Moyes sympathises with Spurs
David Moyes believes Spurs will have every right to be furious if Champions League qualification is taken away from them.
Everton face a Tottenham side who are favourites to clinch the fourth place the Toffees occupied last season.
Moyes’ side were then confronted with the prospect of European Cup winners Liverpool being given England’s fourth Champions League spot in order to defend their trophy.
Moyes and Everton were enraged, but UEFA eventually found a place for Liverpool in the first qualifying round.
Now Spurs could find themselves in the same position if they clinch fourth spot and Arsenal win the European Cup.
Moyes said: “If you finish fourth you deserve to be in the Champions League.
“But the rules have now been changed, UEFA now say that if a side wins the Champions League and finishes outside their country’s qualification places, they must be given one of those spots.
“Spurs will have every right to be upset. If Spurs suffered by missing the Champions League if Arsenal finish fifth and win the European Cup, it would be unbelievably harsh on them.
“If you finish fourth in this country it means you should qualify for the Champions League. The difference between this season and last is that the rules have changed. Last season we knew that whatever happened if we finished fourth we would go into the Champions League.
“I am sure Spurs would be completely unhappy about it and I can understand that.”
Moyes, who could be without midfielder Mikel Arteta for the rest of the season with an ankle injury, believes what Spurs have had to spend to potentially secure fourth spot as underlining what a remarkable achievement it was for Everton to do it last term.
He added: “Martin Jol has done very well, but he has spent heavily to get into this situation and when you do spend, you then have the added responsibility to be up at the top.
“But it shows what an achievement it was for us last season. Fourth was a target and we were driven to by our own desire.
“The gulf is there in the spending between us and what the really big clubs have got. Maybe Everton are unfashionable as far as being a Champions League club goes.
“I understand what these managers are going through. It was a goal for us last season, something we were driven to achieve.
“We didn’t have the money, Spurs have, but we can take pride from that and how we did it. But to do it regularly you do have to spend money to make it happen.”
Everton still have their own ambitions of finishing as high in the league as possible after a terrible start to the season.
“We want a big finish, we want as many points as we can to put pressure on the teams above us, you never know what might happen,” Moyes added.
“Spurs are challenging, and we would like to have been challenging ourselves. If we had not had such a bad start to the season we would have been.
“This is our chance to show Spurs that we are not that bad a side and not far away from fourth place ourselves.”
