French football can breathe! Thanks to the defeat of AZ Alkmaar, France retains its fifth place in the UEFA index. Good news since this result allows the League to offer four places for the Champions League from 2024 (three direct and a qualifier).
West Ham did French clubs a favor on Thursday by beating AZ Alkmaar 2-1 in the Europa Conference League, a result that allowed France to retain their precious fifth place in the UEFA coefficient, despite the threat from the Netherlands. The Netherlands could snatch fifth place from France on condition that AZ Alkmaar win both home and away matches in their semi-final against West Ham, then the C4 final, all without going through a penalty shootout to goal.
The London “Hammers” prevented this scenario which would have had the unfortunate consequence of causing France to lose a place in the new Champions League formula, expected from the 2024-2025 season. This hypothesis has gained in consistency with the disappointments experienced by the six French clubs involved at the start of the season in European competitions.
Paris Saint-Germain took the door in the Champions League in the round of 16 against Bayern Munich, while Olympique de Marseille did not survive the group stage. Monaco and Rennes left the Europa League in the round of 16. Nantes fell to great Juventus Turin in the Europa League play-offs while Nice, the last French representative on the continent, stumbled against Basel in the Europa League Conference quarter-finals, eliminated in extra time in the second leg.
Retention of a place in C1
In the event of a fall to 6th place in the UEFA coefficient, Ligue 1 would have lost a place in the Champions League set up from the 2024-2025 season. In other words, only three of its representatives would have been qualified for the big European Cup (two directly and one in the preliminary round), against four (three directly and one in the preliminary round) as provided for in the reform for the fifth European country.