Champions League: FTC will have to play during the European Championship

It was known in December that Ferencváros has increased its last year's nine coefficients to 13.5 thanks to its Champions League group stage performance. This means that this year's draw will be decided based on this number since the team became the champion in the Hungarian League on Tuesday qualifying them for the Champions League once again. Last year's nine points were enough to make Fradi a wild card team, and they will be one again this year, but these points are expected to be low for Round 2. However, nothing is for sure since not all participants are announced yet.

Among the 34 participating teams, in the 1st round of the Champions League qualifiers, in addition to Ferencváros, Greek Olympiacos (43 coefficients) and Swedish Malmö (18.5) will surely be wild card holders – both teams have higher scores than the Hungarian champions. This also means that there will be no Swedish-Hungarian battle in the first round of the qualifiers this year as last year when the FTC sent Djurgarden home. Dénes Dibusz and his teammates will not play against Malmö and Olympiacos for sure.

Since not all Champions League teams are known yet, it is too early to talk about potential opponents. The scores, though, show that on paper the easiest opponents would be the Northern Irish or Gibraltarian teams or possibly one of the teams from the pre-qualifiers.The most difficult opponent could also be the Polish champion, in case Legia does not win the Polish championship. The Warsaw team would surely be a wild card team with its 16.5 points, but 2^nd placed Pogon Szczecin and now 3^rd placed Raków Czestochowa would not. Pogon Szczecin is three while Raków Czestochowa is seven points Legia in Ekstraklasa. Legia has five games remaining, and Pogon has only four left.

Interestingly, the Champions League qualifiers begin as early as this summer's European Championship. The first matches of the 1st round of the qualifiers take place on the day of the European Championship semi-finals which is on July 6-7. In other words, the FTC' capped players for the national team will not have much time to rest after the European Championship, and they would probably forgo playing in the 1st round of the Champions League qualifiers in order to remain in the European Championship tournament for as long as possible.

PARTICIPANTS OF THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUALIFIERS, ROUND 1 – 34 TEAMS
THE ALREADY KNOWN TEAMS

Wild card holders (these teams cannot meet with each other in Round 1): Olympiacos(Greece, 43 coefficients,Malmö(Sweden, 18.5),Serbian champion (Crvena Zvezda 32.5 or Partizan 18),FTC(13.5)

Other fixed participants (though it's uncertain who will have a wild card): Dinamo Tbilisi (Georgia, 6.5), Zalgiris Vilnius (Lithuania, 6.5), Flora Tallinn (Estonia, 6.25), BudućnostPodgorica (Montenegro, 6), Kairat (Kazakhstan, 6), HJK Helsinki (Finland, 5.5), Riga (Latvia, 5.5), Shakhtyor Soligorsk (Belarus, 5.25), Shamrock Rovers (Ireland, 4.75), Valur (Iceland, 4.25), Bodö/Glimt (Norway, 4.2)

As-yet-unknow teams will join from the following countries: Croatia, Slovakia, Israel, Bulgaria, Romania, Azerbaijan, Poland, Macedonia, Slovenia, Wales, Luxembourg, Bosnia Hercegovina, Moldova, Georgia, Albania, Northern Ireland, Gibraltar

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2020-2021 – QUALIFIERS' DATES

Pre-qualifiers
Draw:June 8, 2021
Game days:June 22-25

Qualifier, Round 1 – FTC will join the tournament form here, and two matches will decide the winners
Draw:June 15
Game days: July 6-7 and 13-14

Qualifier, Round 2
Draw:June 16
Game days:July 20-21 and 27-28

Qualifier, Round 3
Draw:July 19
Game days:August 3-4 and 10

Draw:August 2
Game days:August 17-18 and 24-25

The draw for the group stage takes place on August 26^th, and the first game is day September 14^th.

Translated by Vanda Orosz