No English Champions League or Europa League semi-finalists 'a shock'

Out of all the English teams, Aston Villa is the sole team that made it to the European semi-finals this season.

England failed to qualify any teams for the semi-finals of the Champions League or Europa League for just the third time in the 21st century. What factors contributed to this deficiency?

On Wednesday, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich successfully defeated Manchester City and Arsenal in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, resulting in the exit of both teams from the competition.

As anticipated, Liverpool and West Ham were eliminated from the Europa League on Thursday as they were unable to reverse the first-leg shortcomings that they had against Atalanta and Bayer Leverkusen, respectively.

Aston Villa is presently the only English team remaining in Europe, following their victory over Lille through penalty kicks which led them to the semi-final of the Europa Conference League, a competition for third-tier teams that is still quite new, only being in its third season.

Is This Rare?

The UEFA Cup, which is now known as the Europa League, was upgraded from the third-tier to the second-tier European trophy after the Cup Winners' Cup was abolished in 1999.

England has had no teams in the last four of the competition or Champions League only thrice, including 2002-03 and 2014-15.

For the past two decades, the Premier League has only failed to produce a finalist in both competitions four times, and this year is one of them.

Half a decade ago, the finals of Champions League and Europa League had teams from England competing against each other. Liverpool was victorious over Tottenham in the Champions League final while Chelsea defeated Arsenal in the Europa League final.

In the last five times, English teams have conquered three of the European championship titles. In 2021, Chelsea won against Manchester City while in the previous season, City succeeded in defeating Inter Milan.

This unexpected occurrence of having no semi-finalists in the top two awards is surprising, given that the four quarter-finalists from England have met the average performance of the past six seasons.

The semi-finals of the Champions League are going to feature Paris St-Germain going up against Borussia Dortmund with Bayern Munich facing off against Real Madrid. Meanwhile, in the Europa League, we have Atalanta taking on Marseille while Roma squares up against Bayer Leverkusen.

It could be more irritating for English clubs and their supporters that the finals are being held in specific locations - the Champions League final in Wembley and the Europa League showcase in Dublin's Aviva Stadium.

What's Causing The Surprise?

The Premier League has been consistently getting more powerful in recent years. Its teams have access to a lot of money, making them very strong. It's now widely accepted that the Premier League is the top league in the world.

In the recent years, European clubs have spent significant amounts on transfer fees with the majority going towards English teams. Out of the top 12 highest transfer fees, 10 have been spent on purchasing players for English clubs. The remaining two transactions involved English players, specifically Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane.

Out of the 20 teams that have spent the most money on transfers over the last ten years, 13 of them are English. Surprisingly, teams such as Crystal Palace and Bournemouth have spent more money than teams like Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, who have made it to the semi-finals of the Champions League.

What Caused This?

There is a viewpoint that English teams are being hindered by the prioritization of both profitability and sustainability.

Currently, football clubs are restricted from declaring deficits exceeding £105m across a span of three years. Consequently, clubs like Newcastle United, who qualified for the esteemed Champions League event this year, are prevented from utilizing their available funds for their needs.

Both Everton and Nottingham Forest have lost points due to breaking the regulations.

According to BBC football correspondent John Murray, discussing the events of the Champions League games on Wednesday, Premier League teams have always been known for their strength, so this outcome was unexpected.

For a long time now, it has been acknowledged that the Premier League teams have a significant role to play in generating profits and ensuring sustainability in the league. However, there have been attempts to limit their influence, and this might have affected their performance this season. It is possible that their strength has been reduced as a result of these efforts.

Guillem Balague, who is a journalist covering football in Spain, believes it's premature to make any assumptions at this point.

He mentioned that the teams may be fatigued or not performing at their best during this point in the season. The Premier League requires a lot from its players. It would take approximately five years to make a definite determination. This could be an outcome of numerous factors.

If this situation persists for a period of five years, there could be an underlying issue that needs to be addressed. However, it's unlikely to happen and the trend of English teams dominating the competition as we've already witnessed is expected to continue in the upcoming season. Hence, I believe that any current setbacks faced by other teams may just be a temporary and unforeseeable incident.

Villa In Europe - Are They Still In The Game?

In the Europa Conference League, Aston Villa is the sole semi-finalist from England. However, since this league is relatively new - only on its third season - it's not appropriate to compare it to past seasons.

Furthermore, it does not have the same level of prestige. The tournament in the third tier was created in part to give clubs from less prominent nations an opportunity to advance beyond the qualifying stage.

Throughout three seasons, different clubs from various countries such as Armenia, Estonia, Gibraltar, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Iceland, Faroe Islands, and Bosnia-Herzegovina made their debut in a group stage for the first time.

Over the past three seasons, England has had a representative team who made it to the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League. Leicester, West Ham (who was victorious last year), and presently Villa have all achieved this accomplishment.

Villa is going to play against Olympiakos while Fiorentina is going up against Club Bruges in the other semi-final to secure a spot in Athens.

The fact that English teams have been eliminated from European competitions repeatedly has likely resulted in the Premier League losing a fifth position in the Champions League.

The top performing teams from both nations in the three European tournaments this year will earn an additional place in the following year's Champions League.

During six of the last seven seasons, England would have secured one of those positions.

Italy has obtained one spot and it's probable that Germany will receive the other one. The sole possibility for England to be present is if Aston Villa wins both semi-final matches along with the final, and also if Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, and Bayer Leverkusen lose both of their own matches in the semi-finals.

During the beginning of the quarter-finals, Opta stated that there was an 82.5% chance that the Premier League would secure the fifth spot. However, this percentage decreased to 57.8% after the first legs. After the Champions League games, the probability fell dramatically to just 6.2%.