That basically says that as city would have been playing in Europe for 4 months before Mr Allam had to cough up £25m, the only penalty they might impose would be the withholding of prizemoney.

Did you even read that link? Because it blows your argument out of the water.

European Qualification:



Premier League Pos 1-3: Automatic Qualification for Champions League group stage.

Premier League Pos 4: Entry into Champions League at final qualifying round.

Premier League Pos 5: Automatic Entry into Europa League.

League Cup Winners: Automatic Entry into Europa League. The League Cup Winners this season were Man City who will almost certainly qualify for the Champions League, so therefore this European spot is transferred to the team finishing 6th in the Premier League (not to Sunderland who lost the final).



F.A.Cup Winners: Automatic Entry into the Europa League. if the winners have already qualified for any European spot via any of the above entry levels, then their place goes to the F.A.Cup runners-up. If both finalists have already secured a spot then the final place goes to the team finishing in 7th place in the Premier League.



As others have already stated, the financial fair play rules will not affect qualification for entry into the European competitions for the season 2014/15.



What all of this means from City's point of view is that, providing Arsenal finish anywhere inside the top 6 of this season's Premier League (highly likely, even with their stuttering league form of late), Tigers will be playing Thursday Nights on Channel 5 next season, irrespective of whether they are F.A.Cup winners or runners-up.

Not quite right. The fa cup place enters a round later so if nal came 5th and won the cup they would take the cup space and the other spot would revert to 7th in the league. City have everton last game of the season so cant influence this in a way.

Not sure a Europa league place would be for the best anyway, unless you get to the quarter finals you face playing Eastern Europe teams who are so obscure you have to google them, meanwhile the long away trips and extra mid-week game stretches the squad. Swansea this season and Newcastle the other year have struggled because of it.

Where did you get this from?



Most City fans seem to think that if Arsenal win the cup and finish 5th then they take the European cup spot allocated to the FA cup because it has a higher seeding and the place reserved for finishing 5th goes to the next highest finisher in the league.

Found this on the Premier League website



Should the FA Cup winners, runners-up (if applicable) and the Football League Cup winners already have qualified for Europe, their place goes to the next best placed clubs in the Premier League.



Looks like City would miss out if they lose the final

I could be wrong but that reads to me that City will qualify if they lose the final being the runners-up?

If Arsenal finish 5th and win the cup they will go into the Europa League and City wont.

If Arsenal finish 4th and win the cup then City will be in The Europea League

If City win the cup then they will play in the Europa League

I think it depends where Arsenal finish. 4th or 5th

Im shocked that Allam hasnt had a paddy and tried to get the final moved as playing it in London gives a home advantage to the London Gunners

I honestly have no idea.







This makes sense. Winners of the cups and 5th place qualify. Simple.







This also makes sense. If Arsenal finish 4th and win the cup then Hull City are in Europe.







Again, this makes sense. But it's not applicable to City.







Now this is where I am confused. This line mentions FA cup winners, runners-up, and League Cup winners. Why mention the runners-up if they're not eligible for qualification? That really does read to me that the runners up take the Europa League spot if the winners have already qualified for either the Champions League or Europa League and that it would only pass onto the highest placed team if the runners-up had already qualified for Europe along with the winners. Does my reasoning make sense?