The UEFA Champions League underwent major changes for the 2024/25 season, with Premier League sides impacted both in qualifying and the competition itself.
UEFA opted to end their long-standing group-stage format and move to a league-style structure, with a knockout-stage campaign included in the second half of the campaign.
The first season of the expanded competition has been a resounding success, with games proving both exciting and electric.
As part of the updates, the number of teams competing has also increased from 32 to 36, meaning UEFA needed to derive a mechanism for nominating extra participants. Each season, leagues across Europe will have the potential to secure an additional qualifying spot based on its performance in that year’s European competitions.
The Sporting News explains how this mechanism works, and who is in line to snatch those additional spots.
MORE: Where and when is the 2025 Champions League final?
How is 5th Champions League spot awarded?
UEFA is using its club coefficient ranking to determine who to award the additional Champions League places to each season. The system is based off each country’s performance in Europe the previous season, averaged by the number of clubs participating.
From the group stage on, a win is worth two coefficient points, while a draw earns one. If a match goes to extra-time, the result at the end of the 120 minutes is logged, regardless of the penalty shootout winner.
There are also bonus points for reaching particular rounds of competition. In addition, as of the 2024/25 season, bonus points are awarded for those clubs playing in the Champions League as opposed to the other two. There is a more detailed breakdown of this below.
Points gained by all clubs in a given association are added together, and then divided by the number of clubs participating in Europe that season to give an average.
Once the qualifying positions are awarded, the clubs to take the positions are the highest in the league table not to have qualified via other means.
Will 5th in the Premier League qualify for Champions League spot?
As of the 2025 March international break, it appears extremely likely that the Premier League will secure a fifth Champions League place in the 2025/26 competition.
Four English clubs reached the knockout stage of this year’s Champions League, with three of those earning byes to the Round of 16. Two Premier League sides advanced to the quarterfinals, with Man City dumped in the playoff round and Liverpool stunned in the last 16.
Add in that two English clubs reached the quarterfinals of the Europa League, plus one in the Conference League, and that leaves five Premier League sides amongst the final 24 clubs left in Europe across the three tournaments.
Thus, it’s no surprise that England is leading the coefficient rankings by a huge margin, while Italy and Spain battle for the final spot left.
In fact, there’s a plausible scenario where as many as 11 Premier League clubs could participate in Europe next season, thanks to the idea that the winner of each competition automatically qualifies for European play the following year.
UEFA Champions League coefficient latest 2024/25
UEFA’s coefficient rankings will determine which country earns a fifth Champions League qualifying spot the following season. The top two will gain one of the extra UCL places.
The standings are worked out by taking the country’s coefficient points and dividing them by the number of their teams in UEFA competitions to gain an average figure.
2024/25 UEFA club coefficients rankings
As it stands, England would earn one extra Champions League place while Portugal would earn the other, with Belgium appearing to be in the hunt. However, that’s not likely to stand for long.
Portugal and Belgium have both seen all five clubs eliminated from the competition, meaning they cannot gain any more points the rest of the way. Spain and Italy are all thought likely to continue accumulating points in some capacity, thus adding to their average total.
Figures updated as of March 18, 2025.
| Rank | Country | Points | Participants | Average |
| 1. | England | 24.250 | 7 | 3.464 |
| 2. | Portugal | 16.250 | 5 | 3.250 |
| 3. | Belgium | 15.650 | 5 | 3.13 |
| 4. | Spain | 21.678 | 7 | 3.096 |
| 5. | Italy | 19.937 | 8 | 2.492 |
| 6. | France | 16.214 | 7 | 2.316 |
| 7. | Germany | 17.921 | 8 | 2.240 |
How are UEFA coefficient rankings worked out?
UEFA coefficient rankings are worked out based on the performances of each association/league in European club competitions in a particular season.
Each association/league are awarded points based on how well their teams do in Europe, which are all added into a final total.
Points are awarded as follows:
| Achievement | UCL | UEL | UCoL |
| Win (League Phase and on) |
2 | 2 | 2 |
| Draw (League Phase and on) |
1 | 1 | 1 |
| League Phase min* | 0 | 3 | 2.5 |
| Knockout round bonus (per round reached) |
1.5 | 1.0 | 0.5 |
* Every club is guaranteed to earn the minimum bonus points even if their results earn fewer. Champions League participants do not earn a minimum, as their bonus points below guarantee such award.
In addition, the following bonus points were added to the mix in the 2024/25 season based on a club’s final position in each competition’s league phase:
| Rank | UCL | UEL | UCoL |
| 1 | 12 | 6 | 4 |
| 2 | 11.75 | 5.75 | 3.75 |
| 3 | 11.5 | 5.5 | 3.5 |
| 4 | 11.25 | 5.25 | 3.25 |
| 5 | 11 | 5 | 3 |
| 6 | 10.75 | 4.75 | 2.75 |
| 7 | 10.5 | 4.5 | 2.5 |
| 8 | 10.25 | 4.25 | 2.25 |
| 9 | 10 | 4 | 2 |
| 10 | 9.75 | 3.75 | 1.875 |
| 11 | 9.5 | 3.5 | 1.75 |
| 12 | 9.25 | 3.25 | 1.625 |
| 13 | 9 | 3 | 1.5 |
| 14 | 8.75 | 2.75 | 1.375 |
| 15 | 8.5 | 2.5 | 1.25 |
| 16 | 8.25 | 2.25 | 1.125 |
| 17 | 8 | 2 | 1 |
| 18 | 7.75 | 1.75 | 0.875 |
| 19 | 7.5 | 1.5 | 0.75 |
| 20 | 7.25 | 1.25 | 0.625 |
| 21 | 7 | 1 | 0.5 |
| 22 | 6.75 | 0.75 | 0.375 |
| 23 | 6.5 | 0.5 | 0.25 |
| 24 | 6.25 | 0.25 | 0.125 |
| 25 | 6 | — | — |
| 26 | 6 | — | — |
| 27 | 6 | — | — |
| 28 | 6 | — | — |
| 29 | 6 | — | — |
| 30 | 6 | — | — |
| 31 | 6 | — | — |
| 32 | 6 | — | — |
| 33 | 6 | — | — |
| 34 | 6 | — | — |
| 35 | 6 | — | — |
| 36 | 6 | — | — |
