Premier League ponder Champions League play-offs

The highly contested fourth Champions League spot which Liverpool are chasing this season could soon be decided by the winner of an end-of-season play-off tournament.

The idea is being discussed by Premier League officials and would see the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh placed Premier League teams play a semi-final, followed by a final.

The winner would win a place in the third, and final, qualifying round for the Champions League and follows a similar format to the promotion play-offs in the Championship, League One and League Two.

The Dutch Eredivise adopts a similar idea, in which teams enter a play-off to win a place in the Europa League at the end of the season.

This idea, and “a number of other ideas”, have been presented to the Premier League and for the go-ahead, 14 of the 20 Premier League clubs would need to agree.

Any changes to the format of Champions League qualification would not take place for 3 years, according to reports.

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