCE - 3
Paris Saint-Germain, Lyon, Monaco
PSG have 105 points in the Uefa coefficient and breeze in.
But in France it is Marseille and Rennes who will feel hard done by.
That is because Lyon and Monaco, in seventh and ninth respectively on 40 points, have higher gradings in Europe due to their performances over the last five seasons.
RUSSIA - 2
Zenit, CSKA Moscow
In Russia, league-leaders Zenit make a safe entry on 64 points.
But it is CSKA Moscow who are fifth in the league that take the second spot ahead of Krasnodar and Lokomotiv Moscow.
PORTUGAL - 1
Porto
Just like in the Primeira Liga, Porto will pip Benfica to the Champions League spot.
Porto are on 75 with rivals Benfica on 70 in the coefficient and have a one-point advantage in the league.
UKRAINE - 1
Shakhtar Donetsk
A relatively simple and straightforward one in Ukraine.
Shakhtar Donetsk have picked up more coefficient ranking points than any other side in each of the last five years and cruise in, just as they are cruising the league again.
BELGIUM - 1
Gent
It is a close call in Belgium.
Gent have 39.5 points, Anderlecht have 36 so it is Gent who get in.
And that is ignoring the fact that Club Brugge - who got a 2-2 draw at the Bernabeu this season - are 15 points clear at the top of the table.
TURKEY - 1
Besiktas
Besiktas may be fifth in the typically-competitive Super Lig but they are the Turkish side that get in.
Their 54 points put them well clear in the Uefa rankings of Fenerbahce, Galatasaray and Istanbul Basaksehir, who trail Trabzonspor on goal difference at the top of the league.
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AUSTRIA - 1
Red Bull Salzburg
The last team to sneak in automatically would be Red Bull Salzburg on 53.5 points, more than double that of nearest rivals Rapid Vienna in Austria.
That is despite the fact Manchester United's Europa League opponents LASK lead the Austrian Bundesliga by three points.
