Ask a room of football fans how Premier League clubs qualify for Europe and you will get four different answers. Some will say top four. Some will say top five. Someone will mention the FA Cup, and someone else will insist that winning the Europa League gets you into the Champions League through a back door. They are all partly right, which is what makes it so confusing.
If you have been testing scenarios in our Premier League table calculator, you will have seen how much a single place can matter. Here is how European qualification really works, with last season’s table as a worked example.
The Short Answer
Champions League: the top four, plus the fifth-placed team if England earns the extra “European Performance Spot”.
Europa League: the sixth-placed team and the FA Cup winners, with the places passed down the table if those clubs have already qualified elsewhere.
Conference League: the League Cup winners, passed down the table if they have already qualified.
Trophy winners: the winners of the Champions League and the Europa League get into next season’s Champions League, and the Conference League winners get into the Europa League, wherever they finish in the table.
My view is that the rules are fair but far too complicated for something that should be simple. The easy way to remember it is that finishing in the top five is what you want.
Champions League Places
Four clubs qualify for the Champions League league phase by finishing in the top four of the Premier League. That has been the rule for years, and it is still the starting point.
The difference now is that England can earn a fifth place. In 2025-26 it did, and five clubs qualified for the 2026-27 Champions League on league position: Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Liverpool.
How are Premier League European places decided by UEFA
UEFA decides how many places each country gets, based on how well its clubs have done in Europe over the previous five seasons. England sits top of that ranking, which is why the Premier League gets four Champions League places as standard. The European Performance Spot is the bonus on top.
The extra place is called the European Performance Spot, or EPS. UEFA hands it to the two countries whose clubs have performed best in European competition over the season.
It works by adding up the coefficient points that all of a country’s clubs earn in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League, then dividing the total by the number of clubs that started the season in Europe. The two highest averages each get an extra Champions League place for the club that finishes fifth in their domestic league.
That is why European nights matter so much to a league. Every win in Europe by any English club feeds into the fifth place that a club in a domestic fight might need in May. It is also why Premier League fans suddenly care about the Conference League.
England also earned the EPS in 2024-25, which is how Newcastle qualified for the 2025-26 Champions League after finishing fifth.
Europa League Places
England normally gets two Europa League places. One goes to the club that finishes sixth in the Premier League, or fifth if there is no extra Champions League spot. The other goes to the FA Cup winners.
If the FA Cup winners have already qualified for the Champions League through their league position, their Europa League place is passed down the table to the next club that has not qualified for Europe. It works the same way for the sixth-placed club if the fifth place is taken by the EPS.
Conference League Places
The League Cup winners go into the Conference League. As with the FA Cup, if they have already qualified for a bigger competition, the place is handed to the next highest club in the league that has not qualified.
The winners of the Conference League are also guaranteed a place in the Europa League league phase.
What happens if Palace wins the Conference League?
They did, and I’m still not over it. Palace beat Rayo Vallecano 1-0 in Leipzig in May, with Jean-Philippe Mateta scoring early in the second half, to win the first European trophy in the club’s history.
Winning the Conference League earns a place in the Europa League league phase, wherever you finish in the table. Palace finished 15th last season, so without that win there would have been no European football at Selhurst this year. Instead, we’re in the Europa League.
The best part is how it came about. A year earlier, UEFA’s multi-club rules had pushed us down from the Europa League into the Conference League. We went and won the competition we’d been demoted to, and earned our way back into the one we’d been thrown out of. I couldn’t have written it better.
How Winning a European Trophy Changes Things
This is the part that confuses most people. Winning the Champions League or the Europa League earns a place in next season’s Champions League, no matter where your club finishes in the league.
The clearest example is Tottenham in 2024-25. They finished 17th in the Premier League and still played in the Champions League the following season, because they had won the Europa League. England had six clubs in the competition that year.
Aston Villa had a similar chance in 2025-26. They beat Freiburg 3-0 in the Europa League final in Istanbul, which guaranteed them a place in the Champions League. But they’d already qualified by finishing fourth, so the trophy didn’t add an extra English place.
Why is Nottingham Forest in the Europa League?
Forest were in the Europa League in 2025-26 because of Palace. Palace won the 2025 FA Cup, which should have meant a Europa League place, but UEFA ruled that Palace and Lyon were linked through John Textor’s ownership, and only one club could enter. Lyon had finished higher in their league, so they kept the Europa League place, Palace dropped into the Conference League, and Forest, who had finished seventh, moved up into the Europa League in their place.
Forest aren’t in Europe this season. They finished 16th last season and didn’t win a cup.
I’ve never blamed Forest for any of it. They did nothing wrong and took a place they’d earned by finishing seventh. My problem was with rules that punished fans for something their club’s owner did.
