7 of the worst teams to qualify for a European competition: Spurs, Wigan…

Ben Stewart • 22 May 2025

While most teams tend to qualify for a European competition by performing well in the league, there have been some notable exceptions to this from over the years.

Across Europe, teams can also qualify for European competitions by doing well in cup competitions, regardless of their league form.

We’ve taken a closer look at this phenomenon and have found seven of the worst teams to qualify for a European competition in recent history.

Tottenham

For many Spurs fans, their domestic struggles will have been forgotten after they beat Manchester United in the Europa League final.

Thanks to that triumph, it means they’ll be playing in the Champions League next season, despite currently sitting 17th in the Premier League and being 28 points adrift of the top five.

Injuries have hampered Ange Postecoglou’s side all season, but even when they’ve had a fully fit squad, they’ve looked nowhere near Champions League quality this season.

As of writing, they’ve lost 21 league matches this season, which is the same amount as Leeds United lost in 2022-23 when they were relegated to the Championship. Ouch.

Birmingham City

Birmingham managed to qualify for the Europa League in 2011 and were relegated from the Premier League in the same season.

Alex McLeish’s side caused an upset in the League Cup and beat Arsenal in the final, which booked their place in the Europa League for the following season.

Unfortunately for Birmingham, they couldn’t quite match those same standards in the league as they were relegated on the final day of the 2010-11 campaign.

It therefore meant that Birmingham got to play in the Europa League as a Championship club during the following season.

They had a decent stab at Europe in fairness and won three of their six group stage games, but that still wasn’t enough to progress to the knockout stages.

Wigan Athletic

In a similar vein to Birmingham, Wigan won a domestic cup and qualified for the Europa League whilst also being relegated to the Championship.

Roberto Martinez masterminded Wigan’s FA Cup triumph in 2013, but he couldn’t steer the club to Premier League safety.

During 2013-14, Wigan played in the Europa League as a Championship club but failed to make it out of their group.

Millwall

Millwall managed to qualify for the UEFA Cup in 2004, despite playing in the Championship and not winning any silverware that year.

Dennis Wise’s side finished 10th in the Championship, but they did make it to the FA Cup final, where they were beaten by Manchester United.

As United had already qualified for the Champions League that season, Millwall were given a European spot for finishing as FA Cup runners-up.

Millwall played Hungarian side Ferencvaros in a playoff qualifying round, but failed to get past them over two legs.

Aachen

In a similar case to Millwall, Aachen managed to qualify for the UEFA Cup while they were playing in the German second division.

After finishing as runners-up in the DFB-Pokal in 2004, they qualified for the UEFA Cup and ended up doing fairly well.

In a group which also contained the likes of Lille and Sevilla, they managed to make it through to the round of 32 before they ultimately lost against AZ Alkmaar.

EA Guingamp

Despite playing in the French second division, Guingamp managed to qualify for the Europa League in 2009 after defying the odds and winning the Coupe de France.

Unfortunately, they only made it to the playoff round of the Europa League and were well beaten by Hamburger across two legs.

Beira-Mar

In 1998-99, Beira-Mar qualified for the UEFA Cup during the same season that they were relegated from the Portuguese top flight.

They gained qualification thanks to winning the Taca de Portugal, but were ultimately relegated that same season with a mere 33 points to their name in the league.

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every team Tottenham have played in a major final?

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