Ranking the 10 biggest clubs who look set to miss out on European football: Chelsea, Monaco, Ajax… | OneFootball

Traditional powerhouses from the Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga and Serie A feature among 10 clubs we can’t believe (probably) won’t be playing in any of UEFA’s prestigious cup competitions next season.

Even the biggest clubs can fail to qualify for the Champions League from time to time. It happens, particularly with the ultra-competitive nature of football in 2026. But not even making the Europa League or Conference League? That’s something else entirely.

Here are the 10 biggest clubs across Europe who won’t be (or look in massive danger of not) playing in Europe next season.

10. Strasbourg

They aren’t anybody’s idea of a European powerhouse, but BlueCo sticking their oar in got us accustomed to Strasbourg being there or thereabouts at a Conference League/Europa League kind of level.

Gary O’Neil led them to a madcap 5-4 victory over Monaco on the final weekend, but that wasn’t enough to have them finishing any higher than eighth in Ligue 1.

9. FC Copenhagen

It wasn’t so long ago that we’d have described FC Copenhagen as the Danish Superliga’s perennial champions.

But that status has come under threat, with the club plunged into crisis. Aarhus have been this season’s surprise champions, with the club’s first league title in 40 years.

Copenhagen failed to qualify for this season’s Champions League proper after losing their play-off against Basel, while disastrous form in the league saw them unthinkably enter the Danish system’s relegation round – and the drop looked briefly on the cards as they began with back-to-back defeats.

They have since turned things around and won’t be playing second-tier football next season.

But they won’t be in Europe either. Defeat to Midtjylland in the Danish Cup final cost them a Europa League qualifier spot.

8. Athletic Club

It was only recently that Athletic went six years without European football, so this is no great shock.

But we have been surprised at how limply Ernesto Valverde’s side have performed this season, having reached the Europa League semis last year and participated in the Champions League this season, where they mustered a hard-fought goalless draw with reigning champions PSG.

They are only three points off a Conference League spot in La Liga’s ludicrously congested midtable, but their inferior head-to-head record against current occupants Getafe leaves their chances at 0%.

7. Lazio

Juventus shock home defeat to Fiorentina has put their Champions League hopes in serious doubt, but they will at least get Europa League football.

It hasn’t been a vintage Serie A season, with Inter waltzing to a fairly unspectacular Scudetto win and almost all of Italy’s most traditional powerhouses occupying the European spots.

But the rise of Como has at least shaken things up a bit, and it’s Lazio that they’ve replaced.

The Biancocelesti haven’t really made waves in Europe since beating Manchester United in the Super Cup at the tail end of the last century, but they’re invariably in one UEFA competition or another.

But reappointing Maurizio Sarri hasn’t had the desired effect, and it’s been another miserable mid-table campaign. This is the first time they’ve failed to qualify for Europe in back-to-back seasons since the early 90s.

6. Sevilla

The record seven-time UEFA Cup/Europa League winners participated in Europe in all but one season between 2004 and 2024.

But this is the new normal. Sevilla now find themselves in relegation battles as opposed to fights for the top six or seven. Next season will be their third successive campaign without European football.

Sevillistas will be hoping Sergio Ramos’ imminent ownership will spark a return to the Europa glory days. Especially as they’ll have to stomach watching their city rivals Real Betis in the Champions League next season.

Ouch.

5. Ajax

PSV and Feyenoord will be in the Champions League next season, and surprise package NEC Nijmegen could join them after finishing third and qualifying for the preliminary stages.

FC Twente pipped historic giants Ajax to fourth place, and with it a Europa League qualifier spot, meaning that they must contest the Eredivisie’s play-off system for a European spot.

They face Groningen in the semis before either Utrecht or Heerenveen in the two-legged final.

Watch this space.

4. Eintracht Frankfurt

No ifs or buts about this one.

The 2025-26 Bundesliga season concluded at the weekend, with Eintracht Frankfurt sitting eighth in the table, three points off a UEFA Conference League place.

While not exactly historic giants with a divine right to be playing cross-continental football – they barely tasted it between the mid-90s and early 2010s – it’s something that they’ve become increasingly accustomed to in recent years.

Die Adler have played in one UEFA competition or another in seven of the last eight seasons. They won the Europa League under Oliver Glasner back in 2021-22 and were even in this season’s Champions League.

But stinking up their league phase effort set the tone for an underwhelming 2025-26 campaign.

Star players like Omar Marmoush and Hugo Ekitike haven’t been adequately replaced, defensively they were a shambles, Dino Toppmoller was sacked in January and former Liverpool left-back Albert Riera lasted just three months after failing to turn the ship around.

3. Tottenham

Any permutations regarding Tottenham over the final week relate to which division they’ll be playing in next season. There are 27 different combinations of results from their and West Ham’s remaining matches – just one of them sees them down. Gulp.

But pretensions of playing European football next season died a long, long time ago.

You might scoff at Spurs, but only twice in the last 20 years have they failed to make any European competition.

Last time that happened, Ange Postecoglou got them within a whisker of a top-four finish. The time before, Harry Redknapp got them into the Champions League.

It could be a blessing for Roberto De Zerbi.

2. Monaco

Les Monegasques have turned some heads this season. They took points from Man City, Tottenham and Juventus in the Champions League league phase and almost gave Ligue 1 rivals PSG an almighty shock in the play-off round.

A seven-match winning run in the spring was superb and had them on course to return to the Champions League, but they crashed and burned in the final run-in with one win from six.

1. Chelsea

Still an asterisk on this one.

The Champions League is long gone, while their hopes of Europa League football were dealt a major blow by their defeat in the FA Cup final. The 2025-26 campaign is officially a bust.

Get their regulation home win over Spurs on Tuesday, though, and the Blues would at least be back in the mix for the Conference League, maybe even Europa, going into the final weekend.

Drafting in the bomb squad didn’t work out too badly for Enzo Maresca in the Conference League, but you wonder if Xabi Alonso hopes they miss out entirely.

Both Jurgen Klopp and Mikel Arteta benefited massively from a full season out of Europe early on in their tenures.

Liverpool and Arsenal made great leaps forward and a cultural reset was instilled with proper time on the training pitch. And look what Michael Carrick is doing at Manchester United.

Chelsea won their last title a decade ago thanks to Antonio Conte capitalising on no European distractions.