Today’s decision to revoke Juventus’ 15-point penalty while waiting for the outcome of a new trial by the Federal Court has shifted the proverbial goalposts in terms of the top four race.
MilanNews writes how Juventus are now in third place after having their initial punishment reversed for the time being, which bumps Milan down to fifth and Inter down to sixth, with the Rossoneri three points behind Roma who are in fourth.
So what changes now? First of all there could be five Italian clubs in the 2023-24 Champions League but only if Inter or Milan win the competition, or if Juventus or Roma triumph in the Europa League. Otherwise, Serie A would remain with four slots as per Italy’s UEFA ranking position.
There is an extra condition though: the winner of the Europa League or the Conference League cannot finish in the top four in the standings. For example, if the table finished Napoli, Lazio, Rome, Milan as the top four and Pioli’s men won in Turkey, four Italian teams would be in the next competition and Inter out.
If instead the Nerazzurri triumphed in Istanbul with the aforementioned top four, Inter would qualify for the next Champions League regardless of their final placement in the league.
Each country can bring up to a maximum of five clubs in the Champions League, the UEFA rules are clear on this. Given that the winner of the Europa League make the Champions League, in the event Italian teams win both European competitions and they both simultaneous placing of the teams concerned below fourth place, the fourth spot would only secure Europa League.
An example: if the table finished Napoli, Lazio, Roma, Milan then Inter won the Champions League and Juventus triumphed in the Europa League, Milan would have to settle for the Europa League.
To make everything even more complete and complex, there is also a hypothesis that leads to having eight clubs from Serie A in European competitions. If Inter or Milan are winners in the Champions League, Roma or Juventus win the Europa League and Fiorentina the Conference League then La Viola (based on the current standings, which sees them in ninth place) would get into the EL.
That would then free up one more place in Serie A meaning the seventh-placed team could still play the next Conference League, meaning eight European teams from Italy.
Aaand boom goes the dynamite.
Italy has become a joke of a nation
At the bureaucratic and government level Italy has been corrupt as buggery since Mussolini. It wasn’t exactly a beacon of transparency and integrity when it was Fascist either and likely just as corrupt. It was a basket case prior to that. It is the Italian way.
Anyway, if Juve is innocent why did the board resign in its entirety? Are any of them to be subjected to personal sanction or liability in place of the club?
LOL. Didn’t doubt it for a second. Juve has paid well.
Oh your very much on the money there!
Juve show us once again that they can and do manipulate SERIA-A, and have the Politicians in their pockets
Well down Juve, Corruption begins in Torino and ends in Torino
Congratulations Juve
What a SHAM
Small chances are that Italian team win champions league this year.
So Napoli Lazio and Juventus are more secure in top three. If I get this right; if Juventus win Europa League and finish top four in Italy, than fifth position leads to champions league also…
It funny when you hate Juventus and you can hope them win europa league to extends positions.
I might be wrong here but if juventus finish 2nd or 3rid or 4rth im pretty sure that as they already occupy one of the cl qualifying spots a 5th wont be given on top of that. On the other hand if a team outside the top four rankings wins europa league then it would give an extra spot.
I might be wrong though
I think you are right. If Roma or Juventus finish below fourth position and one of them win europa league than one extra spot is opening for them. It can’t go reverse…
Still our Milan team have the best motivation to win the most possible games u till end of the season. 8 matches in serie a and 2 in champions league. If they give best of themselves, there is space to pass Roma and Inter in this fight.
I was previously of the view that 5th place europa league winners would actually take the fourth spot so not 100% sure about it but maybe i was correct above here 🙂
Yeah i agree and still fully believe we will qualify for cl because all matches will be of utmost priority from now on and we seem to excell when we find ourselves in such situations. In the end though it can go either way but regardless of juves points given back i would go for 3rd spot and we still have to meet them so the opportunity is deffently there as well.
Yep. Only 4 UCL spots.
UCL champion takes from top 4 if not a member.
Where it gets interesting is Europa. Winning that competition results in auto qualification too.
It means a side might need to finish top 2.
The rule had been revised post Chelsea-Tottenham.
I guess the best we can hope then is that the italian teams go further into the competitions so they wont only have to concentrate on serie a and then hopefully to fail in semis or finals then.
@Bruno. The limit is five, which in the event of a CL winner and Europa League winner from the same league would result in the lowest placed CL qualifying team in the league table to drop out.
Source: uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/0242-0e16a85014cb-5ffe48223b95-1000–champions-league-and-europa-league-changes-next-season/
@Bruno, so to be clear, if Milan wins the CL, and Roma wins the EL, and Inter finishes 4th, then Inter would not qualify for the CL. If Milan or Roma win the CL and EL, respectively, and either finish fourth it’s a moot point for the one finishing fourth, since they’d be qualifying as the winner of their European competition. In all above cases Italy would be sending five clubs to next season’s CL. The club that would suffer would be the one finishing fourth if the EL and CL are both won by Italian clubs, if that club isn’t the winner of one of those two competitions.
Ridiculous, they got cought cheating on the transfer market and instead of a real punishment they only got 15 points taken away from them. But now when they need those points to qualify for CL they give them the points back too. Seria A is a joke shit league. No wonder they can’t attract sponsors and make money like EPL and the Spanish league, who the heck would like to waste his money on such a corrupt league. Juventus is the number one reason for the destruction of Seria A.
