LIVERPOOL will have to wait until June 17 to discover their Champions League fate should they beat AC Milan in Istanbul later this month.
The Football Association confirmed last night that only the Premiership's top four would qualify for next season's competition - thereby ensuring Rafael Benitez's men will become the first holders not to defend the European Cup should they win the final.
The FA will try to persuade UEFA to award a fifth place to English football, although the competition's rules stipulate a maximum of four entrants from each country.
UEFA president Lennart Johansson has made it clear the association's executive committee do have the power to make and enforce changes.
However, they will not take any action until after the final itself and should Liverpool win that, a decision would be made at the next executive committee meeting on June 17.
Liverpool, who are currently three points behind Everton with two games to play, had been handed some hope by the Spanish FA, who in 2000 selected fifth-placed Real Madrid over fourth-placed Real Zaragoza after the former won the Champions League.
But with the Premier League likely to have resisted any attempt to remove the reward from the team finishing fourth, the board of six chairmen who met at the FA's headquarters yesterday decided to leave Liverpool's fate in UEFA's hands.
An FA statement said: "The FA confirmed today that the top four teams in the Premier-ship at the end of the season will enter next season's UEFA Champions League.
"This will not be changed whatever the outcome of Liverpool's Champions League final in Istanbul on 25 May.
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