Just a day after Champions League teams found out about their opponents, Manchester United, Southampton and 46 more football clubs finally discovered who they face in Europe.
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Before now, only La Liga, the Bundesliga and the Premier League were guaranteed three places in the group stage, with a fourth possible through play-offs.
Europe’s top four demostic league are to be ensured four places each in the group stages of the Champions league from the 2018-19 season.
It was gathered that the clubs had discussed the possibility of forming a Super League, possibly even without UEFA’s authorisation.
UEFA announced the deal on Friday after months of talks with the influential European Club Association, whose members raised an old threat of breaking away to form a closed Super League dominated by the rich and storied elite. In Italy two sides are awarded entry with the third participating in the play-off.
The victor of the Europa League will now get immediate access to the Champions League groups stage, rather than having to dispute a play-off, and financial distribution will be reformatted and increased.
The champions and runners-up of the fifth and sixth-ranked leagues, at present France and Russian Federation, will continue to have two places while the champions of the seventh to 10th ranked leagues, now Portugal, Ukraine, Belgium and Turkey, will also qualify automatically.
A new system for the club coefficients: clubs will be judged on their own records (deletion of the country share for individual club coefficient unless that coefficient is lower than 20% of the association’s coefficient).
UEFA have called the changes “an evolution not a revolution”, and the Champions League group stage will continue to feature 32 clubs, but the changes mean there will be fewer opportunities for sides from lesser leagues around the continent.
Italy will have four teams in the Champions League from 2018 following UEFA’s new reform.
“I am particularly pleased with the fact that the European football community remains united moving forward”.
ECA chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said: “I welcome UEFA’s decision, it reflects a serious and fair solution for European club football”.
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The European body said it will announce full details by the end of the year.