Now we’ll find out just how good Pioli really is. So far his gamble in the league has backfired, so can he beat Roma, Lazio and Juve who are all in form? Alternatively, he could win the Champions League, but that’s even harder…
Pioli needs to build up team for Champions league clash. So all games before inter are good for team to gain form and confidence. In games against Inter our team must give best of them selves. Against Lazio Pioli again must rest first team squad.
And what happens- happens. We don’t need to forgot that owner didn’t invest properly to have bigger roster who would be more competitive in serie a and Champions league In the same time.
We can’t afford to miss out on CL next season, so resting a bunch of starters in any of the remaining league games would be a huge mistake. You are correct that management did a terrible job last Summer so Pioli has weak backups, but that’s what he has to work with for now, unfortunately. This is where he can prove that he’s a good manager.
@Bruno – the top 4 qualify no matter what. If a team outside of the top 4 (like Milan/Inter) win the CL, they also qualify so Italy would have 5 teams. They don’t take spots away from the top 4. That would be really messed up.
Not quite. If Milan is outside of top 4 and Roma is also outside of top 4 and they both win UCL and Europa respectively then only top 3 qualify for UCL next year
We can’t afford to miss out on CL next season, so resting a bunch of starters in any of the remaining league games would be a huge mistake. You are correct that management did a terrible job last Summer so Pioli has weak backups, but that’s what he has to work with for now, unfortunately. This is where he can prove that he’s a good manager.
Pioli already proof himself IS a good manager with how he can brought back Milan to Champions League, a Scudetto, and now at semi-final Champions League. I doubt Ancelotti or Guardiola can get this same achievement if they get the same players like Pioli.
So what you and some people here needs to do is lower your f*kin UNREALISTIC expectation because Pioli only have WEAK backups!!!!!!
Pioli may have weak backups, but he also happens to have one of the best youth teams in all of Europe and his rotation strategy doesn’t work. A good coach rotates AFTER taking control of a game. Hopefully he’ll learn from this and have more trust in the kids. Coubois, El Hilali and Traore are ready for the first team. CDK and Origi have been dire, but Pioli keeps playing them. That’s on him.
Since when backups like Pobega, Adli, Vranckx, Gabbia, Dest, and Alexis became “one of the best youth teams in europe”? Sounds like you mistaken Milan with Ajax, Lille, or RB Leipzig.
And it wasn’t Pioli’s fault if the rotation doesn’t work because his backup players played like crap. You created a lot of chances but in the front you have players like Origi, Rebic, and CDK who can’t scored 🤣
So what was the point if Juve got back their points again?
de risa, nada nuevo bajo el sol ni con la serie A, dimite la directiva de la Juventus (por algo es) y les devuelven los 15 puntos, no dudo que incluso la directiva regrese “ofendida” …
Juve are also under investigation from UEFA, they could be thrown out of Europe. It’s not the end of the world if we don’t make top 4 because we’ve made far more money from this season’s UCL campaign than anyone could have imagined. Roma are also still involved in Europe and Roma have to play both Milan clubs in Serie A, and Atalanta (admittedly they suck right now), Monza, Fiorentina and Bologna. All tough matches. They only have a 3 point lead over us. We need to beat them at the Olimpico and hope Inter do the same.
All we need to beat is Roma and of course win all remaining games..we drew 2-2 when we met earlier in the season so a won for us on their stadium means weretbetter head to head so we take their third.
Jure actually are cancer of this league any corrupt thing that happens in the league Juve are involved they cheat and bring the whole league down with them… We will never be able to compete with PL for TV right while Juventus exists as they do now. Why give them 15 points back UEFA will not let them compete anyway and that will look even more absurd for Serie A we are a laughing stock of a league and to be honest from monkey chants being a routine on stadiums and Juve cheating every 5 min they can honestly it is warranted
as i told you, 0-0 Empoli, 1-1 Bologna was crucial, beat Juve, Roma and Lazio will not occur. Why we did not start in those games with Leao and co and then take of in min 50-60? win rate would have been much higher. Anyhow missing UCL would mean kind of a restart of Milans project. All the other teams have strengthened the team, Milan has not brought in a single new player who has helped. This will be paid now painfully what is OK, why should beeing that usless have not effect?
So, I’m going to defend the Bologna result. Immediately after the game I thought it was a poor result, but in retrospect given the circumstances it was a great result. Consider that it was a draw that was achieved against a club that was in form with all 10 outfield players never having played a single minute as a unit, of which only 2 could be considered starters. This was done to rest the “regulars” who would go on to secure the CL semi-finals that has so many of us crowing. What tarnishes the Bologna result is the fact that in 2023 we’ve dropped points to Lecce, Sassuolo, Salernitana, Udinese, Fiorentina, and Empoli, all winnable games, plus the draw against Roma in a game we were winning 2-0 until the 85th minutes. THIS is why the Bologna result is negative, not the result in and of itself, which was relatively fantastic under the circumstances of that game.
P.S. Not only did we achieve that result, but we were the better team on the whole, and had chances to win the game, which is truly remarkable. It is a great result.
What ever the case may be , it’s points Jube won on the field. Pioli better straighten the lads up for the final run in……….and hope for some luck too