Czech football could win a place in the Europa League next season by knocking out Russian clubs

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has indirect effects on Czech football in Europe. If the situation does not change fundamentally, UEFA will probably not allow Russian clubs to participate in next year’s European Cups and there will be major shifts in the starting list.

Under the current rules, there are only four tickets for Czech clubs in next year’s European Cup competitions. The league champion will play in the Champions League 2nd preliminary round, the winner of the domestic cup and the other two teams in the 2nd preliminary round of the European Conference League.

The elimination of the Russian coefficient moves the ranking of all countries behind it one step forward. We can’t expect the Czech Republic to get a fifth cup participant, but it will improve the position of the Czech cup winner (or runner-up if a team gets a double).

The latter would move from the 2nd preliminary round of the European Conference League to the 3rd preliminary round of the European Conference League without further help. But that’s not all.

In the very likely event that at least one winner of the Champions League, Europa League or European Conference League gets the right to participate in some stages of certain cups from their own competition, the Czech cup winner would move up one competition.

This means that they would reach the 3rd preliminary round of the Europa League (the second most prestigious competition).

In this year’s cup competitions, where Czech football is already represented only by Prague Slavia, the seeding for the 23/24 edition is being played.

Sources