The race for five places in next season's Champions League - ESPN

Two leagues will be rewarded with extra places in next season's Champions League as part of the revamp to expand it to a 36-team competition — but who is likely to benefit?

Four additional clubs will qualify compared to the current format. And two of those places will go to the leagues which perform best across all three European competitions this season.

With the group stages of the Champions League (UCL), Europa League (UEL) and Europa Conference League (UECL) drawing to a close this week, we'll start to get a clear picture of which leagues could get the two places.

This article will be updated throughout the season to track the race for the extra spots.

It's about the best average coefficient of all teams taking part in Europe for each country.

Each win is worth two coefficient points, a draw gets you one, and you get nothing for a defeat.

There are also bonus points for getting to certain stages, which helps gives extra prominence to those teams who do well in the higher-profile competitions.

Champions League bonus points
4 — Group stage participation
5 — Round of 16
1 — QF, SF, final

Europa League bonus points
4 — Group winners
2 — Group runners-up
1 — Round of 16, QF, SF, final

Europa Conference League bonus points
2 — Group winners
1 — Group runners-up
1 — SF, final

The points gained by all clubs are added together, and that total score is divided by the number of clubs a country has in Europe in the season. That gives the coefficient average.

No, the coefficient system is designed to assess the overall strength of leagues. Wins are the same in all competitions, otherwise it would be impossible for those leagues with few or no teams in the UCL group stage to move up the coefficient ranking.

The bonus points