The FA look set to be asked a lot of questions about why they’ve change their views on Champions League qualification this season.
The rules for qualification as laid down by UEFA mean that winners of the Champions League are nominated by their country’s FA. If that country already has four places, the fourth-placed team goes into the UEFA Cup instead. There’s no obligation on the FA to nominate their team, but the last time this happened was in Spain when Real Madrid were nominated.
The statement issued on Thursday night was in contrast to an article on the FA’s website from March 2004.
The FA have now removed this article from their website in an attempt to cover up their mistake.
Unfortunately for the FA, pages from the Internet have been getting archived for some time on a web-site called "The WayBack Machine". So, if you read our story a little late and have been unable to view the original page, you can see the archived copy here:
Archive Copy of The FA Article on CL Qualification.
Please be patient as the page may take slightly longer to load than it would from a regular web-site, but it will load. The larger pictures from the original page won’t always be archived, but it’s easy to see the original story.
The FA have a lot of explaining to do now – taking the action to remove the offending page from their website is not putting them into a good light, especially if it isn’t backed up with an explanation.