Oliver Glasner can lead Crystal Palace to the Europa League with a victory over Manchester City today – and deny a large number of Premier League rivals in the hope of ending eighth
Today's FA Cup final will have a huge impact on the European places of next season with that in the race for eight place in the Premier League in the hope that Manchester City Crustal Palace can beat in Wembley.
Although five Champions League spots are already guaranteed, a victory for the Pep Guardiola team would see the eighth place qualify for the UEFA Conference League -as soon as City secures a top six finish in the Premier League.
That is because the Europa League spot awarded for winning the cup steps to the next highest placed team in the competition not to have qualified via that route.
And entering the League Action Four teams this weekend – Brentford, Brighton, Bournemouth and Fulham – are in a fight to seal the fourth position.
A city gain could also become music in the ears of Chelsea, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest -fans, because one of those three will probably end in seventh position.
Should Palace are triumphant at Wembley, which would end if the Conference League spot instead of a Europa League qualifying match when the city comes at the top.
The winners of the FA Cup are to make a little less than £ 4 million in prize money – but their participation in the Europa League next season makes it a much lucrative prize than initially thought.
On Sunday, Brentford will try to achieve a fifth victory in a row for the first time as a Premier League club and Fulham for the eighth position – although they will already know whether it will end there for a European tour.
Chelsea and Aston Villa, both in the hunt for a Champions League place, will play for the cup -final because of their respective opponents Manchester United and Tottenham who get the same rest for next week's Europa League final.
While United and Spurs are closer to the bottom three than the top three in the Premier League, the winner will also enter the Champions League of next season, which means that six teams participate in the competition of England.
In total, that means that nine teams from the Premier League will start in European promotion next season.