A top seven finish in the Premier League this season for West Ham could be enough to qualify for European football again next season.
West Ham currently occupy sixth place, three points behind fifth placed Manchester United, four behind fourth placed Arsenal and five behind third placed Manchester City.
Liverpool are breathing down our necks in seventh two points behind us while Southampton are five points behind us in eighth place.
UEFA Champions League qualification
The most straight-forward qualification outcome is that the clubs who finish in the top four positions in the 2015/16 Premier League will qualify to compete in the 2016/17 UEFA Champions League.
1. UEFA Champions League – group stage
2. UEFA Champions League – group stage
3. UEFA Champions League – group stage
4. UEFA Champions League – play-off stage
If Manchester City finish outside the top four of the Premier League and win the UEFA Champions league, they automatically take a place in the group stage of the Europe’s elite club competition at the expense of the fourth-placed club, who will instead appear in the UEFA Europa League.
UEFA Europa League
Generally speaking there are three UEFA Europa League places given to English clubs who fulfil the following criteria: winning the FA Cup, winning the Capital One Cup and finishing fifth in the Premier League.
However, if the Capital One Cup winners Manchester City finish in the top four, their UEFA Europa League place goes to the next-highest ranked team in the Premier League (nominally the sixth-placed team).
If Manchester United win the FA Cup and finish outside the top four, their UEFA Europa League place goes to the next-highest ranked team in the Premier League (nominally the seventh-placed team).
Finally, If Liverpool win the Europa League and finish in the top seven they will qualify for Champions League play off stage, unfortunately although the amount of Champions League places increase to five, the amount of Europa Places reduces to two accordingly.
Sean, this is wrong I believe, Europa League will only be 3 qualifying places, so 7th position as the very lowest position, not 8th. If Liverpooll were to win the UEL then they automatically qualify for UCL as you have said, but this creates a 5th UCL qualifying team at the expense of one other team higher in the table than them who drop out of UEL places with only 2 qualifying places in the UEL.
http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/news/news/2015-16/apr/150416-european-qualifying-places-explained.html
Whatever way you look at it we have a lot more work to do than we should having been denied 8 of the last 15 points, we should be sitting pretty in the CL places but the FAPL and probably Uefa want United in there and they also want Liverpool in Europe so its not a surprise that they put Liverpool’s fate in their own hands at the expense of us and Dortmund who are also a lesser European team, this has been going of for seasons now depending on who you support, do you think it is also odd that once we are in the clutches of the other teams that are wanted in Europe and well clear of the CL places that we suddenly get an abundance of penalties and dodgy decisions having had almost none for 4 years ? I would say not they want to even up the statistics so they can cover their match fixing something I have also noticed not just in our leage but others over the years.
Nice conspiracy theory 32. And how do you explain the role reversal of Chelsea and Leicester? Are there aliens involved?
Also Sean is there no place available through fair play this year?
Hi Slaven, whilst it does appear a conspiracy theory it is an observation I have noticed not only in our league but especially in the Italian and Spanish leagues for the last 20 years or so, it is widely known that UEFA wanted a European Super League, this is why they eventually had to settle for the ECL and later the Europa League also so that they can have their desire of a brand that can be sold across the World in order to have that it requires certain key deliverables namely that the main players remain the same so they can build their brand globally, this is much easier with teams with either a rich history or newly rich pockets drawing publicity through lavish aquisitions and no doubt greasing the mucky palms of football officials et all along the way.
SX Hammer, I checked with a few people who said 8th is possible in certain circumstances however remote . It assumes Manchester City do NOT win champions league but Liverpool win the Europa League and Manchester United win the FA cup.
So in this scenario :
Leicester come 1st Champions league Group stage
Spurs come 2nd Champions league Group stage
Arsenal come 3rd Champions league Group stage
Manchester City 4th Champions league qualifying stage
West Ham 5th Europa League spot 1 (league position)
Manchester United 6th FA Cup winners Europa League spot 2
Liverpool 7th (5th Champions league qualifying stage) for wining Europa League
Southampton 8th Europa League spot 3 (Capital cup won by Manchester City)
Your link suggests that there can be up to 5 champions league spots and up to 3 Europa league spots so 8 European places are possible in theory
No slaven a laugh, Europa Fair Play league has been retired after West Ham won it last year. The winners now get a cash prize instead of a Europa spot.
What’s the cash prize Sean? Season tickets to Sunderland and Amazon book vouchers for the messiahs autobiography?
The amount of prize money is decided by the UEFA Fair Play and Social Responsibility Committee at the end of the season and is meant to be used for fair play and respect-themed projects.The money can be donated to amateur or professional clubs of their choice within the association.
Funny enough West Ham are second from bottom on the Fair Play league table this season
http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/fairnesstabelle/wettbewerb/GB1/plus/?saison_id=2015
The problem is we leaving it to other clubs to win things
Liverpoor will be the luckiest club ever if they win anything with there rubbish side,
Manure have been even luckier that there befuddled leader was forced to change his side through injury and fell on his feet but with players coming back from injury he will go back to his normal boring self and win nothing,
Man city will have to be at there best for the first time this season to beat either Madrid team
But with Wenger blowing it as usual they could take third,
It would be nice just to do it ourselves win all our remaining games and finish at home with a great victory over Manure and grab 5th place,
SX hammer it appears you could be right if this article in the Daily mail is correct
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-3502617/Champions-League-Europa-League-FA-Cup-Capital-One-Cup-affect-qualifies-Europe-season.html
The article suggests that if champions league places increase to five then the Europa league places reduce to two. Your previous link said three Europa places would remain.
I have updated the article unless someone can prove that is incorrect
If Manchester City finish outside the top four of the Premier League and win the UEFA Champions league, they automatically take a place in the group stage of the Europe’s elite club competition at the expense of the fourth-placed club, who will instead appear in the UEFA Europa League. – NOT CORRECT. 5 Clubs progress then. Only in case pool and City both win European trophies and both finish outside top 4 then 4th placed team will play I’m Europa league.