Man Utd and Newcastle likely to cost Premier League a Champions League spot under new UEFA rules

Manchester United and Newcastle United's Champions League exits are likely to cost the Premier League an extra Champions League spot next season.

Europe's elite competition is set to undergo a major change in the 2024-25 campaign.

From next season, 36 clubs will take part in the Champions League and will be grouped together in one big league table, as opposed to 32 teams being divided into eight groups of four.

Every team will play eight matches, four home and four away, but all against different opponents. After this stage, the top eight teams go straight to the last 16, while teams placed between ninth and 24th in the table move on to a play-off round.

The new format, dubbed 'the Swiss model', has been brought in by UEFA in response to the failed idea of a European Super League.

As part of the changes, the two best-performing leagues in Europe this season will be handed one extra place for 2024-25 campaign.

This is determined by each association's UEFA coefficient ranking for the 2023-24 season.

In the case of the Premier League, this would mean gaining a fifth spot in the Champions League.

In seven of the past 11 seasons, the English top-flight would have achieved this extra spot based on the country's coefficient ranking the previous season.

However, Manchester United and Newcastle's early group stage exits from the competition means they are on course to miss out next year.

On Tuesday, the Red Devils' suffered a 1-0 defeat to Bayern Munich, meaning they finished bottom of Group A and miss out on the Europa League.

The very same fate awaited the Magpies at St James' Park on Wednesday evening, as they lost 2-1 to AC Milan to finish bottom of their group.

As a result, England are currently ranked third with an average rating of 12.13, behind Germany (13.36.500) and Italy (13.14) in the coefficient rankings for the 2023-24 campaign.

The coefficient of an association is calculated by adding up the points obtained by all clubs, granted after winning matches in European club competitions, and then dividing the total by the number of clubs from that association that took part in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League.

Both Arsenal and Manchester City are keeping the Premier League's hopes of a fifth Champions League spots, having won their respective Champions League groups.

However, both Germany and Italy have had three teams each progress the knockout rounds of the competition, while they are also well represented in Europe's second and third tier competitions.

Topics: Newcastle United, Manchester United, Champions League, Premier League, UEFA, Football

Joe Adams

Joe is a Journalist for SPORTbible with a primary focus on football. He has previously covered a number of other sports including boxing, rugby and F1. Wishes he was born left-footed.

@joeadamsjourno