Hey fellas. What did Arsenal play in this morning? Was it actual champions league? What are the 'playoffs'?
Ok - here is the geeky answer
CL qualification is decided by where you finish in your domestic league and most importantly which country you play in.
The first 3 teams in England will automatically qualify for the Champions League - the 4th place team has to qualify ina 2 leg knockout game
Clubs from weaker leagues have it even tougher. For example Celtic from Scotland won their league but still have to play 3 knockout games just to qualify. The reasoning behind this is a "co-ifficient" which is essentially a ranking of each domestic league in Europe. Each team then starts earning their own ranking points
So let's say Liverpool from England have a co-ifficient of 10 and Celtic of Scotland have co-ifficient of 5.
UEFA would give Liverpool 3 "points" for finishing 2nd in the EPL and would multiply those points by the co-ifficient i.e 30 points.
UEFA would give Celtic 4 "points" for winning the SPL and would multiply those points by the coifficient i.e 20 points.
Liverpool gain more points because they qualified from a harder league
To make matters worse for Celtic, if they qualfied for the CL proper...and win a match...they get points, again muitplied by the coifficient.
Two years ago, Man City finshed bottom of their CL group.....Celtic reached the QF. City actually gained more ranking points than Celtic.
Celtic pay the price for the awful standard of their domestic league...and the big clubs from the big leagues get richer and richer and the gap gets wider and wider. Football justice right there
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