Proposed changes to the Champions League could 'end the Premier League top-four race' with qualification restricted, according to reports.
i Football reports a document published by the Football Association would see England's four entrants to Europe's top-tier competition initially decided by coefficients from the 2020-21 season to the 2023-24 campaign.
English football's current highest European co-efficients are Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal. Tottenham come in at fifth and Chelsea sixth. Leicester City, currently third in the league, are a very distant seventh.
Thereon, teams would only be able to gain access to the Champions League as Premier League title winners or by reaching the semi-finals of a slimmed-down Europea League, which would feature 32 teams rather than 64.
Access to the Europa League would also be restricted beyond the first season, incorporating a third-tier competition called the Europa Conference League and comprising of 64 teams based on league position.
Such changes would make the race to finish in the top four null and void, impacting the likes of Leicester and this season's Champions League hopefuls Wolves and Sheffield United.
