Liverpool will be allowed to defend its Champions League title, but will have to begin play in the first qualifying round.
European soccer’s governing body announced the decision yesterday after the 14-member executive committee agreed to make a special case for the five-time European champions.
Despite beating Milan on penalties in the final in Istanbul last month, Liverpool were unable to gain an automatic spot in next season’s competition.
Under UEFA’s rules, the champions didn’t automatically qualify. The top four in the English Premier League qualify, and Liverpool finished fifth. Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Everton qualified automatically.
UEFA decided yesterday that, from now on, the reigning champions will automatically have the right to defend the crown.
“They (executive committee) felt it was the best and wisest, and I felt that way too,” UEFA spokesman William Gaillard said. “The rules said that no association could have five clubs in the Champions League. The decision that has been taken is exceptional.”
If the situation happens again, the fourth-placed team will have to drop out to make room for the Champions League winner. Had the rule been in force this season, Liverpool’s archrivals Everton would have been out.
“In the upcoming season, England will be the only national association ever, and for the last time, that will be allowed to have five clubs,” Gaillard said.
Gaillard indicated that revenue from the competition would be split five ways, not four ways, by the English clubs.
“There will be some financial burden on the other four clubs,” he said.
Liverpool will enter the qualifying rounds, which begin on 12-13 July and 19-20 July. The draw for the round will take place on 24 June.
Liverpool will have to play six matches to reach the group stage, which opens in September. The club’s lucrative tour to Japan in late July could now be in doubt.
“I wouldn’t say the majority of Liverpool fans are overjoyed as we have been put in at the very lowest level in the first round rather than as the highest seed,” said Rich Peddar, chairman of the Liverpool FC Supporters Club. “We are in it and that is the main thing.”
Former Liverpool captain and manager Phil Thompson said the ruling was a “great decision for football.”
“We’ve had the right things in our hearts and they’ve had the right things in their minds,” he said.
Phil Neal, who won the European Cup four times with Liverpool in the 1970s and ‘80s, said manager Rafa Benitez must move quickly to beef up the squad.
“They’re already scheduled to come back on 27 June, so it will make it a very long season,” Neal said. “He (Benitez) is going to need a bigger squad.”
Liverpool were one of three English teams that had qualified for the UEFA Cup, the continent’s second-tier competition. England will now have only two teams in the competition – Bolton and Middlesbrough. UEFA said Manchester City will not be given Liverpool’s berth, as some expected.
Possible opponents for Sliema
Liverpool’s admission into the first qualifying round means that they hav e now become possible opponents for the unseeded teams in that round. And these include Malta’s Sliema Wanderers.
The seeded teams – other possible opponents for Sliema - are Anorthosis Famagusta (Cyprus), Nova Gorica (Slovenia), Dinamo Tbilisi (Georgia), Slovakia champions (still unknown), Haka Valkeakoski (Finland), FH Hafnarfjardar (Iceland), Shelbourne (Ireland), Zrinjski Mostar (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Sheriff Tiraspol (Moldova) and FBK Kaunas (Lithuania).
The unseeded teams are SK Tirana (Albania), Llansantffraid (Wales), Sliema, Pyunik Yerevan (Armenia), Rabotnicki Skopje (Macedonia), Levadia Tallinn (Estonia), Glentoran (Northern Ireland), F91 Dudelange (Luxembourg), Azerbaijan champions, HB Torshavn (Faroe Islands) and Kairat Almaty (Kazakhstan).