Saints finished 7th last year and sneaked into the Europa league courtesy of the fact that both Cup winners had qualified for the Champions League and therefore did not need the Europa League place.

This years European qualification rules and regulations have been complicated due to the Europa League now offering a Champions League place for the winners, this means that technically if Liverpool were to win that competition and finish in the top seven in the Premier League then Saints could finish 8th and still get a Europa League spot.

The first rule is that you have to consider the Europa League Champions League spot as a wild card entry and not subject to the normal regulations.

As it stands the top four qualify for the Champions League and then it gets messy because through the normal routes of qualification only four teams from England can qualify, so if City win the competition and finish in the top four only four teams can qulify through the League, but if City say win the CL and finish 5th then they get the 4th CL spot and if it was Manchester United in 4th they would not get into the Cl but go into the Europa League.

Confusing eh, but the simple fact is that assuming that City and Liverpool do not win the European trophies then for 7th place to mean qualification for the Europa league again it needs City to finish in the top 4 and not need the 2nd Europa League place and United to win the FA Cup and then the 3rd place would go to the League again.

But !!!!!!!!!!

If all that happened and Liverpool won the Europa League then they would qualify for the Champions League as this route and we could have 5 teams in the CL, but only through this route.

That being the case then the Europa League place that Liverpool look like getting at the moment would pass o the league.

This is the hypothetical table or variations of it final table that would allow 8th to qualify.

1 Leicester City CL
2, Spurs CL
3. Arsenal CL
4, Man City CL (Through either league or CL win)
5. Man United EL through winning FA Cup
6. West Ham EL
7. Liverpool CL through winning EL
8. Saints EL

It's confusing but in simple terms we need Manchester United to win the FA Cup and Liverpool to win the Europa League.

It will pain many Saints fans to cheer them both on to glory, but the truth is that this is our most realisitc chance of Europa League qualification unless we overhaul both Liverpool and west Ham

So there is all to play for in the final four games, we have to do our bit first though and win them.

Photo: Action Images

schatfield added 15:26 - Apr 22 come on the reds then!
1

SanMarco added 18:13 - Apr 22 Cant bring myself to want those things - you'll be asking us to cheer on the Spuds next !!!
1

A1079 added 21:28 - Apr 22 It is only a matter of time when finishing 4th from bottom will qualify for a place in the Europa league. If we want to qualify for anything I would rather it is achieved through our own performances and not dependent on other results or outcomes.
3

Whatsforpud added 23:42 - Apr 22 What a misnomer the Champions' League is! Lets get back to naming it the European Cup. Regarding the Europa League, the whole thing is too long-winded. Just decide on the (say) 32 qualifying clubs, don't have qualifying rounds (in July!!), and have a straight knock-out, as per the FA Cup. The good news is Saints might get into the Europa Cup - the bad news is Saints might get into the Europa Cup.

2

BoondockSaint added 01:36 - Apr 23 Agree Whatsforpud!! Champions League just for the league winner in each league. or Europa for under 21s only. Trouble is, more games mean more money, to buy more players who want more money, so you need more money.........Like A1079 says, soon everyone qualifies.
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john_d added 11:12 - Apr 23 I do not think this article is correct. Unless the rules have changed for this season 8th place will NOT qualify if Liverpool win Europa League. Section 3.06 of the Europa League rules for the 2015/2016 season state: The UEFA Europa League titleholder is admitted to the UEFA Champions League, at the entry stage determined by Article 3 of the Regulations of the UEFA Champions League. If the UEFA Europa League titleholder qualifies for the UEFA Europa League through one of its domestic competitions, the number of places to which its association is entitled in the UEFA Europa League is decreased by one.The created vacancy is rebalanced accordingly and priority for the UEFA Europa League is given to the domestic cup winners (in accordance with the entry stage as per the access list). http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/...9_DOWNLOAD.pdf

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saintinexile added 17:14 - Apr 23 'the bad news is Saints might get into the Europa Cup.' Couldn't be more right based on what I've just seen at Villa.
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SaintBrock added 19:47 - Apr 23 A1709 has said it all really and with nicely judged irony. Scraping in to play Feyenoord? What's the point? Not for me either. We either deserve it on merit or not at all.
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