You complete and utter mug. The ruling was announced is May 2013, that from 2015, the winners would qualify if the didn't through the league. This was a few weeks after United had just won the league, therefore qualifying for the c.l automatically. I suppose uefa anticipated the demise of united and thought, I know, they'll need help in 2017 to qualify. Better make this rule for them. It was brought in to try and improve the quality of the competition so clubs would take it more serious. Also, bt didn't gain rights until 2015, 2 years after this rule was decided. Suppose they knew bt viewing figured would fall?