Nine teams in Europe – how that affects the Premier League | OneFootball

The Premier League will field nine teams in UEFA club competitions for the second season in a row in the 2026/27 campaign.

Five teams will be playing Champions League football, after the UEFA coefficient awarded England a fifth spot. Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Liverpool will all featured in UEFA’s top club competition.

Bournemouth and Sunderland qualified for the Europa League through their league position, whilst Crystal Palace secured their place after defeating Rayo Vallecano in the Conference League final on Wednesday.

Brighton & Hove Albion’s return to European football, completing the set, will take place in the qualifying rounds of the Conference League.

With nine sets of midweek European fixtures to contend with, there will be knock-on effects for the Premier League.

Friday’s and Monday’s the new home of Spurs, Chelsea and Newcastle?

Chelsea, Tottenham and Newcastle could be set to lose their weekend fixtures due to nine sides being unable to play Friday’s or Monday’s due to their involvement in Europe, with only 11 teams able to play in those slots most of the time.

Last season Manchester United had play eight times on Friday or Monday, with Everton, Leeds and West Ham shown on seven occasions. Brighton were only shown once, with Burnley and Fulham shown twice.

Due to Sky Sports wanting to broadcast clubs who bring in bigger viewing figures, such as Everton and Leeds; slots might be spread around more clubs. But with West Ham relegated to the Championship, and Man United returning to Europe, this might not happen.

Fewer Saturday kick-offs

Crystal Palace’s qualification for the Europa League as a title holder means that there will be four teams playing on a Thursday in Europe, up from usual three of previous seasons. Teams that play on Thursday cannot play on Saturday.

Unless two of these teams are playing each other, four of the ten matches will have to move to Sunday or Monday, with TV fixture selection not factored in yet either. This means that Saturday’s having only three or four matches will become much more common, with fewer 3pm kick-offs as well. The current broadcast deal means any matches that are moved will be shown on TV.

The Carabao Cup issue

In the Carabao Cup, teams that qualify for Europe receive a bye into the third round, with 18th and 19th in the Premier League usually receiving a bye into the second round, along with the other sides that avoided relegation.

However, the amount of teams in Europe affects the number of slots in third round, as the more teams that get a bye to the third round, the less that can progress through the second round. For the straight knockout format to work, there must be 32 teams in round three. If eight sides get a bye, then that means there would be 24 second round ties, with 36 knockout ties in the first round.

Burnley and West Ham would have to start in the first round to make the maths work, as they would make it 72 teams and 36 ties. Nine teams in Europe make it more confusing, with only 23 slots left to fill in round three, so the EFL must lose a tie or two teams via a preliminary round.

That would usually include the two promoted sides, in this case York and Rochdale, and the teams that finished 21st and 22nd in League Two, which were Tranmere and Crawley. The issue with this is the first round is regionalised into northern and southern sections, with three northern and one southern side set to meet in the preliminary round.

Given how close the preliminary round will be played to the first round, there would not be enough time to play the fixtures, then hold another draw in order to rebalance the regions.

New Premier League financial rules

From 1 July, the Premier League will move to a new system of financial regulation. Profit and sustainability (PSR) will be replaced by squad cost ratio. This means simply, the more money you make the more you can spend. However the spending figure is different in Europe, which caps clubs at 70 per cent of their revenue, compared to 85 per cent in the Premier League.

The 11 Premier League clubs will also have the potential of up to 115 per cent spending, which is in place to help teams not in Europe compete with the clubs receiving UEFA broadcast revenue.

This could mean a rotating list of teams in Europe from one season to the next, especially in the Europa League and Conference League.