Europa Conference League: Which Premier League team will qualify?
The Europa Conference League starts next season, and one English team will be taking part – but how do they qualify?
UEFA's long-anticipated Europa Conference League competition will begin in 2021/22.
Yes, from next season, Thursday nights will never be the same again. And if you'd forgotten about the existence of Europe's third-tier tournament, you can revisit our Europa Conference League explainer from when it was announced back in 2019.
In short, it's a way to ensure that clubs from countries outside of Europe's biggest get a proper experience of continental football without handing out extra Champions League or Europa League places.
But each of UEFA's major leagues – England included – will send one team into the pre-group Europa Conference League play-offs.
The EFL Cup winners are supposed to be England's entrants – but the success of Manchester City, who have qualified for the Champions League, means that is now not the case.
EXPLAINED Premier League’s fight for Europe: Who needs what to qualify this weekend?
The spot should go to the side finishing in the highest Premier League spot that isn't already a Champions League or Europa League spot: sixth place.
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There's another 'but', though. Winning the FA Cup still leads to a Europa League place – and both Leicester and Chelsea have qualified for Europe via the league, too.
So if the FA Cup winners finish in the top five, that means sixth place becomes another Europa League spot, and seventh place becomes the Europa Conference League spot.
In a highly-congested Premier League table, it's not been easy to predict who will finish seventh, and claim the hallowed Europa Conference League qualification (FourFourTwo's pre-season prediction placed Wolves there).
Going into the last game of the season, Tottenham are the lucky takers. The race is on: West Ham are three points ahead in sixth with a worse goal difference, while Everton are on the same points as Spurs, with Arsenal one point behind. Leeds are three points off the chase, but would need a goal difference swing of 15 to be able to supplant Tottenham – presuming all the teams ahead of them in the pack lose.
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Conor Pope is the former Online Editor of FourFourTwo, overseeing all digital content. He plays football regularly, and has a large, discerning and ever-growing collection of football shirts from around the world.
He supports Blackburn Rovers and holds a season ticket with south London non-league side Dulwich Hamlet. His main football passions include Tugay, the San Siro and only using a winter ball when it snows.