The woeful performance of the English premier league in the recent opening games of the UEFA champions league has left a whole lot to be desired. Of the four English Premier League teams that played, only one could garner a win. The rest all ended up with disastrous losses. If the premier league sides keep this up, they might wake up to find themselves with only three slots for the UEFA champions league.
In the last three season, the Premier League has had only two teams in the quarter-finals and one in the semi-finals. Sadly, all this was in the 2103/2014 season. Thus, in the 2012/2013 and the 2014/2015 season, no English team has made it past the round of sixteen. This is in contrast to the previously dominant picture of the English premier league. Between 2004 and 2012, the English league had 7 finalists in 8 seasons. This means that the EPL was very dominant.
The ranking of teams by UEFA places Spain first, followed by Germany, then England and behind England is Italy. Recently, Italy has being gaining on England I’m the UEFA rankings. The rankings are calculated by measuring the performance of the leagues in UEFA competitions for a period of five years. The performance is then used to measure out slots for the next two years. For example, performances from the 2011/2012 to 2015/2016 seasons will affect rankings for the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 seasons.
Four slots are given out to the top three teams in the rankings. If the English premier league should deliver a woeful performance this season, they could lose their four slots to Italy and they would have just three slots in future champions league competitions.
Thus, the ball is in the EPL’s half, it is up to them to determine whether or not they retain their fourth slot.