Liverpool F.C. Champions League qualification 2005-06

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Although they were the champions of Europe, Liverpool FC's domestic performance meant the team had finished outside the top four of the Premiership (the requirement for entry to the Champions League) and therefore unable to defend their title.

Contents 1 2005–06 season Champions League qualification 2 Merseyside implications 3 UEFA ruling 4 Repercussions 5 Notes 6 References

[edit] 2005–06 season Champions League qualification

England’s high country coefficient allows the maximum number of teams (four) to be entered into the Champions League competition. In the 2004-05 season five English teams had qualified under the previous UEFA guidelines for the Champions League Competition: Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United, and Everton, who had finished in the top four places in the Premier League, and Liverpool FC, who had won the competition that year. Under then-existing UEFA regulations, the choice of which team to be excluded (either fourth placed finishers Everton or Champions League winners Liverpool) fell to the Football Association. ^[1]

This situation was unusual but neither unprecedented nor unforeseen. Indeed, the FA itself foresaw the same situation arising[2] in the Winter of 2004 and released a statement on 10 March 2004 that if Arsenal or Chelsea won the Champions League, but failed to finish in the top four Premier League spots, they would nonetheless be automatically entered in the next year’s competition and the fourth placed Premier League team placed in the UEFA Cup.

Only a year later, the FA changed its mind [3] and decided that the top four finishing teams in the Premier League would be entered into the Champions League regardless of Liverpool’s Champions League triumph. When the inconsistency was pointed out to the FA, the FA pulled the previous year's statement from its web site, and promised a forthcoming explanation. Nothing else was heard from the FA for several months.

[edit] Merseyside implications

The controversy was intensified not only because Liverpool FC and Everton FC have a storied Merseyside rivalry, but also because entry into Europe's top club competition was the subject of a longstanding grudge between the two clubs. The grudge has its origin twenty years before in May 1985, when Everton had won the First Division, thus clinching entry into the next year's European Cup. However, following the Heysel disaster (May 29, 1985) involving Liverpool fans, English clubs were withdrawn from all European football competitions for a period of five years. This self-imposed travel-ban coincided with a period of remarkable Everton successes (including two first and one second place finishes) which would have ordinarily earned Everton at least three years of top flight European Football. [4] Many Everton supporters see this period of fallow European campaigns as the start of Everton's slide out of the top echelons of English football, a slide for which Liverpool is thus partially responsible. [5] And then again twenty years after Heysel, Everton supporters were again worried that they could be denied a place in the top club competition by Liverpool. [6]

Officially, EFC offered their support of LFC's entry into the Champions League, although they expressed concern that LFC's entry should not come at the financial expense of any other clubs in the Champions League competition and then made the rather radical suggestion that Liverpool should be excluded from any share of the Group Stage Market Pool, the most lucrative source of Champions League revenue, which would have left Liverpool essentially with only the match day income from their Champions League matches as well as some performance bonuses and match fees. [7] ^[2]

[edit] UEFA ruling

For some time it was unclear whether Liverpool would be granted the right to defend their title or be left with UEFA Cup football. Initially UEFA said there was nothing that could be done[8]. But after a ground swell of support for Liverpool’s inclusion UEFA[9] seemed to soften its stance. The League of Wales champions Total Network Solutions F.C. offered to play a two-legged tie for TNS' place in the first qualifying round.[10] The situation was finally resolved by UEFA on 10 June 2005[11]. Liverpool would be allowed to enter the competition in 2005-06, however at a cost: Liverpool would have to enter the competition from the first Qualifying Round, meaning a grueling summer qualifying campaign. TNS and Liverpool ended up drawn against one another anyway.

With regard to the financial implications of Liverpool's entry, UEFA did decree that Liverpool would be treated as the lowest-placed English club for determining their share of the England market pool, however they essentially left undecided the difficulty of how Champions League revenue calibrated for 32 clubs would be divided instead among 33 clubs, because this problem was not only extremely difficult, but also would only become a problem if all three English teams playing in the qualifying rounds (Manchester United, Liverpool, and Everton) actually qualified for the Group Stage. As it happened, Everton failed to qualify for the Group Stages of the Champions League, losing both matches to Villareal in the third qualifying round, [12] thus ending Everton's claim to any portion of the Group Stage Market Pool, match fees or performance bonuses.

[edit] Repercussions

Indeed, the FA’s decision also affected English football as a whole, since the team whose Champions League place the FA had stubbornly fought for, Everton, were eliminated in the Third Qualifying Round causing the English League’s UEFA ranking to plunge from First in May 2005 to Third in May 2006[13].

UEFA also amended Rule 1.03[14] to grant future European title holders immediate qualification to the next year’s Champions League competition.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• FA ruling regarding qualification to the Champions League: [05 May 2005 05/05/2005]
• UEFA ruling on qualification to the Champions League 10/06/05
• article on public support for Liverpool's inclusion
• Table of UEFA country rankings