Leicester will be placed in top Champions League pot after Premier League triumph

By Gerard Brand

Leicester City will be top seeds in the Champions League group stage draw next season after winning the Premier League.

Claudio Ranieri's side, who clinched their first ever top-flight title on Monday following Tottenham's draw at Chelsea, can look forward to taking on some of Europe's biggest names next season. 

However, Leicester are likely to avoid a number of top teams thanks to a new rule regarding seeding in the Champions League. 

Prior to the 2015/16 season, the top eight seeds were ordered by the coefficients of the competing clubs, but as of the current campaign, league champions from Europe's top seven associations will be placed directly into Pot One.

Image: Leicester's Premier League win means they are seeded for the Champions League group stage draw

That means Leicester would avoid being drawn against Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus, who have won their respective leagues. Barcelona and Bayern Munich - currently top of the pile in Spain and Germany - would also be assigned a different group to the Foxes, should they win their divisions.

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The top seven associations, according to UEFA's coefficients rankings, are Spain, Germany, England, Italy, Portugal, France and Russia.

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The remaining eighth place is given to the Champions League winners, though if that club has already won their domestic league, the slot goes to the winners of the association ranked eighth in the coefficient, currently Ukraine.

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This means that if Manchester City win the Champions League, Pep Guardiola's new side would be directly placed into Pot One of the group stage draw, alongside the winner of the Premier League.

Image: Man City face Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the Champions League

While Pot One is decided by domestic league triumph, Pots Two, Three and Four are sorted by UEFA's club coefficient ranking. That means had Leicester not won the title then they would likely have been placed in Pot Four - and have faced a far tougher pool than they're now likely to join. 

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Under the previous rules, the Premier League would have been preparing for an absence of teams in Pot One of the draw for the 2016/17 Champions League, with only Chelsea currently ranked in the top eight in UEFA's club coefficient.

Image: Leicester could avoid the likes of Barcelona in next year's Champions League

With the Blues out of top-four contention, the eight seeded teams would have been Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Benfica, PSG, Borussia Dortmund and Juventus, with Arsenal the next English team in the ranking in 10th.

Manchester City are currently ranked 13th, Manchester United 20th, and Tottenham 22nd. The ranking is based on the previous five years of form in both the Champions League and Europa League, using a points system for qualification, wins and draws. 

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