Leicester will be a top seed in the Champions League - only if they win the Premier League title

The Foxes have not won a European game since 1961

(Getty)

Leicester City will avoid becoming the lowest-ranked team in the Champions League and secure top seed status alongside the likes of Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Juventus if Claudio Ranieri’s team secure the three victories required to be crowned Premier League champions.

With Jamie Vardy’s two second-half goals earning a 2-0 victory at Sunderland on Sunday, which moved Leicester to within nine points of the club’s first-ever domestic title, Ranieri’s team were later guaranteed Champions League qualification as a result of Manchester United’s 3-0 defeat at Tottenham.

Having been absent from European competition since suffering a first round exit in the Uefa Cup at the hands of Red Star Belgrade at the start of the 2000-01 campaign, Leicester will enter next season’s Champions League as European novices in contrast to the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and United, who are all set to miss out on qualification via the Premier League table.

But while Ranieri’s team would be placed among the bottom seeds in the Champions League group stage draw should they fail to win the title this season -- opening up the prospect of a group of death against a selection of European heavyweights -- the Premier League champions are automatically guaranteed a place among the top eight seeds.

Since the start of last season, Uefa now hands top seed status to the champions of Europe’s eight strongest domestic leagues including the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1.

As a result, Leicester would be placed alongside the champions of those leagues if they end this campaign as English champions.

Leicester have played in European competition on just three previous occasions and have failed to win a game in Europe since defeating Northern Irish outfit Glenavon in the preliminary round of the 1961-62 European Cup Winners’ Cup.