Tonight's football thread

[Travs]

I think the number of teams per country is based on that country's coefficient. This is calculated on how those teams have done in recent years. France is currently awarded three teams. I do recall England only getting three teams, which at the time was a shame for my team Leeds who finished fourth, third and then fourth again between 1999 and 2001. They only qualified for the Champions League in 2000 (and went on the reach the semi-final). I think it was fairly soon after that England was given four teams but by then we had begun our spectacular free fall.

You are correct. But how can it be allowed to reach a situation where some leagues get 4 places in the group stages, and other nations get a single place which they still have to go through qualifying for? Why are the likes of Arsenal/Spurs/Sevilla/Monchengladbach granted favourable entry over the likes of Slavia Prague or Red Star Belgrade? The answer appears simply to be that they come from a big-money league.

That is just increasing the gap between the leagues.

Again, the co-efficient is just UEFA's way of getting more teams from the money-spinning leagues (England, Spain, Germany, Italy) into the final stages.