Two leagues in Europe can now earn an extra UEFA Champions League qualifying spot for the following season. The Bundesliga had five teams in the competition as a result in 2024/25. Could they do so again for 2027/28?

The battle for a spot in the top four - and with it the chance to play Champions League football - is usually one of the most thrilling storylines in the course of a Bundesliga season.

However, since UEFA's revamp of its competitions from 2024/25, with the expansion of the Champions League to 36 teams, there are now additional routes to reach European club football's top table.

As well as winning the Champions League or Europa League, there are now two European Performance Spots that are awarded to the two leagues with the highest coefficient ranking over the course of that season.

There is a complicated points system behind that, but the more wins and further a league's teams go in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League, the higher that league climbs in the rankings.

Bayer Leverkusen have made a perfect winning start to the 2026/27 Europa League. - COSTAS METAXAKIS

In 2025/26, the Bundesliga fell just short of finishing in the top two, despite Freiburg's historic run to the Europa League final. In the end, England and Spain received the extra qualifiers, allowing Liverpool and Real Betis to enter the league phase of the 2026/27 Champions League.

There is still a long way to go in the current campaign, but the current coefficient table makes positive reading for the Bundesliga after early good results from the seven representatives of Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, VfB Stuttgart, RB Leipzig (Champions League), Bayer Leverkusen, Hoffenheim (Europa League) and Freiburg (Conference League).

Top 10 men's associations 2026/27 season coefficients (as of 23 October 2026)

1. England - 7.944 (9/9 teams remaining in competitions)
2. Germany - 7.285 (7/7)
3. Spain - 7.250 (8/8)
4. Portugal - 7.100 (5/5)
5. Türkiye - 7.100 (4/5)
6. Belgium - 6.800 (5/5)
7. Netherlands - 6.666 (6/6)
8. Norway - 6.600 (4/5)
9. Italy - 6.500 (7/7)
10. Greece - 6.200 (4/5)

An unbeaten start in the Champions League for VfB Stuttgart has kept the Bundesliga ahead of Spain's La Liga in the early months of 2026/27. - THOMAS KIENZLE

The Bundesliga has sent five representatives into Europe's elite club competition on a couple of previous occasions. Dortmund's run to the 2023/24 Champions League final helped the Bundesliga clinch an extra spot for being in the top two places on the UEFA coefficient ranking, while Eintracht Frankfurt's 2021/22 Europa League victory saw them earn Champions League qualification for 2022/23 in addition to the four sides that qualified via the league.

It's worth noting, though, that the prospect of a German side lifting the Champions League or Europa League each year could in fact throw up the potential for a sixth Bundesliga qualifier.

That would happen if the side in question finished fifth or lower in the league. They would qualify as holders, the top four as normal, and then the next best-placed Bundesliga team as well.

However, if the side winning the Champions League/Europa League finish in the top four in the league, that berth as holders will be passed to another country according to UEFA's regulations.