According to the new rule announced in Nyon, France, the top four finishers in Europe’s top four leagues – now English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A – will receive automatic qualification in the group stage of the Champions League from the 2018/19 season.
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According to Uefa competitions director Giorgio Marchetti, the format for the Champions League will remain the same.
“The top four clubs from the four top-ranked national associations will now qualify automatically for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League”.
“From the very beginning, the feeling was the ideal solution for everybody would be a solution in the family”, he told reporters.
Rodgers targeted a place in the knockout rounds of Europe’s premier club competition on Tuesday night in the immediate aftermath of a 5-4 aggregate victory over Hapoel Be’er Sheva in the play-off.
But that will change for 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21 with the best performing four leagues in Europe – now Spain, Germany, England and Italy – all having four teams entered automatically.
The top flights in Russia, Portugal and France are now all vying to be Europe’s fifth-ranked division but are some distance behind the current top four.
The full list of changes can be seen below, and on the UEFA website.
The unluckiest team in the Champions League, certainly from an English point of view, have been cursed again and landed with a group featuring Barcelona, Borussia Monchengladbach and Celtic in this season’s competition.
Celtic’s Scott Sinclair is looking forward to taking centre stage in a Champions League game at the Etihad Stadium after being drawn against Manchester City.
For the third season running Serie A has only two teams in the group stage, and the other side, Napoli, will meet Benfica, Besiktas and Dynamo Kiev in Group B. The change will take place in time for the 2018-19 competition. Zorya qualified as Ukraine’s fourth-placed team.
“We have to do our best”, he said.
Asked if qualifying for the Champions League group stages made Celtic more attractive to signing targets, Rodgers said: “It’s certainly does”.
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West Ham, however will not be joining them after their surprise defeat to Astra Giurgiu in the Europa League play-off round.
