It's difficult to have sympathy with UEFA I think. They can't even set the rules to their own competition properly, which is why we have a problem.
By saying that the Champions League winners can be accommodated by giving a national buttociation an extra place should the CL winners fail to qualify suggests they definitely want the holders to take part the following season.
But by then going and saying that if the siatuation occurs with a club from a country with 4 places, then the Champions League winners can be nominated in place of the final qualifying team, which AFAIK is a summary of how the it's worded, they're suggesting that they'd still like the Champions League winners in, but they don't want to be the ones responsible for telling the 4th placed club that they don't qualify.
I don't blame the FA for this, it's entirely caused by UEFA. I'm sure the FA had a feeling that they could argue for a fifth place later, if Liverpool went onto win the CL.
Had they nominated Liverpool, no-one would say 'Lets give a fifth place to England and let Everton in'. But there's plenty of important people in the game who'd fight the case of the holders.
The FA did exactly the right thing I think, and it could yet lead to 5 English sides in the CL next season.
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Not to mention the fact that the Super Cup is on the Friday after the second leg of the CL 3rd round which, if we competed in, could potentially see us playing an away game just 2 or 3 days before we play CSKA.
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