PL could buy 2-month extension to season by surrendering UEL spot (Telegraph)

The Premier League could buy English football another two-month extension to the season by agreeing to surrender one of its Europa League places next term, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

Thursday’s decision not to resume the coronavirus-crippled campaign before May has left the country facing the prospect of failing to meet the current June 30 deadline for all European competitions to be concluded.

And an indefinite pause to the English season would not prevent Uefa scheduling next season’s Champions League and Europa League to begin before all outstanding Premier League and FA Cup fixtures could be fulfilled or European qualification issues resolved.

However, under the existing 2020-21 calendar, six of England’s seven allocated Champions League and Europa League participants would not play their first match until mid-September, when the group stages are scheduled to begin.

The other one, the team which finishes lowest of the seven in the Premier League, would enter the Europa League at the second qualifying round stage, currently slated to start on the week commencing July 20.

Even if the virus forced both dates to be pushed back, surrendering the latter place could still buy English football several weeks more grace.

That would avoid the anarchy that could ensue either from an abandoned season or from this season’s entrants being re-entered into next season’s European competitions.

It might, however, mean severely curtailing next season if players are to be given a proper break midway through to make up for missing out this summer.

Under Europa League regulations, there is no penalty for a club failing to take up a spot in the competition other than the associated country being left with one fewer teams that season to provide points for its coefficient ranking.

Regulation 4.04 reads: “If a club refuses to enter the competition, having qualified for it on sporting merit and obtained a licence from the competent national body, no other club from the same association may be entered in its place and the access list (see Annex A) is rebalanced accordingly. Furthermore, in such a case, the coefficient of the association concerned is calculated in accordance with the specific rule laid down in Annex D.”

The Premier League and Uefa would not comment on whether the prospect of Europa League qualifying-round spots being surrendered was under consideration as part of plans to limit the impact of coronavirus on football.

Gaining entry to the competition at that early stage has historically proven as much of a curse as a blessing for Premier League teams.

Burnley endured a dreadful start to last season after finishing seventh in the previous campaign, although Wolverhampton Wanderers have so far coped better with the additional demands this term and are in line to qualify for Europe again.

Reaching the Europa League group stages is also worth less than £3 million to a club and winning the competition less than £8m – albeit with the carrot of entry to the Champions League – while a team earns an additional £1.9m per finishing spot in the Premier League.