A potential new twist in the Liverpool title defence soap opera......

It's a bit long winded, but bear with it, it could make UEFA look a bit silly; I should add that it's all c&p from now on......

The official view from UEFA is that there is no provision for the cup holders to defend their trophy.
A look at the "Access List" on the UEFA website suggests otherwise, though.

Basically, the Access List outlines the number of teams that each country's FA is allowed to enter for the Champions League - and also at what stage those teams enter the competition (ie 1st Qualifying Round, 2nd Qualifying Round, 3rd Qualifying Round or Group Phase).
(Eg. England, Spain and Italy are all allowed the "maximum" of four teams, with the top two qualifying straight for the group phase, and two more entering in the 3rd qualifying round.)

According to the Access List for next season, the cup holders are one of the 16 teams who go straight into the group phase.

In other words, it suggests that UEFA would NOT have to create an extra place for Liverpool, OR kick another team out to make room for them.
In fact, they would probably have to re-jig the qualifiers if they chose NOT to allow Liverpool in (because a team that would expect to start in the 3rd qualifying round would have to be promoted straight to the group phase instead of the cup holders, and that would have a knock-on effect).

Surely it's not a question of "Will UEFA allow Liverpool to defend the cup?", but "Who gets the place that appears to be ear-marked for the cup holders if Liverpool don't take part?"

Even thought it's far from being a definitive answer, I hope it makes sense.

Posted By: Canaria_glorificus on May 26th 2005 at 16:08:09

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