How can the Bundesliga earn a fifth UEFA Champions League spot?
With all eight of Germany's eight European contenders still in the running across the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Conference League, the Bundesliga is in with a chance of once again securing a fifth Champions League spot for 2025/26. Could there even be six teams? bundesliga.com explains how it works...
The battle for a spot in the top four - and with it the chance to play Champions League football - is usually one of the most thrilling storylines in the final weeks of a Bundesliga season, and this year will likely be no exception. Although Bayern Munich are four points clear at the top, just three points currently separate third-placed Bayer Leverkusen from sixth-placed Freiburg, and competition for the European places is hotting up.
However, it could well be the top five and not just the top four who make it into Europe's top club competition - as was the case last season - for the 2025/26 campaign.
Just how can the Bundesliga maintain its increased quota into next season? Well, as part of its revamped format, Champions League organisers UEFA are awarding an extra qualification spot to the two best-performing leagues in the current season according to its own coefficient rankings. There is a complicated points system behind that, but the more wins and further a league's teams go in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League, the higher that league climbs in the rankings.
The Bundesliga currently sits 11th in the early standings.
Top 12 UEFA association club coefficients for 2024/25 (as of 3 December 2024)
- Portugal - 8.000
- England - 7.571
- Belgium - 7.400
- Poland - 7.125
- Czechia - 7.100
- Sweden - 6.750
- Turkey - 6.500
- Italy - 6.375
- Greece - 5.875
- Slovenia - 5.875
- Germany - 5.625
- Spain - 5.571
It wouldn't be the first time the Bundesliga has sent five representatives into Europe's elite club competition. Dortmund's run to the 2023/24 Champions League final helped the Bundesliga clinch an extra spot for being in the top two places on the UEFA Coefficient ranking, while Eintracht Frankfurt's 2021/22 Europa League victory saw them earn Champions League qualification for 2022/23 in addition to the four sides that qualified via the league.
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It's worth noting, though, that the prospect of a German side lifting the Champions League could in fact throw up the potential for a sixth Bundesliga qualifier.
At this point, that would happen if the side in question finished fifth or lower in the league. They would qualify as holders, the top four as normal, and then the next best-placed German team as well.
However, if the side winning the Champions League finish in the top four in the league, their berth as Champions League holders will be passed to another country.
All will become clearer as we approach the finishing line for 2024/25...
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