PREMIER LEAGUE clubs may be forced to take a tougher route into the Champions League, with proposed changes to qualification for Europe’s elite tournament gathering pace.
Danish champions Copenhagen have proposed a new idea to Uefa chiefs after growing frustrated with being “handicapped” by the country coefficient system.
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Under the current rules, countries are given a set number of spots in the Champions League based on how successful clubs within their nation are.
For example, the top four leagues – Spain, England, Germany and Italy – are all handed four spots for the Champions League.
Of those spots, many are given a clear route to the group stage.
On the other hand, some nations have no teams guaranteed to make the tournament and must face a gruelling, months-long qualification campaign.
Under the proposed new format, every club who qualifies for competition would be ranked from No1 to No79 – based on their results over the past decade.
Only the top 20 of those clubs would automatically qualify for the Champions League group stage.
The 22 lowest-ranked teams would enter the tournament in the first qualifying round.
The next 13 would join the competition in the second stage, with 12 more in the third round and the final 12 entering at the play-off stage.
Had the system been used for the 2019-20 season, all four Premier League teams would have automatically joined the group stage, thanks to their performances in the past ten years.
But should the likes of Leicester, Wolves or Sheffield United – both of whom hold Champions League ambitions for next term – qualify, they may be forced to start from the first round of qualifying.
Part of the reason for the proposed new system is to protect certain clubs from the perils of qualifying.
Last season, Ajax were within seconds of reaching the Champions League final.
But just weeks later they were forced back into the qualifying rounds, based purely on the fact they are a Dutch side – and not in the “top four” leagues.
In fact, giants Ajax, PSV Eindhoven, Porto, Dynamo Kiev and Olympiakos would ALL have gone straight into the group stage this term had the proposed format been in place.
Of those five teams, only Ajax and Olympiakos made it out of qualifying alive.
Despite Copenhagen’s suggestion in place to make things more fair, Premier League chiefs are said to be wholeheartedly against the plan.
Prem bosses are unwilling to give up their four “free passes” into the Champions League.
The top four leagues in Europe – of which England is one – are guaranteed 16 of the 32 group-stage places as things stand.
On the proposed changes, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters revealed he has had his say to Uefa bosses.
Masters said: “[We are open to finding] “smart ways to solve the access issue.
“Ultimately, it’s not our decision. [But] we feel more comfortable because our voice has been heard.
“All we can continue to do is to point out the potential implications of radical reform to European competitions and guard against them.”
But one unnamed source gave their reasoning to the Athletic – using Roger Federer as the perfect example of why players, or in this case clubs, should not be judged on their nation.
They said: “In any other business you are rewarded for having a long-term relationship with someone but in European football you just start over every season.
“Roger Federer is not seeded at Wimbledon according to how other Swiss players have played.
“He is seeded on his performances alone. Only in football do we do this.”
