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In 2005, Liverpool won the Champions League while finishing in fifth place in the Premiership. That led to five English teams qualifying for Europe's Premier tournament, although Everton failed to make the group stages. UEFA did not like this very much, changing the qualification rules such that an association could only have four teams in the tournament in any given year. If the winner didn't finish in the top four, too bad for the fourth place team!
It took seven years for this scenario to actually occur, and Chelsea have completely screwed Tottenham Hotspur over with their win on Saturday, denying Spurs a huge amount of money and prestige by beating Bayern Munich. I don't dislike Harry Redknapp and co. as much as some do, but as a Chelsea fan I think this is all pretty hilarious. How to make it even funnier? If UEFA change the rule back, which would end up making Tottenham the only team affected by it. Ever.
Which they're talking about possibly doing:
Perhaps it could be for discussion in the future about the participation of more than four but for the moment it is not possible because the regulations are for four. We can always change the rules. We can always discuss the rules, but not during the competition.
We have decided not to change the rules or regulations of the competition for three years. So in three years we can change, that means we will come back if you wish. Everything can be discussed, the rules, yellow cards, but not during the competition. Perhaps in the next executive committee we can speak about it. I can put that, but they may say no.
-Michel Platini. Source: Guardian.
I'm pretty sure Spurs fans think the rule is unjust as it stands and would like to see it changed, but imagine if you were the ones who got massively screwed by a rule and then they changed it right back to the way it originally was? That would sting. A lot.