The current standing of the Premier League having four Champions League places is coming under threat by Serie A.
Serie A has three places in Europe's elite competition, but last season the Italian league gained 5.42 coefficient points on the Premier League. A report by ESPN has found that Italy pulled a further 6.786 points on England at the start of this season, as points gained in 2010/11 were removed from the five-year calculation.
After the terrible start to the Champions League this season for English teams, the current total points standings are:
Germany - 67.606
England - 65.284
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Italy - 61.105
In fact, in the Champions League this season, Italian clubs have only one less point accrued than English teams, despite there being double the English sides in the competition.
Germany - 3.857
England - 3.250
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Italy - 2.166
The points are worked out as two points for a win, and that is divided by the total number of teams a league has in European competition. This means each win (in the Champions League or the Europa League) is worth:
Germany - 0.29
England - 0.25
Italy - 0.33
Any change in places this season would affect the Champions League from the 2017/18 season.
Three leagues always have four Champions League places, with Spain's La Liga far ahead of the German Bundesliga and English Premier League in the standings.
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