Fifth in the UEFA Coefficient threatened by the Netherlands, France will see its qualifiers fall on very heavy ground next season in the new formulas of the Champions League and the Europa League. Nice, Brest and Monaco would be in the bottom hat of the LDC.
With second place for PSG and third for RC Lens in the Champions League, second places for Stade Rennais, OM and Toulouse in the Europa League as well as first for Lille in the Conference League, France has a good chance to maintain its fifth place in the UEFA index, officially called the Associations Coefficient. This will allow Ligue 1, next season, to offer four places in the LDC (including three direct), like this year.
However, the new formulas of the Champions League and the Europa League are putting French clubs in even more difficulty. As a reminder, in these two European Cups with 36 participants, each club will face two teams from its hat, for a total of eight matches, with the first eight in the general classification directly qualified for the round of 16 (the 16 according to compete in play-offs). PSG will be among the top seeds but will face two teams from hat 1 no matter what.
Very heavy for everyone
The other French clubs will have a very difficult list of opponents. Thus, AS Monaco, OGC Nice and obviously Stade Brestois, in the event of LDC, would all be in hat 4, when Lille would be in 3rd. They would all have three or four strong opponents, with little chance of avoiding the top seeds like Manchester City, Bayern, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Inter and Barça. And hat 2 could for example offer Arsenal, Atlético, Napoli or Leverkusen…
In the Europa League, the French club match schedule also looks interesting. Only Losc would be in hat 2 in the event of participation. Monaco and Nice would find themselves in pot 3 and Lens and Brest in 4. Football Rankings projections give Manchester United, AS Roma, Real Sociedad, Porto and Ajax in the hat of the League’s top seeds Europe. Ligue 1 clubs in the race for Europe already know what to expect…
