"Europa League finally steps out from the shadows"

[davek]

Europa League finally steps out from the shadows | Paul Wilson | Football | The Observer

Nice piece by Paul Wilson of the Observer. I think he's spot on. This competition is becoming more and more watchable and a better spectacle than the pompous Champions League...though, obviously, we'd all rather be in the CL.

 

[faddy the blue]

It is and It's so good to see that the teams like As roma, Juventus and other noticable teams that have done very good in the Champions league have found it hard to find their feet in the euroupa league. It's down to the quality of the non champions league teams really. I would have never bet on fulham beating roma and juventus. RS have shown that they are indeed [Poor language removed] still. If we make it into the europa league next term then i know we'll be one of the favourites to win it.

 

[Goat]

I cant believe you have fell for that Dave, its clearly a pro-kopite piece made to say to everybody "OH look the Europa is Ace".

The facts are the facts, unless you get to the final of that comp and win it, you have basically wasted your time. Im not saying its not good being in it, but the rewards for playing 18+ games and not winning are a pitance.

 

[faddy the blue]

I cant believe you have fell for that Dave, its clearly a pro-kopite piece made to say to everybody "OH look the Europa is Ace".

The facts are the facts, unless you get to the final of that comp and win it, you have basically wasted your time. Im not saying its not good being in it, but the rewards for playing 18+ games and not winning are a pitance.

I agree with this point here, there should be money involved in the competition to make the teams on the verge of champions league better and worth qualifying to the final rounds.

 

[Columbia6]

The Europa League has been built up all over the place ever since Liverpool dropped arse-first into it. Those morons would big up their adversity in winning the K/O toss if they could find an angle.

 

[davek]

I cant believe you have fell for that Dave, its clearly a pro-kopite piece made to say to everybody "OH look the Europa is Ace".

The facts are the facts, unless you get to the final of that comp and win it, you have basically wasted your time. Im not saying its not good being in it, but the rewards for playing 18+ games and not winning are a pitance.

I think Wilson supports Everton. As far as I'm aware he does anyway, so I dont think he's got Liverpool's best image in mind.

It should have a bigger pot of cash, I agree. But the competition is begining to find an identity and generating more credibility. The Uefa Cup years ago was a prestigious cup to win. I think we're heading in the right direction in this Europa League. Stopping the CL dregs joining in would help no end.

 

[GrandOldTeam]

I cant believe you have fell for that Dave, its clearly a pro-kopite piece made to say to everybody "OH look the Europa is Ace".

The facts are the facts, unless you get to the final of that comp and win it, you have basically wasted your time. Im not saying its not good being in it, but the rewards for playing 18+ games and not winning are a pitance.

This.

The competition is pathetic. The UEFA Cup used to be a glorified distraction; the Europa is now just a distraction thanks to its disgraceful reformat.

If they wanted to give it credibility, it needed more than introducing more games and changing its name.

The glaringly obvious being offering more prize money. At the moment semi finalists are rewarded with £500k. Just one win in the Champions League receives double that amount (£1+m) as does one extra place higher up in the Prem.

They also needed to stop Champions League rejects dropping into the competition and allow the winner entry to the Champions League.

They also need to put more spot light on the Europa League. Demanding Everton don’t dare kick off at a Champions League evening kick off doesn’t do it any favours. The way we were shafted with our kick off time because of Liverpool dropping into it was a disgrace.

I'd rather emphasis was put on our domestic campaign. If the season started the 1st January, we’d be 2nd. If we keep the side together, get a bit of luck on the injury front and don’t have the potential extra 19 games with a squad as tiny as ours, we have every chance of battling for 4th. I’d even rather emphasis was put on the League Cup. More money and less games for the same "reward" = Winner = Europa Qualification

 

[davek]

This.

The competition is pathetic. The UEFA Cup used to be a glorified distraction; the Europa is now just a distraction thanks to its disgraceful reformat.

If they wanted to give it credibility, it needed more than introducing more games and changing its name.

The glaringly obvious being offering more prize money. At the moment semi finalists are rewarded with £500k. Just one win in the Champions League receives double that amount (£1+m) as does one extra place higher up in the Prem.

They also needed to stop Champions League rejects dropping into the competition and allow the winner entry to the Champions League.

They also need to put more spot light on the Europa League. Demanding Everton don’t dare kick off at a Champions League evening kick off doesn’t do it any favours. The way we were shafted with our kick off time because of Liverpool dropping into it was a disgrace.
I'd rather emphasis was put on our domestic campaign. If the season started the 1st January, we’d be 2nd. If we keep the side together, get a bit of luck on the injury front and don’t have the potential extra 19 games with a squad as tiny as ours, we have every chance of battling for 4th. I’d even rather emphasis was put on the League Cup. More money and less games for the same "reward" = Winner = Europa Qualification

All good points. I agree with that. It's just a season old though. I genuinely think that with a bit of tweaking in scheduling and channeling off of finance from the CL this could be a very good second tier competition. It's deffo now got the attention of the European clubs. Juve looked like they'd have killed when they got turned over by Fulham.

