English football rules Europe – and beyond

Premier League

Last season, the race for the league title was an exciting one – Liverpool saw Manchester City getting closer and closer, when they finally got back to the top of the Premier League-table to stay there: with only one point more than Liverpool they won the league title.

Chelsea ended third with 72 points. Tottenham Hotspur ended fourth place with 71 points and the fifth place was left for Arsenal, who ended with 70 points. As many European competitions have a strong top 3 or even only a strong top 2, the Premier League top 7 is always different. It is often a close call between five clubs or more – many thrilling matches and great football in the English competition!

European football

The maximum number of English teams in UEFA competitions is seven. This is the largest number of all European competitions. The top four clubs in the Premier League qualify for the UEFA Champions League’s group stage proper. The fifth-placed team is directly qualified for the UEFA Europa League, and sometimes even number 6 an 7 qualify for the Europa League. This depends on the FA Cup winner and the EFL Cup winner.

With such a high level, it isn’t strange that many English clubs compete in the UEFA competitions. Nevertheless, in the end, the European competitions were ruled by Spanish clubs for many years. This is now changing, and last season is a perfect example. Both European finals were played between English clubs: the UEFA Europa League final was played between Chelsea and Arsenal, while the UEFA Champions League final was played between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur.

Club World Cup

And then there’s the FIFA Club World Cup. This football competition is organized by the FIFA, and is played by six teams from seven confederations. The host nation’s national champions first play against the champions from Oceania; the winner joins the quarterfinals. This year’s winner from the Copa Libertadores, Flamengo from Brazil, turned out to be the semifinalist against Liverpool. The final was played in Qatar.

It was the fourth time for Liverpool to play the FIFA Club World Cup’s final, but the first time to ever win it. After becoming a European champion, winning the first global title ever is the icing on the cake for this amazing team from Liverpool.

List of FIFA Club World Cup 2019 participants