Newcastle United are among six Premier League teams competing in next season’s UEFA Champions League.
The top four positions in the Premier League and La Liga typically secure Champions League qualification, however the collective performance of English and Spanish clubs across the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League this campaign has handed both leagues an extra spot.
UEFA rules introduced last season see the two nations with the highest coefficients for the 2024-25 campaign handed an extra qualification spot as EPS.
Newcastle United qualify for the Champions League... just
Newcastle secured Champions League qualification on the final day of the Premier League season last Sunday, despite losing 1-0 to Everton at St James’ Park.
The Magpies started the day fourth in the Premier League table and would have qualified through the ‘automatic league phase spots’ had they won against the Toffees.
However, Chelsea’s 1-0 win away to Nottingham Forest saw them climb into fourth, which left Newcastle and Aston Villa battling it out for fifth, i.e, the EPS spot.
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When Carlos Alcaraz gave Everton the lead on Tyneside, Eddie Howe’s side were sat outside the top five for 11 minutes until Villa went 1-0 down against Manchester United. Amad Diallo opened the scoring before Christian Eriksen added a second from the penalty spot, ensuring Newcastle clinched fifth spot on goal difference.
Speaking after the game, Newcastle defender Dan Burn quipped: “I think over 38 games, we deserved it. Put ourselves in a position to do that. We needed a little bit of luck, I cannot believe we’ve got a favour off Man United! I never thought that would happen, but yeah, very great.”
Six Premier League teams in the 2025-26 Champions League
Football Rankings have published a projected list of the pots for next season’s competition and similar to two years ago, the Magpies are set to be placed in pot four alongside the likes of Celtic, Red Star Belgrade and Belgian outfit Union Saint-Gillois.
Coefficient rankings are based on historical performance in UEFA competition over the last five seasons. With the Magpies competing in Europe just once - winning a single game - they place bottom out of all 34 clubs.
Newcastle do not even use their own score of 17.386. They rank so low that they must adopt the Premier League’s (22.924) coefficient. Manchester City (137.500) and Liverpool (125.500) will be in pot one, Arsenal (98.000) in pot two and Tottenham Hotspur (70.250) in pot three.
Clubs draw two teams from each category, one home and one away but can’t a team from the same country until the knockout phase.
Newcastle United react to securing Champions League qualification
On returning to Europe top table, Howe said: “Financials are so important but the power of the Champions League and the pull of the Champions League is huge and we can't get away from that. The excitement that this will bring for the people here.
“And of course, it's a selling point for us now. It's an opportunity for us to sell that dream to future players that might be considering coming to us. As I said, we've got to get the financials right. We've got to get every other aspect of trying to sign players here right. And hopefully we can do that.”
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