By SBI SOCCER
English Premier League clubs are not off to the best start in the 2015-16 UEFA Champions League, and pressure is now mounting because the league’s in trouble of losing a qualifying spot.
According to The Telegraph, Italy is close to overtaking England in the current UEFA ranking system, the system used to determine which domestic leagues receive what number of qualification spots. The EPL will likely lose its fourth automatic qualifying spot for the UCL to Serie A if a similar campaign to last year’s occurs.
England fell into third place in the rankings last season, with Spain and Germany sitting in first and second, respectively.
Clubs help boost the league’s ranking with wins and ties in European play, but points are also awarded if playoff round teams advance to the UCL group stage. Due to Italy only being behind 3.095 points to England in the current rankings, Serie A could likely overtake the EPL by the end of this campaign.
Manchester United, Arsenal and Manchester City all lost their openers, while Chelsea was the only EPL club to secure a win this week.
The Italian league would not start using the extra spot until the 2017-18 UCL campaign.
Here are some more news and notes:
FIFA SECRETARY GENERAL VALCKE WANTED PAYMENT BEFORE EARLY EXIT
Jerome Valcke was removed from his position in FIFA Thursday, but it appears as though he was already thinking about an early exit.
FIFA announced Thursday that Valcke was placed on leave from his position as secretary general, but the Guradian reported early Friday that Valcke requested one week ago to leave early while also requesting a payout of millions of dollars as well.
Valcke had three years remaining on his contract, but wanting to make an early exit, he had been requesting for FIFA to pay out his contract in full.
He was placed on leave following news that he had schemed to sell World Cup tickets for above face value at the 2014 World Cup, but he and his lawyer, Barry Berke, disagree with the report.
“Mr Valcke never received or agreed to accept any money or anything else of value from Mr Alon,” a statement read from Valcke’s lawyer. “As has been reported, Fifa entered into an agreement with Mr Alon’s company, JB Sports Marketing. That agreement and Fifa’s subsequent business dealings with Mr Alon were vetted and approved by Fifa and its legal counsel.”
PELLIGRINI TO HAVE AGUERO BACK BUT MANY MORE MISSING
Manchester City head coach Manuel Pellegrini won’t have some of his regular contributors Saturday, but a lethal threat in attack will be back in his arsenal.
Pellegrini announced Friday that Sergio Aguero is set to return for Manchester City Saturday against West Ham. Aguero has apparently recovered well from his knee injury and will be available for selection.
Meanwhile, Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta, Gael Clichy and Fabian Delph are all likely to sit out. Samir Nasri is also not 100 percent.
QUICK KICKS:
Brazil’s soccer federation (CBF) has appealed to the Court of Arbitration of Sport in order to reduce Neymar’s international suspension. (REPORT)
Manchester United fullback Luke Shaw is set to undergo a second operation in order to close the wound in his double fracture and prevent infection. (REPORT)
Lionel Messi may miss Barcelona games during January to attend the Dakar Rally race in Argentina. (REPORT)
Jose Mourinho said Brazilian midfielder Willian will miss Saturday’s clash with Arsenal. (REPORT)
Despite only choosing to start Mario Gotze once, Bayern Munich head coach Pep Guardiola said he still loves the German international. (REPORT)
There’s an even bigger chance of the EPL losing a spot the following year. Next season 2011-12 will no longer count in calculating the UEFA club coefficients and England did well that year (Chelsea winning the UCL) earning almost four more points than Italy. So starting in 2018-19 there is actually quite a good chance Italy will get four teams and England three.
agreed. i don’t really think it’s likely that they lose the spot this year (or 2017-18, whatever); england would have to utterly fail (okay, sure) and italy would have to do really well (not as likely) this year for that to happen.
Sports (not just soccer) need to have a system that if you appeal a frivolous case, the arbiter tacks on 25% more punishment. With no risk, everything gets appealed.
UEFA Coefficient also includes Europa League. Not that the EPL did much better there after West Ham failed to get out of the playoff rounds. That’s one less team gaining points for the league. Liverpool drew Bordeaux and Spurs beat Qarabag.
Italy had wins with Napoli and Juventus, draws for Roma and Lazio, and loss for Fiorentina,
Bad start, but not insurmountable.
i think the europa league is what’s dragging the epl down: leagues can get a decent amount of points from performing well in the europa, and english teams don’t seem to care about it.
gab marcotti over at espn was saying that it could actually be more profitable (in terms of the uefa coefficient) for champions league teams to “fail out” of the champions league groups in order to achieve a long run in the europa league. he also didn’t think it was so likely that england would lose their 4th spot, though.
Europa kills the EPL. It is viewed as “experience” but is basically looked as a time/money sin and an injury risk. The rewards are low relative to staying in the EPL.
Maybe if the big 4 cough up some money, the minnows will try in Europa.
How will the big 4 cough up money? The EPL has pretty fair revevue sharing. EPL teams are snobs and think Champions league or bust, the top 2 Europa League teams sacrifice those games to push for 4th in the EPL, the other 2 ignore Europa League to finish as high as they can (you get more money the higher you finish). EPL teams rate EPL more than Europa League
Ha, that is great, I hope Valcke spends a long time in jail