Premier League facing battle to keep four Champions League berths
Thursday 24 September 2015 15:28, UK
The Premier league is facing a battle to hold onto its four allocated berths in the Champions League.
UEFA's latest figures confirm Italy are breathing down England's neck in the contest for Champions League places next season.
England's club coefficient ranking is 65.659 compared to Italy's 61.605, the Premier League's cause helped by bonus points being awarded for four English clubs in the Champions League group stages this season compared to two Italian ones - Roma and Juventus.
However the rest of the season's ranking points will be determined by club performances in both the Europa League and the Champions League.
The rankings reflect the poor start by English clubs in the Champions League - Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal all lost their opening games - but wins for Chelsea and Tottenham, the latter in the Europa League, helped the English cause.
Juventus won their opening Champions League match at Manchester City while Roma drew with holders Barcelona.
At the end of last season, England were second behind Spain and ahead of Germany in the rankings, calculated over a five-year period, but the 2010-11 season now drops out of the calculations - and that year was especially good for England and poor for Italy. The changes mean Germany has already overtaken England.
Spain and Germany have all seven of their entrants into the European group stages, including a record five for La Liga in the Champions League.
Scotland's club coefficient ranking has dropped a place to 25th behind Norway, Belarus, Israel and Cyprus, who are in 18th place.
