Football: Uefa to offer Champions League place to Europa League winners

Uefa is set to award a place in the Champions League to the winners of the Europa League from the 2014-15 season, in order to make the competition more attractive, with an announcement expected on Friday.

Other plans being considered include whether to award a fifth Champions League place to clubs in the big European leagues and to expand the number of Europa League places on offer.

Also teams who win the Champions League or Europa League but finish outside the qualifying places in their domestic campaign will no longer usurp one of their league rivals to take up their place the following season.

That means the fate that befell Tottenham Hotspur in 2011-12, when they missed out on Europe despite finishing fourth because Chelsea won the Champions League and finished sixth, would not happen again.

Instead, England would now have five representatives.The new rules are expected to be ratified by the Uefa Congress in London on Friday and will apply from 2014-15.

Football: Gatecrasher John Terry does it again!

As Branislav Ivanovic headed home for Chelsea's last-gasp winner in the Europa League final, skipper John Terry must have rushed to the changing rooms in an instant.

Terry, who was unable to play in the 2-1 win over Benfica because of an ankle injury, came out after the final whistle in full kit to help lift the trophy at the Amsterdam ArenA.

But it's not the first time. Terry did the same in the Champions League final last year after Chelsea's penalty shootout win over Bayern Munich on their own turf.

Gatecrashing expert, John Terry

Football: Ivanovic rises high in injury time to seal dramatic Europa League success for Benitez's Blues

They are the first club ever to hold both European crowns at the same time, even if the biggest one, the Champions League is theirs for ten more days only.

With Wednesday night’s victory, Chelsea also become one of only four European clubs to have won all three UEFA titles, including the now defunct European Cup-Winners Cup. Juventus, Bayern Munich and Ajax are the others. Good company, that. Good history, too.

And that means Rafael Benitez is part of Chelsea history now, too, whether the locals like it or not.

The clocks at either end of the stadium had just ticked past 92 minutes when Branislav Ivanovic made the run that will immortalise him in Chelsea's history. The header was weighted with perfection, angled across goal and looping into the net, and it was then that Chelsea knew they had another European trophy to take back to Stamford Bridge and Rafael Benítez's brief and turbulent period in charge was guaranteed its happy ending.

Congrats Chelsea FC