Ligue 1 is a “sub-championship” in Europe, that’s the sad reality. French football must only be satisfied with three places directly qualifying for the Champions League and a fourth ticket sending to the 3rd round of qualifying. Losc, who came 4th last spring, managed to qualify for the brand new phase of the league thanks to victories against Fenerbahçe and Slavia Prague, but the future 4th in the French ranking in 2025 will have to go through these preliminaries again to be part of the 36 participants.
UEFA is offering two additional places to the two best nations during the season, but France already has almost no chance of making the top 2, even if PSG wins the Champions League… France can count on six clubs to pick up points, the French champion, Les Dogues as well as AS Monaco and Stade Brestois in the Champions League, as well as OL and Nice in the Europa League. The elimination of RC Lens in the Conference League play-offs is not insignificant. It condemns French football to the same number of European qualifiers (unless one of the French clubs wins a European Cup by finishing outside the top 6 or 7 of Ligue 1 depending on the identity of the winner of the Coupe de France).
Five German and Italian clubs in the Champions League
The race for the two additional direct qualifying tickets for the Champions League will almost certainly be played out between the four best championships, all of which already have four direct qualifiers, as indicated by the X account
Football Rankings. Germany and Italy, who obtained this additional spot at the end of last season, start with a little more luck with eight representatives, including five in C1 (Bayern, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Leverkusen and Leipzig on the German side; Juventus, AC Milan, Bologna, Inter and Atalanta on the other side of the Alps).
Spain and England have seven clubs on the starting line, but good performances by Manchester United and Tottenham in the Europa League and Chelsea in the Conference could make the difference. The Spaniards, for their part, are hoping for epics from Real Sociedad and Bilbao in the Europa League and Real Betis in the C4.
