Leicester City welcomes fans to the Champions League (Photo)

Leicester City marked their first ever Champions League appearance on Twitter.

While they are seven points clear at the top, Tottenham Hotspur remain hot on their tails. There’s still a lot of work to be done for them to wrap up the Premier League title, and it will be a great race to the finish between the two sides.

But what Leicester’s 2-0 win against Sunderland did do is guarantee them a first ever appearance in the UEFA Champions League, which is something that manager Claudio Ranieri had a hard time fighting back his emotions over. And to mark the occasion, they made the marriage official on Twitter.

This is no doubt the greatest season in Leicester City’s history, and one that Premier League fans won’t soon forget. While English football fans will love this, and point to this as the reason why the Premier League is the best in the world, it hasn’t won over sports executives who care about the business side of things.

Just a month ago, American sports executive Charlie Stillitano proposed a structure that would only see elite teams compete in the Champions League every year, regardless of standing, and that the tournament “doesn’t need the likes of Leicester.” That is an extremely short-sighted and arrogant way of viewing things. The Champions League has included small clubs every year and has never suffered in terms of business. Nobody will watch Leicester competing next year and think “Man U should be here instead.” They will think “What an incredible story they have been” and hope for it to continue.

Leicester’s success this year, combined with Stillitano’s comments, will surely motivate them to succeed even further next year and prove that this season wasn’t a one-off. Who’s to say that they won’t do well in the Champions League, and that UEFA won’t be better off because of it?

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