Manchester City face possibility of relegation to third tier of Champions League seeds

Vincent Kompany of Manchester City reacts during the UEFA Champions League Group E match between Manchester City and CSKA Moscow

Manchester City are in line to face relegation to the third tier of seeds for next season’s UEFA Champions League if they get eliminated from the elite competition by losing to Bayern Munich in their scheduled match on Tuesday.

The current Premier League champions will suffer the humiliation of a group stage exit for the third time in the last four seasons if they lose to the German champions at the Etihad Stadium, and also will go out if they even draw with Bayern.

City were seeded third and so were drawn in impossible groups in their first two years in the Champions League. But this time they were seeded second and were grouped in a much easier group which could have led them to the next stage.

It has been reported by The Telegraph that as City have not had any wins in their four Group E games so far this season, they have collected just 7.228 co-efficient points from their Champions League campaign this season and are scheduled to be overtaken by Group C leaders Bayer Leverkusen.

Need to win Premier League to get to the top seed

UEFA is expected to make changes in the seeding system a little for 2015-16 UCL competition, with the top eight seeds comprising the winners of the Champions League and also the winners of the seven highest-ranked European leagues automatically receiving top seed status.

City would have received a top tier seeding if the system would have been in place this season, and would have avoided Bayern in their group stage encounters.

The blue side of Manchester can still get to being in the top seeds and would need to topple Chelsea and win the Barclays Premier League for that to happen.