Liverpool in strange spot
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-30 15:00

Liverpool could win the Champions League and not be able to defend its title.

Chelsea's Frank Lampard, left, blasts over the bar from close range as Liverpool's Jamie Carragher and Jerzy Dudek, right, look on during the UEFA Champions League semi final first leg soccer match between Chelsea and Liverpool at Stamford Bridge in London Wednesday. [AP]

With UEFA not offering automatic entry to defending champions, Liverpool is in danger of failing to qualify for next year's competition via a top-four finish in the Premier League.

Liverpool is in fifth place with three games left, trailing fourth-placed Everton by four points. Only the top four finishers get Champions League places. The top two clubs qualify directly for the group stage, while the third-and fourth-place teams go into qualifying rounds.

"Normally if you win a trophy then common sense says that you must defend it next season," Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez said Friday. "There is no guarantee we will be in the Champions League next season even if we do win it, I know. It seems a special rule."

Liverpool hosts Chelsea next Tuesday in the second leg of their Champions League semifinal. The two sides drew 0-0 at Chelsea on Wednesday. The winner will advance to the May 25 final in Istanbul against AC Milan or PSV Eindhoven.

If Liverpool wins the European title and Everton finishes fourth in England, the English Football Association will have the final say on which plays in the Champions League and which plays in the UEFA Cup.

"We have heard a lot of what other people think, but we haven't even secured fourth place yet, so I will wait until that has happened before saying anything," Everton manager David Moyes said.

"It is all hypothetical, we need to win and secure the points first to make sure of fourth place before anything else can be said."

UEFA, European soccer's governing body, says it's up to the domestic federation to decide who gets entry to the Champions League.

The Spanish federation allowed Real Madrid to defend its title in 2001 despite finishing fifth behind Real Zaragoza in the Spanish league.

"I am sure Zaragoza were disappointed, but it was the normal decision to make," Benitez said.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, however, said no exceptions should be made.

"I can't see the logic behind the team that finishes fifth or sixth qualifying," he said. "The Champions League is a complete cup competition now. I don't know why suddenly everyone wants to change the rules."

UEFA said there was no reason to give champions automatic entry.

"We don't feel the competition would be damaged otherwise we would have put it in the rules for the holders to defend the trophy," UEFA's communication director William Gaillard told BBC Radio.

"At the same time we would not be outraged if we were asked to include the winner instead of the fourth-placed team."

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