Eredivisie winner loses automatic Champions League qualifying spot from 2018/19

According to the latest co-efficient rankings released, the Dutch Eredivisie will lose its automatic Champions League group stage qualifying spot in the 2018/19 season. The Netherlands have slipped out of the top 12 (they’re now in 13th spot), and this means their 2017/18 champions will have to play the qualifying stages of the Champions League.

There will also be four guaranteed spaces to each of the top four associations (that’s sixteen clubs guaranteed a group stage Champions League ticket). For example, the fourth place Premiership team originally had to play a qualifying round tie, but will now qualify automatically. The earlier system had a guaranteed group stage spot for nations 1-12 in the co-efficient ranking table, but with these extra spots, only nations 1-10 will be guaranteed a spot.

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