Yahoo Finance Champions League qualification: How European glory for Chelsea FC and Arsenal could end West Ham, Spurs and Liverpool hopes
West Ham, Tottenham and Liverpool face missing out on a place in the Champions League even if they finish fourth if Chelsea win the Champions League and Arsenal lift the Europa League.
Under Uefa rules, associations are entitled to a maximum of five teams in the Champions League - and in that scenario Chelsea and Arsenal would be guaranteed qualification.
Should West Ham, Spurs or Liverpool finish behind Manchester City, Manchester United and Leicester in the Premier League, they would then drop into the Europa League.
Chelsea booked a place in the Champions League Final against Manchester City on May 29 after beating Real Madrid on Wednesday night.
Arsenal play Villarreal in the second leg of their Europa League semi-final at Emirates Stadium on Thursday night, 2-1 down from the first leg.
Chelsea currently occupy fourth spot in the table with four games to go, but West Ham are just three points behind them under David Moyes and Spurs are a further two points back. Liverpool are seven points behind Chelsea but have a game in hand.
Under Champions League regulations, Uefa rule 3.07 states: “If the association is entitled to four places in the Champions League and neither titleholder qualifies for the Europa League through its domestic championship, the lowest-placed of the association’s Champions League representatives is automatically transferred to the Europa League (into the UEFA Europa League group stage and the access list will be rebalanced accordingly).
“In this case, the association of the titleholders is entitled to one additional place (total of five) in the Champions League and one additional place (total of four) in the Europa League.”
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