 

[GrandOldTeam]

All good points. I agree with that. It's just a season old though. I genuinely think that with a bit of tweaking in scheduling and channeling off of finance from the CL this could be a very good second tier competition. It's deffo now got the attention of the European clubs. Juve looked like they'd have killed when they got turned over by Fulham.

It'll take more than a bit. It needs an entire revamp. As you said, "The Uefa Cup years ago was a prestigious cup to win", the reformatting was a farce. It's even more fundamentally floored than it's ever been, Juventus being a bit pissed by having their pants pulled down by a no mark team (to them) offers no measure of progress.

It's floored from top to bottom. I mean, we even had to play a play off to qualify for the group stages despite finishing 5th. Then after playing the six games to progress, you enter the last 32, rather than the Champions Leagues last 16 because of the drop outs.

As I said in early July, "Too big of a risk for too little reward".

 

[chicoazul]

I love us playing in European competitions, it's super ace and must be preserved at any cost. The players love it and it raises our profile and allows us to move forward tactfully. Ok well that last bit can't be proven as we generally get webbed by the first decent team we meet.

Saying that, D-dog has a massive couple of points there that are hard to argue against. We'll find out next season what it's like not to distracted by it most likely.

 

[kenada_blue]

Champs League always gets priority. Sponsers, merchandise....all the cash goes into it.

Europa League is meant to be "best of the rest" but gets looked down as the poor brother of the Champs League. Thats all down to branding and money/reward for it.

There's some cracking big names in that Europa League. And also some go for broke dramatic goal fests, as shown this week, that makes it in terms of spectacle on par with mainly drab champs league games.

If, like mentioned, the reward for winning it, and increasing the money involved would make it worth while. There's ample space for commercial money, tv money etc to make it more appealing.

I think Uefa are not seeing the potential of the Europa league to make more money out of it to be fair.

Its all money driven. Even teams in the prem dont give a [Poor language removed] about the Europa league due to the reward and of course the amount of games.

They should scrap that champ league team drop out rule. Its a joke.

 

[Matt Damon]

If the prize money per game were closer to the Champions League level (1 million a win) then it would be worth it.

Fact is unless it closes the gap to a more realistic level on the CL then its nothing more than a drain on resources but gaining of european experience.

 

[davek]

I understand and support the points about finance and media coverage for this competition. But you can get too carried away that side of things. There's an intrinsic joy in winning a tournament where the standard is good. If the interest is there from supporters that translates to media attention like the piece in the OP and that, in turn, leads to sponsors and finance. Rome wasn't built in a day. I think it's encouraging. CL qualification would be great, but getting one of the EL places is something to go for...as long as you have the squad to cope at this stage. That's where the real complaint is with this competition: it's a killer, schedule wise, for a team outside the well backed squads of the "Big Three" + Liverpool.

 

[OneTrueLegend]

I have really enjoyed being in the uefa cup / europa league, but there are defo too many games, I believe that people want to see more games between teams they have actually heard of, from the top leagues around europe.

That is the only way you will get more people watching it, which will increase sponsorship revenues

So if I was designing the europa league I would allow automatic qualification for 4 teams from Premier League, La Liga, Seire A, 3 teams from France, Germany, Holland, 2 teams from Scotland, Belgium, Portuagal, Turkey and 3 wild card teams from eastern europe

It should be a group stage, 32 teams in 8 groups and then a knock out competition, no Champions League dropouts.

 

[davek]

I have really enjoyed being in the uefa cup / europa league, but there are defo too many games, I believe that people want to see more games between teams they have actually heard of, from the top leagues around europe.

That is the only way you will get more people watching it, which will increase sponsorship revenues

So if I was designing the europa league I would allow automatic qualification for 4 teams from Premier League, La Liga, Seire A, 3 teams from France, Germany, Holland, 2 teams from Scotland, Belgium, Portuagal, Turkey and 3 wild card teams from eastern europe

It should be a group stage, 32 teams in 8 groups and then a knock out competition, no Champions League dropouts.

I think that changes after Christmas in the Europa League. There's loads of well known and very good teams in it by then. And in fairness the CL has many unknowns in the group stages.

It needs trimming down for sure. Taking a round out would help (and barring the CL dregs would go a long way to sorting that scheduling problem out). Bottom two in the CL group stages should be out of Europe completely.