The Premier League is on course to gain an extra UEFA Champions League spot for a second consecutive season, with the top FIVE Premier League teams potentially qualifying instead of the traditional top four.
Last season, Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Newcastle United all secured places in the 2025/26 Champions League after finishing in the top five in the Premier League, while Tottenham Hotspur joined them by winning the UEFA Europa League.
That was the first time that five Premier League clubs all qualified via their league position, and a repeat is likely due to England (ie. the Premier League) having a commanding lead at the top of UEFA's coefficient table, which measures how clubs from each country perform across European competitions this season.
If England stays in the top two spots for "average points" by the season end, which looks promising, the team who finish fifth in the Premier League would go straight into the Champions League again in 2026/27.
UEFA coefficient rankings*
| Association | Ave. pts | Clubs remaining/at start | Total pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | 24.791 | 5/9 | 223.125 |
| Spain | 20.281 | 6/8 | 162.250 |
| Germany | 19.428 | 3/7 | 136.000 |
| Portugal | 18.900 | 3/5 | 94.500 |
| Italy | 18.714 | 2/7 | 131.000 |
*Source: UEFA; as of 22:58 GMT, 19 March. Scroll across to see full table
See: How Premier League clubs qualify for Europe
Although Chelsea, Man City, Newcastle and Spurs have been eliminated from the Champions League in the last 16, two Premier League teams remain in the competition - Arsenal and Liverpool booked their quarter-final spots by beating Bayer Leverkusen and Galatasaray respectively.
With Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest both reaching the quarter-final stage in the Europa League, and Crystal Palace doing likewise in the Conference League, five Premier League clubs are still competing in Europe.
By contrast, the three countries who are outside the top two spots - Germany, Italy and Portugal - only have two or three clubs who are still earning them points.
Indeed, according to the BBC's Dale Johnson, only one draw is required from either leg of the five quarter-final ties involving Premier League teams for England to have sufficient points to guarantee a top-two finish.
Premier League remaining ties in UEFA competitions
Champions League quarter-finals
7 Apr Sporting v Arsenal
8 Apr Paris Saint-Germain v Liverpool
14 Apr Liverpool v PSG
15 Apr Arsenal v Sporting
Europa League quarter-finals
9 Apr Bologna v Aston Villa; Porto v Nott'm Forest
16 Apr Aston Villa v Bologna; Nott'm Forest v Porto
Conference League quarter-finals
9 Apr Crystal Palace v Fiorentina
16 Apr Fiorentina v Crystal Palace
How does UEFA's coefficient table work?
UEFA calculates which two leagues will be rewarded with the extra European Performance Spot by adding up coefficient points based on the performances of clubs from each league across the Champions League, Europa League and UEFA Conference League, and then dividing those points by the number of clubs from each league who STARTED this season in a European competition.
It means the various leagues are competing against each other in a ranking called the "association club coefficient".
Every win for a club in any of UEFA's club competitions this season earns each league two points, while a draw gets one point, and there are no points for a defeat.
On top of that, bonus points are awarded according to where each club finished in their European league table. These are weighted according to the competition.
For example, finishing top of the table in the Champions League gets you 12 bonus points, while the equivalent position in the Europa League gets six, and the top team in the Conference League earn four points.
Arsenal finished top of this season's Champions League league phase table so they earned the maximum number of bonus points. Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea and Man City all secured double-digit bonus points too, courtesy of finishing in the top eight, while Newcastle (12th) earned 9.25 points.
Additional bonus points are awarded for reaching each round from the last 16 onwards. These are also weighted according to the competition.
Bonus points added per round
| Competition | Bonus points |
|---|---|
| Champions League | 1.5 |
| Europa League | 1.0 |
| Conference League | 0.5 |