Whilst reading an article into seedings for next year's CL (getting excited again already), I did a bit of research and discovered some worrying potential news.
For anyone who is unaware, European clubs are ranked by coefficient (a number reflecting their performance in European competitions). This rank then determines your seeding in the group stage of the Champions League. It doesn't matter if you qualified directly into the group stage or via the preliminary rounds, your seeding is based on your coefficient.
Currently, Spurs are ranked 20th in Europe but, of the definitively qualified teams, we are 13th (due to teams like ars*nal not qualifying). This would make us a 2nd seed (9th-16th ranking) and mean we avoid the very tricky pot 3 - but there are a few complications.
Firstly, due to the rules that the champions from the 7 top European Leagues must be seeded first, Monaco (French champions) and Spartak Moscow (Russia), who are both ranked below Spurs, leapfrog us in the seeding, pushing us down to 15th.
This is where Ajax and Roma come in. If Ajax beat Man United to the Europa League, Ajax will qualify for the CL group stage, but are ranked below us therefore not pushing our seeding down. United are ranked above us, so a win for them would mean 16th seeding for us - the last remaining place in pot 2.
A Roma win on Sunday in their final Serie A fixture would confirm their automatic place in the CL group and they would be seeded below us. However, if Napoli better Roma's result on Sunday, they would take the final automatic qualifying place and seed above us, pushing us into pot 3.
Unfortunately, even with an Ajax/Roma double, our seeding would still be hanging by a thread with Sevilla and Napoli both being in CL qualifying in August and both potentially able to push us out of pot 2.
So there are the permutations that could either see us having to face Dortmund, Barcelona, Atletico or PSG from pot 2 or Ajax, Olympiakos, Andelecht, Basel or Dynamo Kiev from pot 3. There are no easy games in the Champions League, but that makes a significant difference in fixtures and it doesn't look promising!!
Go Ajax! Go Roma!
For anyone who is unaware, European clubs are ranked by coefficient (a number reflecting their performance in European competitions). This rank then determines your seeding in the group stage of the Champions League. It doesn't matter if you qualified directly into the group stage or via the preliminary rounds, your seeding is based on your coefficient.
Currently, Spurs are ranked 20th in Europe but, of the definitively qualified teams, we are 13th (due to teams like ars*nal not qualifying). This would make us a 2nd seed (9th-16th ranking) and mean we avoid the very tricky pot 3 - but there are a few complications.
Firstly, due to the rules that the champions from the 7 top European Leagues must be seeded first, Monaco (French champions) and Spartak Moscow (Russia), who are both ranked below Spurs, leapfrog us in the seeding, pushing us down to 15th.
This is where Ajax and Roma come in. If Ajax beat Man United to the Europa League, Ajax will qualify for the CL group stage, but are ranked below us therefore not pushing our seeding down. United are ranked above us, so a win for them would mean 16th seeding for us - the last remaining place in pot 2.
A Roma win on Sunday in their final Serie A fixture would confirm their automatic place in the CL group and they would be seeded below us. However, if Napoli better Roma's result on Sunday, they would take the final automatic qualifying place and seed above us, pushing us into pot 3.
Unfortunately, even with an Ajax/Roma double, our seeding would still be hanging by a thread with Sevilla and Napoli both being in CL qualifying in August and both potentially able to push us out of pot 2.
So there are the permutations that could either see us having to face Dortmund, Barcelona, Atletico or PSG from pot 2 or Ajax, Olympiakos, Andelecht, Basel or Dynamo Kiev from pot 3. There are no easy games in the Champions League, but that makes a significant difference in fixtures and it doesn't look promising!!
Go Ajax! Go Roma!
