Is Europa League UEFA’s second best or worst competition?

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By Davidde Corran, 23 Oct 2009 Davidde Corran is a Roar Expert

Tagged:: europa league, Everton, football, Liverpool, UEFA, Valletta FC, World Football

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Ajax player Jan Vertonghen, left, and Dinamo Zagreb player Dimitris Papadopoulos, right, vie for the ball during their group A Europa League soccer match in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009. AP Photo/Peter Dejong

By the time you read this, fulltime will have been called on another Europa League match day. 48 teams, 24 games and big names like FC Sheriff. Oh.

Talking about ‘spin doctors’ has already gotten me into trouble this week, but it would take a pretty talented one to put a positive spin on this tournament.

I’m not a football snob that’s only interested in your ‘big’ European teams. In fact, I’m very much looking forward to a trip to Malta in the near future to see Jordi Cruyff’s Valletta FC play.

But there’s something inherently wrong with the set up of the Europa League.

We’re talking about a tournament where some sides need to win 23 games to be crowned champions while others won’t enter the competition until 160 other teams have been knocked out.

There’s even the genuine possibility that Everton could meet their city rivals Liverpool in the final despite having played almost double the amount of games as them to get there.

UEFA’s explanation of the history of the tournament is some 600 words long, but here’s a more compact version thanks to Wikipedia:

“The competition was traditionally open to the runners-up of domestic leagues, but the competition was merged with UEFA’s previous second-tier European competition, the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, in 1999. Since then, the winners of domestic cup competitions have also entered the UEFA Cup. Also, clubs eliminated in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League and the third placed teams at the end of the group phase could go on to compete in the UEFA Cup. Also admitted to the competition are three Fair Play representatives, eleven UEFA Intertoto Cup winners, and winners of some selected domestic League Cup competitions.”

The term bloated comes to mind.

Yesterday over at The World Game I wrote that one of the UEFA Champions League’s failings is it’s extended format.

If such a format begins to grate even when you’ve got matches like Real Madrid versus AC Milan in the early stages, what hope is there for the Champions League’s little cousin?

The sheer amount of games involved in the Europa League doesn’t help a calendar already suffering from fixture congestion. With so many games, us football fans are becoming apathetic to such competitions.

UEFA have a cunning plan to drum up support. however. The European governing body tend to force broadcasters that want to show the Champions League into signing up to broadcast the Europa League as well.

While that guarantees coverage, it doesn’t assure interest.

Now, I quite enjoy the Europa League. I see it as another opportunity to see contrasting football styles mix and gain some insight into the big sides from smaller nations.

However, the gems that the tournament can throw up are getting harder to find. The tournament’s expansion has diluted its strengths instead of multiplying them.

In its attempt to make Europe’s ‘second’ club competition more relevant, UEFA have risked it being banished into anonymity.

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The Crowd Says (6) | Page 1 of Comments

dasilva said | October 23rd 2009 @ 7:45am | Report comment

I think there’s one thing about Europa league that has an advantage over the UEFA champions league. This is linked directly to the lack of prestige it has.

Team generally go out and play a more open and attacking football in the Europa cup more often I find

There have been far less of the Chelsea and liverpool dour match up (excluding last seasons) or going to the match aiming for a 0-0 draw that you find for anyone playing against Barcalona even other big teams.

I think in the Europa league, all the clubs are in the same boat and there’s less financial disparity and teams can compete with each other which is also another reason why clubs are less likely to adopt an ultradefensive approach

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Stormin Red said | October 23rd 2009 @ 4:03pm | Report comment

I find the Europa league can be a lot more interesting than the Champions League. Before the introduction of the new qualification system this year, the CL always seemed to throw up the same teams year in year out. UEFA Cup always throws up different teams from all over Europe.

The Europa is also a much better gauge of the depth of each countries league. England rarely seems have teams make the final rounds of the UEFA Cup, despite being the self proclaimed best league in the world (only Boro a couple of years ago), whereas Spain seems to always have at least one or two teams in the semis.

Also, it looks like the Europa may be the only cup Liverpool have a shot at winning this year

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Freud of Football said | October 23rd 2009 @ 4:52pm | Report comment

The problem here is UEFA inherent wish to rule the footballing world.

Anyone can see that the format is flawed but as it includes so many teams, clubs aren’t going to complain. It’s ironic because teams know how many games they might have to win to win the tournament and the added strain it will put on squads but the extra income makes up for the lack of interest in the nothing fixtures.

For me, this is a type of test phase for the previously mentioned European Super League. I’m not sure whether UEFA are trying to show the big clubs that such a tournament is not viable (as it would appear the “little cousin” is an ordinary idea) so as to avoid the inevitable breakaway league or whether they are trying to to perfect the format so that when the time comes, they might retain control of it as without the big clubs, UEFA no longer exists.

Either way you can be sure UEFA have bigger and better plans than scheduling games for FC Sheriff.

It is a shame because there was always some fantastic matches in this league, the dutch teams coming out and playing some beautiful football or some of the “lesser” spanish teams going on an all-out attacking rampage, it seems it has now become purely a money making machine for the gluttons at UEFA.

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gazz said | October 23rd 2009 @ 5:16pm | Report comment

I dont understand several of your points here, Davidde. You need to elaborate?

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Rob said | October 24th 2009 @ 11:42pm | Report comment

the whole thing has become a farce….take it all back 15 years….League winners in the European Cup, Cup winners in the cup winners cup..simple
But of course it will never happen

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Freud of Football said | October 24th 2009 @ 11:58pm | Report comment

What a pity that this article has generated so little interest.

The Europa League is a fantastic competition with some excellent clubs and yet people would rather discuss some surfers views on the Gold Coast franchise.

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