The Champions League has expanded the number of teams and changed the format from last season. Recently, the concept of "Top 4" in the Premier League is gradually being replaced by "Top 5". The reason is that the 5th-placed team in the tournament now also has a great opportunity to participate in the most prestigious playground in Europe.
Last season, Newcastle replaced Aston Villa in 5th place after the final round. The Champions League ticket, in addition to fame, will bring in a lot of money, so the teams in the top half of the Premier League table are currently eager to have it.
With each match a club does not lose in an UEFA tournament (Champions League, Europa League and Conference League), they will accumulate points of 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw.
Teams can also earn more points for each subsequent round after the Champions League qualifying round. For example, the top team in the qualifying round will receive 12 points, double the points received when having a similar position in the Europa League and 3 times higher than the top team in the Conference League qualifying round.
These scores are compiled in the last 5 seasons to determine the "strongest" and "weakest" teams in each tournament, which helps balance the selection of seeds in the draws before each tournament begins.
Each UEFA tournament will accumulate points when their teams have good results in the tournaments. Finally, the total accumulated points will be divided equally among the number of teams participating in UEFA tournaments to give an average number. The two countries with the highest average points will be awarded additional Champions League tickets.
In the 2023-2024 season, the Premier League is not in the Top 2 leagues with the highest average score. However, in the 2024-2025 season, the Premier League has a superior score and has 5 Champions League spots, plus Tottenham Hotspur winning the Europa League is 6 spots.
Considering the current coefficient update table, the Premier League is still leading. EPL has 9 teams currently playing in UEFA leagues. Arsenal have won all 7 matches in the Champions League qualifiers. Aston Villa has 6 wins in the Europa League. The Premier League is really strong in European cups with a total of 40 wins and 8 draws so far.
Because English teams are likely to go deep, it is not difficult for the Premier League to finish in the Top 2 of UEFA's index rankings.
Currently, the league ranked right after the Premier League on this index table, surprisingly Ekstraklasa (Poland). The reason is that 4 representatives of Poland, Rakow Czestochowa, Jagiellonia Bialystok, Lech Poznan and Legia Warsaw, all participated in qualifying campaigns before the tournament, where they could collect coefficient points for wins and draws, although with a ratio equal to half of normal.
In addition to 17 wins and 5 draws in the qualifiers, Rakow is playing very well in the Conference League, ranking 2nd in the qualifying round after 6 rounds, 4 points ahead of Lech and 5 points ahead of Jagiellonia. If the remaining major leagues such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain want to get this spot, they must beat Polish teams in the next rounds.
According to Opta's calculations, the average coefficient score of the EPL will finish at 28.0. This is enough for them to lead the overall standings. Meanwhile, despite having good stats, Ekstraklasa only has 0.5% chance of finishing in the Top 2. The opportunity will belong to 1 of the remaining 4 top leagues.
La Liga is certain to lose 1 representative, Villarreal, after this week's mid-week match in the Champions League. Meanwhile, Athletic Bilbao is also highly likely to leave the game. With the Bundesliga, they will lose Eintracht Frankfurt, while Leverkusen is also not sure about anything. With Serie A, defending champion Napoli is also likely to be eliminated after the last match of the qualifying round tonight.
