Does FA Cup winner qualify for Europe? Permutations explained amid Man City vs Crystal Palace final Manchester City booked their place in the FA Cup final with a win over Nottingham Forest Manchester City booked their place in the FA Cup final with a win over Nottingham Forest (Image: 2025 Getty Images ) Manchester City booked their place in the 2024/25 FA Cup final by seeing off Nottingham Forest in the semi-final at Wembley Stadium. Goals from Rico Lewis and Josko Gvardiol secured a 2-0 win for Pep Guardiola's side as they booked their place in a third successive FA Cup final It means they have set up a showdown against Crystal Palace next month and questions are already being asked about whether winning the FA Cup affects the qualification picture for European competitions in the Premier League next season. The winner of the FA Cup is afforded a place in the 2025/26 Europa League, providing they haven't already qualified for European competition via their finish in the Premier League. Given City are currently fourth in the Premier League that will mean they would qualify for the Champions League, which would hand an extra European place to a team in the Premier League. If City win the Cup and have qualified for the Champions League or Europa League via their league position, then the team finishing in eighth place in the Premier League would be handed a place in European competition. The top five teams would qualify for the Champions League, the sixth and seventh placed teams would qualify for the Europa League and the eighth-placed team would qualify for the UEFA Conference League. However, if City finished in eighth place and won the cup, they would qualify for the Europa League and the team finishing in seventh place in the Premier League table would take the Conference League slot. If Palace, who are currently 12th in the Premier League, win the cup, they would take a Europa League place alongside the sixth placed Premier League side and the team finishing in seventh would take the Conference League slot. In this eventuality, the eighth-placed team would miss out on European football next season. Manchester United, for example, won the FA Cup last season after finishing outside the European places in the Premier League and qualified for the Europa League and that meant Newcastle United were pushed out of European qualification. --- Here at the Manchester Evening News, we’re dedicated to bringing you the best Manchester City coverage and analysis. Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest City news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe. Article continues below You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day’s biggest stories. And finally, if you’d rather listen to our expert analysis then make sure to check out our Talking City podcast. Our shows are available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and you can also watch along on YouTube.