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6 months ago
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Courtesy of BBC Sport I have bad news (see below) for all Newcastle United fans.
Even if Eddie Howe’s team win all of their remaining four Premier League matches, Newcastle United won’t be in the Champions League next season.
As you can see from the current Premier League table below, Aston Villa are in fourth place on 67 points, so even if Newcastle add 12 more points they will be on 65 points.
Tottenham are currently in fifth place on 60 points, so Newcastle United could potentially still overtake them, BUT that would not give NUFC a Champions League place next season.
With Bayern Munich drawing 2-2 against Real Madrid on Tuesday night and then Borussia Dortmund defeating PSG 1-0 last night, the Bundesliga has now joined Serie A in taking the two bonus spots for next season’s Champions League, based on how each league’s teams performed in Europe this season.
BBC Sport going on to give a simple explanation as to what that now means for Newcastle United and the other English teams hoping to be playing in Europe next season…
BBC Sport explanation of Premier League clubs and European qualifying – 2 May 2024:
‘Borussia Dortmund’s victory over PSG last night killed off any chance of a fifth English team in next season’s Champions League.
It also means the recipients of the European Performance Spots – Germany and Italy – could get six teams in the expanded 36-team competition as Borussia Dortmund and Italian duo Roma and Atalanta could qualify anyway, by winning the Champions League and Europa League, respectively – with the European Performance Spot an addition on top of that.
For Premier League clubs, the situation is now clear:
Top four go into the Champions League
Fifth-placed team goes into the Europa League
If Manchester United win the FA Cup, they go into the Europa League
If Manchester City win the FA Cup, the sixth-placed team goes into the Europa League
The next team that hasn’t qualified for Europe (must be sixth or seventh) goes into the Conference League play-offs’
I have to admit, I wasn’t convinced it would be a great idea for Newcastle United to go into the Europa Conference League next season.
Now I have looked into the schedule further, I find the idea even less attractive.
If Newcastle United did qualify for the Europa Conference league next season, they would have a two-legged play-off on 22 August and 29 August (the draw for that would be on 5 August to find out our opponents).
Whilst we don’t have the dates yet of all next season’s Premier League matches, apart from knowing the first game of the season will be on the weekend of Saturday 17 August, we can look at what Aston Villa’s early season schedule was last season.
12 August 2023 – Newcastle away
20 August 2023 – Everton home
23 August 2023 – Hibs away (Conference play-off)
27 August 2023 – Burnley away
31 August 2023 – Hibs home (Conference play-off)
3 September 2023 – Liverpool away
I look at Villa having to play those five matches in two weeks (20 August – 3 September) and not ideal right at the start of the season, especially after having been hammered 5-1 by Newcastle United in their opening game!
Also, whilst Villa got the shortest and easiest of trips up the road in Edinburgh, no doubt if Newcastle United end up in those Conference play-offs, we’ll get somewhere as far away as it is possible to get…

 
