{"id":19525,"date":"2026-05-08T18:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T18:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/19525\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T18:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T18:37:13","slug":"spain-earns-bonus-5th-champions-league-entry-with-real-betis-set-to-benefit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/19525\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain earns bonus 5th Champions League entry with Real Betis set to benefit"},"content":{"rendered":"

GENEVA (AP) \u2014 Spain has clinched a bonus fifth entry into the Champions League next season, UEFA confirmed Friday, with Real Betis on course to earn the spot through the La Liga standings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rayo Vallecano\u2019s win against Strasbourg in the Conference League semifinals Thursday gave Spain an insurmountable edge over Germany<\/a> in the race for an extra Champions League place.<\/p>\n

Since the Champions League was revamped into a 36-team format in 2024, UEFA has awarded bonus entries to the two countries whose teams have the best collective record across the three European competitions in the previous season.<\/p>\n

Standings leader England had already clinched the first bonus entry for next season\u2019s Champions League, which is worth tens of millions of euros (dollars) in prize money to that club.<\/p>\n

Spain and Germany had been in a tight race for the second spot.<\/p>\n

Real Betis is fifth in La Liga with four rounds left and is six points ahead of Celta Vigo in sixth.<\/p>\n

Betis played just one season in the Champions League 20 years ago, failing to advance from the group stage behind Liverpool and Chelsea.<\/p>\n

The Champions League bonus entries went to Borussia Dortmund of Germany and Bologna of Italy for the 2024-25 season. This campaign it was Newcastle and Villarreal. <\/p>\n

England could yet have a record-tying six entries in the next Champions League just as it did this season.<\/p>\n

Europa League path<\/p>\n

The Europa League winner gets a direct entry to the next Champions League, and Aston Villa will play in the final<\/a> against Freiburg on May 20 in Istanbul.<\/p>\n

Villa is fifth in the Premier League with three rounds left. If coach Unai Emery\u2019s team finishes fifth and win the Europa League, then the sixth-place team in the Premier League will get the UEFA bonus entry. Bournemouth is currently sixth and would be a debutant in Europe.<\/p>\n

Last season, Tottenham won the Europa League<\/a> and entered the Champions League despite placing 17th in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

England and Spain also will contest the Conference League final. Crystal Palace and Rayo Vallecano play for the third-tier title on May 27 in Leipzig, Germany. The winner gets direct entry to the Europa League next season. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GENEVA (AP) \u2014 Spain has clinched a bonus fifth entry into the Champions League next season, UEFA confirmed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[829,301,875,10560,1139,109,1743,6551,396,5018],"class_list":["post-19525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-seville","tag-celta-vigo","tag-la-liga","tag-rayo-vallecano","tag-rc-strasbourg-alsace","tag-real-betis","tag-seville","tag-soccer","tag-spain-national-soccer-team","tag-sports","tag-unai-emery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}