Coronavirus brought football to a halt and with the 2019/20 pending, the odds of the season being cancelled continues to grow. As a result, many are speculating how UEFA would decide who would make the 2020/21 Champions League campaign from Europe's top leagues, namely the Premier League.
According to the Sun, European football's governing body "are being urged" to decide England's four tickets to the aforementioned competition based on their coefficient system. If true, this would mean great news for Arsenal, who currently place well outside the top four, and would spell bad news for Chelsea, who occupy that fourth spot.
Coefficient is UEFA's calculation of the result of clubs participating in the last five Champions League and Europa League seasons. Based on these metrics, Man City would grab the top spot, followed by Liverpool, Man United, and finally Arsenal. Tottenham place just outside the top four in fifth while Chelsea, the only London club to have won the UCL, are in sixth. Wolves and Sheffield, two clubs who boast great odds of making UEFA's premier club competition, would not even make the Europa League based on these metrics.
If the season was to be cancelled and the top four were to be decided on how the league left off prior to the suspension, the Blues would book their ticket to the Champions League. However, the argument against doing this is clear: with 30 points up for grabs and only eight separating Lampard's side from ninth-placed Gunners, no one knows how the season could have turned out.
Another option would be to base England's participants on last season's standings, which could still turn out positive for the north London giants. They finished in fifth last term and should Man City's ban be upheld in time to prevent them from competition in the 2020/21 Champions League, that ticket should in theory pass down to the next best team which is Arsenal.
A recent video call was held between UEFA and their 55 member FAs, with the governing body strongly favoring the season being completed. The organization had threatened to ban clubs from leagues that were prematurely cancelled. Recent events have changed UEFA's tone, however.
For example, the Netherlands extended their ban on all professional sports until September, which means the Eredivisie look set to cancel their season. Should the government in the UK or Europe's other major countries follow suit, then their top-flight competitions may be forced to prematurely end as well.