Premier League European places 2026
Here is how it all fitted together after the 2025-26 season:
| Position | Club | Points | Qualified for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 85 | Champions League |
| 2 | Manchester City | 78 | Champions League |
| 3 | Manchester United | 71 | Champions League |
| 4 | Aston Villa | 65 | Champions League |
| 5 | Liverpool | 60 | Champions League (European Performance Spot) |
| 6 | Bournemouth | 57 | Europa League |
| 7 | Sunderland | 54 | Europa League |
| 8 | Brighton | 53 | Conference League |
The bottom three rows show the passing down in action. Manchester City won both the FA Cup and the League Cup, and they had already qualified for the Champions League. That moved the FA Cup’s Europa League place down to Sunderland in seventh, and the League Cup’s Conference League place down to Brighton in eighth.
That’s nine English clubs in Europe this season, five in the Champions League, three in the Europa League and one in the Conference League. Palace are the odd one out, qualifying from 15th in the table thanks to the trophy
It is a good illustration of why cups matter. Brighton’s place in Europe came from another club’s trophy.
Does 7th place get the Europe Premier League?
Sometimes. Seventh only gets into Europe when a cup place is passed down the table, which happens when the FA Cup or League Cup winners have already qualified through the league.
That’s exactly what happened last season. Manchester City won the FA Cup but had already qualified for the Champions League by finishing second, so the FA Cup’s Europa League place went to Sunderland in seventh.
My advice to any fan of a club in seventh in April is to watch the cup draws as closely as the league table. Your European place might depend on a big club winning at Wembley.
Does 8th place get the Europa Conference League?
Only in a season like last one. Eighth gets into the Conference League when the League Cup place is passed down as well, which needs the League Cup winners to have already qualified through the league, and both cup places to have dropped down the table.
City won the League Cup too, beating Arsenal 2-0 in the final, so Brighton picked up the Conference League place from eighth. It’s the clearest example I can think of where a club got into Europe purely because someone else won everything.
What Happens If Teams Finish Level
Places are decided on points first. If two clubs are level, the league uses goal difference, then goals scored, then head-to-head results, and you can read the full order in our guide to Premier League tiebreakers. We also explain how the first tiebreaker works in how goal difference is calculated in the Premier League.
It matters because the fight for fifth, sixth and seventh often finishes close. A single goal can be the difference between the Champions League and the Europa League, with millions of pounds attached.
Which teams will be eligible for European places in the 2026 Premier League?
Every club in the Premier League is eligible this season. The top four will qualify for the 2027-28 Champions League, and fifth will too if England earns the European Performance Spot again. Sixth, the FA Cup winners and the League Cup winners will fill the Europa League and Conference League places, passed down the table if needed.
There are two catches. Any English club that wins the Champions League or Europa League this season gets a Champions League place regardless of where they finish. And a club can still lose its place under UEFA’s multi-club ownership rules, as Palace found out in 2025.
My guess is that England earns the European Performance Spot again, and the evidence is strong. Last season England also had nine clubs in Europe, finished top of UEFA’s coefficient table, and won both the Europa League and the Conference League, with Arsenal reaching the Champions League final as well. England earned the extra spot alongside Spain the season before too. If it happens again, fifth is the new fourth for a third year running.
How Many Points Do You Need for Europe?
There is no fixed number, but the Champions League has usually required around 70 points. Liverpool took the last place in 2025-26 on 60, which shows how much the extra spot lowers the bar.
If you want the other benchmarks, we break down what it takes to win the league in our guide to how many points it takes to win the Premier League, and what it takes to avoid the drop in how many points you need to stay up in the Premier League.
My View: The Fifth Place Is Good, the Rules Are a Mess
I like the extra Champions League place. It gives more clubs something to play for, it rewards English teams for doing well in Europe, and it makes the race for fifth one of the best fights of the year.
What I don’t like is the way the rules require a flowchart to follow. As a Palace fan, I’ve lived it, and the full story is further up this page. If the rules can’t be explained to the fans of the club they affect, they’re too complicated.
My suggestion would be simpler. The Premier League should publish a one-page guide before every season showing what each position earns. For now, my rule of thumb is that fifth is the new fourth, and anything from sixth to eighth is a lottery that depends on what the cup winners do.
Premier League European Places FAQ
How do you qualify for the Europa League from the Premier League?
By finishing fifth, or sixth when England earns the European Performance Spot, or by winning the FA Cup. Winning the Conference League also earns a Europa League place. If the FA Cup winners are already in the Champions League, their place goes to the next club down the table.
What is the European Performance Spot?
An extra Champions League place that UEFA gives to the two countries whose clubs perform best in Europe over the season. In the Premier League, it goes to the club that finishes fifth.
Does winning the Europa League qualify you for the Champions League?
Yes. The winners of the Europa League get a Champions League place, even if they finish low in the league, as Tottenham did in 2024-25.
How do you qualify for the Conference League from the Premier League?
By winning the League Cup. If the winners have already qualified for another competition, the place is passed down to the next club in the league.
What happens if clubs finish level on points?
They are separated by goal difference, then goals scored, then head-to-head results. You can see the full rules in our guide to Premier League tiebreakers.
