UEFA Champions / Europa League country allocations

Currently, the UEFA Champions League group phase has 32 teams:

• 1 continental champion.
  
• 17 national champions (the 12 from leagues ranked 1st-12th, and 5 from leagues ranked 13th-54th).
• 6-11 runner-up teams (the 6 from leagues ranked 1st-6th, and up to 5 from leagues ranked 7th-15th).
• 3-6 third-placed teams (the 3 from leagues ranked 1st-3rd, and up to 3 from leagues ranked 4th-6th).
• 0-3 fourth-placed teams (from leagues ranked 1st-3rd).

And the UEFA Europa League group phase has 48 teams:

• 12-34 national cup winners (the 12 from leagues ranked 1st-12th, up to 22 from leagues ranked 13th-54th)
• 5-15 national champions (from leagues ranked 13th-54th)
• 0-22 runner-up teams (from leagues ranked 7th-53rd)
• 0-25 third-placed teams (from leagues ranked 4th-53rd)
• 1-15 fourth-placed teams (from leagues ranked 1st-15th)
• 3-6 fifth-placed teams (from leagues ranked 1st-6th)
• 0-3 sixth-placed teams (from leagues ranked 1st-3rd)

The qualifying system is terrible complicated, arbitrary and unfair. Yes, winning increases your chance of qualifying. But spots are assigned to countries by an arbitrary system, and a team can have worse chances of advancing than a lower ranked team from the same country.

How about this:

• CL Rule 1: 8 spots are given to the previous CL quarter-finalist teams.
• CL Rule 2: 16 spots are given to the (next) best team from the top 16 leagues that don't have 2 spots yet.
  
• CL Rule 3: 8 spots are given from a 24-team playoff, held between the (next) best team from the top 16 leagues that don't have 2 spots yet and the previous EL quarter-finalist teams.

• EL Rule 1: 8 spots are given to the teams that lost the CL Rule 3 second round playoff.
• EL Rule 2: 8 spots are given to the champions of the top 8 leagues that have no spots yet.
• EL Rule 3: 12 spots are given top the national cup winners from the top 12 leagues.
• EL Rule 4: 20 spots are given from an 80-team playoff, held between the 30 remaining league champions, the 42 remaining national cup winners, and the 8 teams that lost the CL Rule 3 first round playoff.

 

So my 2016/17 UEFA Champions League would have:

• CL Rule 1: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético Madrid; Bayern Munich, Wolfsburg; Manchester City, Paris St Germain, Benfica.
• CL Rule 2: Leicester City, Juventus, Sporting Lisboa, Monaco, CSKA Moscow, Dynamo Kyiv, Ajax, Brugge, Basel, Besiktas, Olympiakos, Viktoria Plzen, Astra Giurgui, RB Salzburg, Dinamo Zagreb, Apoel.
• CL Rule 3: 8 teams out of Tottenham, Napoli, Rostov, Shakhtar Donetsk, PSV Eindhoven, Gent, Young Boys, Fenerbahce, Panathinaikos, Sparta Prague, Dinamo Bucuresti, Rapid Vienna, Rijeka, AEK Larnaca, Legia Warsaw, Hapoel Beer Sheva (or the 8 EL quarter-finalists).

• EL Rule 1: 8 teams out of CL Rule 4.
• EL Rule 2: Bate Borisov, Copenhagen, Celtic, IFK Norrköping, Ludogorets Razgrad, Rosenborg, Red Star Belgrade, Olimpija Ljubljana.
• EL Rule 3: Sevilla, Manchester United, AC Milan, Braga, Marseille, Zenith St Petersburg, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Feyenoord, Standard Liège, Zurich, Galatasaray, AEK.
• EL Rule 4: Teams like Minsk, Steaua / Dinamo Bucuresti, Austria Vienna, Rijeka, Lech Poznan, Brondby, Rangers, Malmo, Maccabi Haifa / Tel Aviv...

 

There's a 3rd German team missing around there.

 

According to my simulations, the champions from Romania, Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Israel could qualify. Perhaps the CL Rule 3 playoffs could be expanded with more league champions, and the losers would enter the EL Rule 4 playoffs.

But instead of expanding playoffs for lower ranked countries, I'd prefer the Europa League to serve as qualifier, as the CL Rule 3 says.