Liverpool F.C. Champions League qualification 2005–06

Liverpool F.C. qualified for the UEFA Champions League 2005-06 by a special dispensation from UEFA. Although they were eligible to compete as champions of the UEFA Champions League 2004-05, the Football Association (FA) had instead awarded the fourth and final English place in the competition to Everton F.C., Liverpool's local rivals, for finishing fourth in the FA Premier League 2004-05. The public reaction to this controversial decision prompted UEFA to make a one-off exception for Liverpool and amend the qualification criteria for the Champions League to prevent a recurrence.

Five eligible clubs for four available places

England’s high country coefficient allowed the maximum number of teams (four) to be entered into the Champions League competition. [] In the 2004-05 season five English teams had qualified under the previous UEFA guidelines for the competition: Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United, and Everton, who had finished in the top four places in the FA Premier League; and Liverpool, who had won the Champions League. The choice of which team to be excluded (either fourth-placed finishers Everton or Champions League winners Liverpool) fell to the FA, which was given this authority by the version of Champions League Regulation 1.03 then in force: [ cite news |url=http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/liverpool/article3660.ece |work=The Independent |title=FA set to rule against Anfield in Champions' League place row |date=2005-04-28 |accessdate=2008-05-29 |first=Martyn |last=Ziegler ] quote|At the request of the national association concerned, the Uefa Champions' League title holders may be entered for this competition, as an additional representative of that association, if they have not qualified for the Uefa Champions' League via the top domestic league championship. If, in such a case, the title holders come from an association entitled to enter four teams for the Uefa Champions' League, the fourth-placed club in the top domestic league championship has to be entered for the Uefa Cup.

This situation was unusual but neither unprecedented nor unforeseen. Real Zaragoza finished fourth in La Liga in 1999-2000, but went into the UEFA Cup because Real Madrid, who finished fifth, were given Spain's fourth Champions League place as reigning champions. [] Indeed, the FA itself foresaw the same situation arising in the 2003-04 season and released a statement on 10 March 2004 that if Arsenal or Chelsea won the Champions League, but failed to finish in the top four Premier League spots, they would nonetheless be automatically entered in the next year’s competition and the fourth placed Premier League team placed in the UEFA Cup.]

A year later, the FA decided that the top four finishing teams in the Premier League would be entered into the Champions League regardless of Liverpool’s Champions League triumph. [] When the inconsistency was pointed out to the FA, the FA pulled the previous year's statement from its web site, and promised a forthcoming explanation. Nothing else was heard from the FA for several months.

Merseyside implications

The controversy was intensified not only because Liverpool FC and Everton FC have a storied Merseyside rivalry, but also because entry into Europe's top club competition was the subject of a longstanding grudge between the two clubs. The grudge has its origin twenty years before in May 1985, when Everton had won the old First Division, thus clinching entry into the next year's European Cup. However, following the Heysel disaster (May 29 1985) involving Liverpool fans, English clubs were given an indefinite ban from European competitions (lifted in 1990, except for Liverpool, who were banned for a further year). The ban coincided with a period of remarkable Everton successes (including two first and one second place finishes) which would have ordinarily earned Everton at least three years of top flight European Football. [] Many Everton supporters see this period of fellow European campaigns as the start of Everton's slide out of the top echelons of English football, a slide for which Liverpool is thus partially responsible. [] Twenty years after Heysel, Everton supporters did not believe it would be just that they should be denied a place in the top club competition by Liverpool. []

Officially, Everton offered their support of Liverpool's entry into the Champions League, although they expressed concern that Liverpool's entry should not come at the financial expense of any other clubs in the Champions League competition and then made the rather radical suggestion that Liverpool should be excluded from any share of the Group Stage Market Pool, the most lucrative source of Champions League revenue, which would have left Liverpool essentially with only the match day income from their Champions League matches as well as some performance bonuses and match fees. [] For English teams especially, the market pool is considerably more lucrative than performance bonuses. [cite web |url=http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/competitions/UCL/309557_DOWNLOAD.pdf |format=PDF |title=UEFA Champions League - distribution 2004/2005 |publisher=UEFA |date=2005-06-13 |accessdate=2008-05-29 ]

UEFA ruling

For some time it was unclear whether Liverpool would be granted the right to defend their title or be consigned to the UEFA Cup. Initially, UEFA said there was nothing that could be done. [] But after a ground swell of support for Liverpool’s inclusion, UEFA seemed to soften its stance. [] The League of Wales champions Total Network Solutions offered to play a two-legged tie for TNS' place in the first qualifying round. [] The situation was finally resolved by UEFA on 10 June 2005. Liverpool would be allowed to enter the competition in 2005-06, but entering the competition from the first Qualifying Round. Coincidentally, Liverpool ended up playing TNS in that round.cite web |url=http://www.uefa.com/uefa/news/Kind=128/newsId=308644.html |title=Liverpool allowed to defend title |publisher=UEFA |date=2005-06-10 |accessdate=2008-05-29 ]

With regard to the financial implications of Liverpool's entry, UEFA decreed that Liverpool would be treated as the lowest-placed English club for determining their share of the England market pool. However they essentially left undecided the difficulty of how Champions League revenue calibrated for 32 clubs would be divided instead among 33 clubs, because this problem was not only extremely difficult, but also would only become a problem if all three English teams playing in the qualifying rounds (Manchester United, Liverpool, and Everton) actually qualified for the Group Stage. As it happened, Everton fell short, losing both matches to Villarreal CF in the third qualifying round, thus ending Everton's claim to any portion of the Group Stage Market Pool, match fees or performance bonuses.

Repercussions

UEFA amended Rule 1.03 to guarantee future European title holders qualification to the next year’s Champions League competition, at the expense if necessary of a team in the champion's domestic league: [] quote| The UEFA Champions League title-holder is guaranteed a place in the group stage even if it does not qualify for the competition through its domestic championship.:a) If the title-holder comes from an association entitled to more than one place in the UEFA Champions League and qualifies for the UEFA Cup through its domestic competitions, the lowest-ranked club of the association’s UEFA Champions League representatives is automatically transferred to the UEFA Cup. In this case, the number of places to which the title-holder's national association is entitled in the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Cup does not change.:b) If the title-holder comes from an association entitled to more than one place in the UEFA Champions League and does not qualify for the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Cup through its domestic competitions, the lowest-ranked club of the association’s UEFA Champions League representatives is automatically transferred to the UEFA Cup. In this case, the national association of the title-holder is entitled to one additional place in the UEFA Cup. For a time during the 2005-06 season there was a very good chance that the new rules would be invoked for the 2006-07 tournament, as Arsenal progressed to the Champions League Final against Spanish side F.C. Barcelona while languishing in fifth place in the Premier League. The team that was in danger of "losing" a Champions League place was none other than Arsenal's fiercest local rival, Tottenham Hotspur. In the end, Arsenal managed to overtake Tottenham for fourth place on the final day of the Premier League season, and then lost the Champions League final.

The limitation applied in the Champions League does not apply in the UEFA Cup, whose rules state: [] quote|If the UEFA Cup title-holder does not qualify for either the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Cup through its domestic competitions, its participation in the UEFA Cup will not be at the expense of the contingent of its association.

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