Portugal handed extra League place
 |  Portuguese clubs have benefited from Porto's Champions League win |
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LONDON, England -- Two Portuguese clubs will qualify automatically for the group stage of next season's Champions League as a result of Porto's triumph last May.
The incentive will add even more spice to this season's Portuguese title race, the closest for many years, with the top five of Porto, Benfica, Braga, Sporting Lisbon and Boavista separated by just two points with 14 matches to play.
This season's Portuguese champions and runners-up will both enter the group stage while the third-placed team will enter in the third qualifying round.
Greece lose a direct entry with only their champions going into the competition proper and the runners-up starting at the third qualifying round stage.
The entry criteria is based on a nation's UEFA coefficient standings, which take into account the performance of all clubs from each country in European competition over a five-year period.
As the Czech Republic have overtaken Scotland in the list, their champions will go directly into the group stage, while Scotland's champions and runners-up will enter the competition at the third and second qualifying rounds respectively.
There is no change in the top five positions with the champions and runners-up from Spain, England, Italy, Germany and France all going into the group stage.
The third and fourth placed teams from Spain, England and Italy will enter at the third qualifying round stage, while the third-placed clubs from Germany, France and Portugal will also enter at that stage.
The champions and various leading clubs from 49 of UEFA's 52 national associations will take part in the competition, the only exemptions being Liechtenstein, Andorra and San Marino.
