Europa League Fiasco!!

[ToffeeDan]

Anyone got the foggiest how the FA will resolve the Europa League placings next season given the following set of (potential) circumstances?

Normally these would be for:

FA Cup Winners
5th Place League Team
League Cup Winners

In the above order.

The places will be complicated by the FA Cup Final being decided before the League placings are clarified (probably) and further complicated by City potentially winning the FA Cup and their subsequent final league position. My understanding of the situation is that:

City win FA Cup places them in Position 1 of EL Qualification
Bolton or Stoke win FA Cup and there is not a complicated situation

City win FA Cup and Finish 4th (Champions League) - place goes to Runner-up (Bolton/Stoke)

City win FA Cup and Finish 5th - EL League placing goes to 6th place (assumed to be Everton or Liverpool - potentially Bolton Wanderers)

Bolton could be a position to lose the FA Cup Final to City and beat them in the final league game (at The Reebok) to demote them to 5th place and thereby lose the FA Cup Runners-up spot which would have been awarded to them by virtue of City finishing 4th.

Additionally Birmingham City may not have their UEFA Licence!!!

[Kickoff3pm]

Knowing the FA they'll soon workout that they can earn money from having a play-off tourniment I suspect.

Personally I think they should give a europa place the club who wins the religation league to finished 17th thats where all the action is

[jambokev]

There's a similar situation in the SPL, 4th place will get into Europe only if Celtic win the Scottish Cup and Rangers win the league so Dundee United, the team most likely to finish 4th, should really let Rangers beat them to give themselves the best chance of qualifying for the Europa League.


As for the Premiership, it's one of these things that you just have to wait and see what happens.

It is an interesting situation with Man City, 4th and the FA Cup.

Stoke are also scheduled to play Man City after the FA Cup Final as well so a similar situation could occur whether it's Stoke or Bolton that reach the FA Cup Final.

[garyspain]

In 1968 Newcastle needed to lose their last game to qualify for Europe and went on to win the Fairs Cup they qualified for by virtue of their 4-3 defeat to Man City.

Man City needed a win at Newcastle to win the league but had Man Utd won the league City would have been in the Fairs Cup and not Newcastle.

[Tynie Topics]

garyspain wrote:

In 1968 Newcastle needed to lose their last game to qualify for Europe and went on to win the Fairs Cup they qualified for by virtue of their 4-3 defeat to Newcastle. .

That's some achievement
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[Dorking]

Looking forward to the Cup Final this year - 2 teams who both really care about winning it for whom it would be their first major trophy in a generation. Bit like the Pompey-Cardiff Final in 2008.

Think City will finish 4th myself, if so Stoke could go into the game knowing they would be guaranteed European football.

And the Final would just decide who plays in the Charity (sorry Community) Shield.