Comments on: Should we kill off the Europa League?

By: John Price

John Price — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:51:04 +0000

When I first heard that UEFA Cup will be no more, I thought both it was a good thing and also a catastrophic plan. I thought that UEFA Cup didn’t have enough games, enough competitors. However, it was really hard to replace because they had only just introduced the group stages and it seemed to be coming into the right direction.
When Europa League was first introduced I was excited. More teams, more tension, and so many groups (From A-L) so I think that it’s a direction forward.

By: Daniel Chung

Daniel Chung — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:42:19 +0000

To write off teams like Unirea and APOEL as not worthy of being in the Champions’ League is completely wrong. Unirea undressed Rangers and humiliated them at home the other night while APOEL took the game to FC Porto. YEah, they’re never going to contend for the Champions’ League title, but I am fully with UEFA in giving the “champions” of lesser known leagues full right to be in the Champions’ League.

If English clubs or clubs from the more prominent leagues find the Europa League a distraction, then so be it. I would reckon that the majority of clubs and fans who participate in the Europa League don’t agree. To view the Europa League in that light is from a purely Champions’ League-centric view point.

By: Justin

Justin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:18:02 +0000

I think the best way to make the Europa League to become more important is to make it as a qualitfication competition for the Champions League next year and top seeded as well. So that the teams would have more motivation to play the games rather than like Aston Villa putting out 2nd team.

By: BD Condell

BD Condell — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:49:39 +0000

It depends on where you’re coming from and who you support. In it’s new format I personally see it as a competition for B-Grade teams and CL failures and watch little of it.

But for supporters of some of those teams it’s a big occasion and an opportunity to improve their profile.

Others see it as a distraction to domestic competition and, as we saw last season, play weakened teams as a result.

Would you rather your team secure a CL place in the league or miss-out because of an extended run in the Europa Cup?

Depending on who you are you’ll have your own view on this.

By: Jake

Jake — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:57:54 +0000

The thing is. England doesn’t care but the other leagues do.

By: Spurs

Spurs — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:30:41 +0000

Well put Sera, couldn’t have said it better if I tried…

By: Taavi

Taavi — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:08:13 +0000

Ah, that Parma side…what went wrong there?

By: victor

victor — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:43:36 +0000

I am a Bayern Munich fan, and I must say, I do find the Europa League as exciting as the Champions League. Sure, the quality and the draw might not be as high calibre, but the competition allows for the “smaller” teams to have an adventure around Europe. As a Bayern fan, I was of course devastated when we did not qualify for the Champions League after the 06/07 season. But what does calamity mean to a big club? We got Toni, Klose, Ribery, Altintop and Jansen that year and we stormed to take the 07/08 title.

During the 07/08 season, we were in the UEFA Cup and we were heavy favorites to win it. And guess what, Bayern wanted to win it! We only had one UEFA Cup before and winning a European trophy with a great domestic season would have given us a TREBLE.

I anticipated every UEFA Cup match and Bayern did have some negative results. We drew with Aberdeen and Bolton, were put on the edge by Getafe and finally we were hammered by Zenit. UEFA Cup’s latter stages are also proving grounds for teams who want to improve their league’s UEFA coefficients, meaning a possible rise in league ranking. With Bremen and Hamburg reaching the UEFA Cup’s finals and semis respectively, the Bundesliga is getting nearer the Serie A.

The UEFA Cup/Europa League is a good tournament because the possibility of winning TWO European trophies lies in the future for the UEFA CUp winners… they can compete for the Supercup, ala-Sevilla, who are now competing regularly in the Champions League. This goes to prove that Europa League matches are crucial for struggling leagues to raise their rankings and provide a good shock. Rubin drawing Barca? Imagine Sheriff Tiraspol beating Manchester United…

By: Sera

Sera — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:23:39 +0000

I completely disagree with your point of view. I’ll start with the emotional side and argue that European competition, is a fantastic adventure ESPECIALLY for those clubs that don’t usually make the grade. I’ll give you the example of Motherwell, a Scottish club who were awarded a Uefa Fair Play Europa League qualifying spot this season. Save for last season, they only had less than a handful of appearances in Europe throghout their history. They made it through 2 qualifying rounds before being knocked out by Steaua Bucharest. For their players and fans, it was a great and maybe unrepeatable experience.

I don’t know which club you support but if I were to guess, I’d say that, based on what you wrote, you are probably a fan of a team that qualifies in Europe every year. Just because you consider matches which don’t feature top teams to be exciting, that only means that at most, you should stop watching these games. I assure you that to the fans of the teams involved, European nights have something special about them, whether it’s the UCL or Europa League, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday night. If my team plays in Europe, I don’t expect all of Europe to be delighted. I expect them to win and make us, their fans, happy.

As far as facilities go, let me point out that there are a lot of smaller teams, which you would consider second or even third-rate, which do not have the same ring to them as Real or Chelsea, but which have stadium facilities equal to those of any top club and of which I believe you are not aware of. Have you heard of Sheriff Tiraspol? Do you know of their accomplishments? You wouldn’t, because they don’t really have any, but they are the champions of Moldavia and have one of the best-equipped stadiums in Europe. Besides, did you know that a UEFA committee inspects the grounds of teams qualified for the UCL/Europa League and unless they deem it ‘worthy’ for the competition they are participating in, the club have to play on another stadium in that country, certified by UEFA? I think you are worrying needlessly about facilities. Granted, Ghencea stadium (home of Steaua Bucharest, the team that I support) may not look like Old Trafford, but we’ve had some awesome games in Europe here. We lost 3-5 to Lyon two seasons ago in the UCL group stage after being 2-0 and 3-2 up. If that’s not an exciting game, what is?

You’re saying there is no quality in the Europa League anymore. Fenerbahce, Panathinaikos, Ajax, Valencia, Lazio, Villareal, PSV, Werder Bremen, Roma, Steaua and Sporting are in this year’s competition, to name some of the bigger names. All of them have been UCL regulars lately. There will never be any progress for all clubs if all you want is an exclusive league where only the top clubs play against each other. Porto and AS Monaco weren’t exactly top tier but they played the UCL final less than 10 years ago.

Last, regardless of the team you support, they can’t win the league or qualify for the UCL every year. They will eventually finish 3rd, or 4th, or 5th. And then you will be glad they get to play European football in the Europa League.