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The top four teams in the Premier League qualify for the Champions League, while the FA Cup winners, Carabao Cup winners and the fifth-ranked team enter the Europa League. Simple, no?
If only.
At the BBC Sport, we get a lot of messages asking, "What happens if it happens? To be honest, we did not know all the answers until recently – but after deepening UEFA's regulations, we have fixed everything.
So let's go …
Who qualifies normally for Europe?
The first four teams in the Premier League qualify for the Champions League group stage – usually (more on this later).
The winners of the FA Cup and fifth place in the league are part of the Europa League groups, the winners of the Carabao Cup entering the second qualifying round.
However, the fact that the winners of the FA Cup and / or Carabao Cup qualify for Europe in the league is often complicated. This season, City has won the League Cup – which means that the sixth place in the Premier League gets a place in the Europa League.
Things are even more confusing as the winners of the UEFA Champions League and Europa League enter the group stage of the Champions League next season.
Is it important to know who wins the FA Cup?
In terms of European qualification, no. But that does not mean that Watford is in the Europa League.
If the Hornets beat City in the FA Cup final, they will qualify for Europe no matter what happens elsewhere. But if City wins, then seventh place in the Premier League gets the place.
Until 2015, teams could qualify for Europe by losing the FA Cup final if the winners had booked a place in the Champions League. Stoke and Hull took advantage of the old rule before it was changed. But now you have to win the final to qualify.
What happens if an English team wins the Champions League?
Half of the quarterfinalists in the Champions League – Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham and Liverpool – are English, which means that there is a good chance that one of them win the tournament.
If a team becomes champion of Europe and ranks among the top four in the Premier League, only four English teams enter the Champions League next season. The additional place of the group stage would be up to the Austrian champions, who otherwise have to go through qualifying as the 11th UEFA Championship.
However, if an English team wins the Champions League and finishes out of the top four in the Premier League – a real possibility for United and Spurs – five English teams will enter the group stage next season.
There is no place in the Champions League for the finalists defeated. Liverpool would not have qualified this year if he had not finished in the top four of the 2017-18 season.
UEFA changed the qualifying rules last year – starting with this season's tournaments.
In 2012, Tottenham finished fourth but missed because Chelsea won the Champions League, but the Spurs would have qualified under the current rules.
Until 2005, the winners of the Champions League did not qualify automatically – a rule that was changed when Liverpool won the tournament but did not rank among the top four.
What happens if an English team wins the Europa League?
Arsenal and Chelsea are both in the Europa League and are among the favorites to win the trophy in Baku. If one or the other of them wins the tournament, they will qualify for the group stage Champions League next season.
If the winners finish outside the top four in the Premier League, it will mean that five English teams will be in the Champions League.
However, if they finish in the first four, England will not have an extra place. The team that finishes third in the fifth league – France – will qualify for the Champions League group stage instead of qualifying.
There is no place in the Champions League for the finalists defeated.
What happens if English teams win the Champions League AND Europa League?
There can be a maximum of five teams from one country in the Champions League. This creates a disaster if an English team wins both European competitions – and it does not finish in the first four.
In this case, the team ranked fourth in the Premier League would not qualify for the Champions League and would instead move to the Europa League group stage.
This season, it is likely that the two winners of the tournament rank in the top six, as Leicester City, seventh, is 14 points behind. That would mean that the top three in the Premier League plus the two European champions would qualify for the Champions League.
There would be only two places in the Europa League – for the team that finishes fourth in the Premier League and the winners of the FA Cup (or the Premier League Premier League team if City wins the cup).
The following examples are highly unlikely unless Leicester or teams below them are catching 14 or 15 points in the last five or six games …
If a season occurs when English teams win the Champions League and Europa League – and none of them qualify for league Europe – there would be NINE Premier League teams in Europe (five in the Champions League and four in the Europa League).
If one of them qualifies for Europe and the other no, there would be five teams in the Champions League and three in the Europa League.
Do you have all this? We're going to sleep.
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