Europa League

kings hill addick

There was a time when we were talking about getting into the UEFA Cup. I know it was a life time ago, and we were probably never ready for it, but I can't help feeling that no one really wants to compete in it next season. Most of the English teams in it play youngsters that don't get anywhere the first team for a Premier League game.

All over the place I read that clubs' managers and players would rather not get into it. The demands on your squad having to play on a Thursday (and then on a Sunday) six, plus, times a season must come at a price, and from what I read there is little money in the competition. No disrespect, but if Fulham can make the final it's hardly Europe's elite is it? I know the Champions League is the elite of Europe, but this competition is probably surplus to requirements.

Is there any real justification in having two European competitions?

ISawLeaburnScore

In my opinion UEFA missed a trick when they re-jigged the European competitions.

Let's face it money and TV rights have destroyed any illusions of the modern-day Champions League being a competition for "Champions", however desirable that concept may be.

But, why scrap the Cup Winners' Cup? 

Have your Champions League and then have a secondary European straight knockout for the winners (or runners-up if the winners qualify for the CL) of say the top 32 countries in Europe's premier cup competitions. There are too many games in the Europa League with a group stage and let's face it, it's a poor product commercially, you only have to look at the TV rights for it and prize money. You need to make it into the final stages to make any money worth even writing down in your ledgers if you are a large club with significant overheads and just look at some of the travelling distances!

Giving places away for free in the "Fair Play League" has always been a joke, as is letting clubs drop into it as a CL wooden spoon concept.

However, I doubt the likes of the Dutch, the 2nd tier Spanish clubs, the Portuguese and especially the Eastern countries would appreciate any change and would steadfastly resist it. I don't think it's been out of that group for over a decade and at the end of the day it's a European trophy to put in the cabinet for teams that will never win a CL.

As an aside, I would have loved for us to have been in it and loved to see us play competitively against European opposition. I know a few Fulham, Villa, Spurs (pre CL), Rangers and they had some top trips. However for the European heavyweights it is a waste of time both in a footballing and financial sense and will therefore never be more than the booby prize and an excuse for some of the well-supported clubs to travel en masse somewhere interesting and get boozed.

colthe3rd

You are looking at it from the club's perspectives. Look at it from UEFA's, more games=more revenue. That's the bottom line and it is what football has become. I saw an interview with Stoke's chairman who said yes it's nice to have European football but financially it makes no sense. Such a shame that clubs have to look at it that way these days. There has to be a top to bottom reform of football, otherwise the end is nigh for an awful lot of clubs.

SheffieldRed

The CWC was never as strong a competition as the UEFA cup, as lot of clubs don't take their domestic cup competitions that seriously. The UEFA cup was devalued when a lot of the teams that would of been in that competition moved into the Champions League. Despite this it is UEFA cup that should be retained (it's still stronger that the CWC would be) but as a knockout competition.

As far as English clubs are concerned, it's not that there is no value in the Europa cup, but that there is less value than the premier league.

Personally I think  the UEFA cup is a great chance for teams that might not make the Champions league to play European football. I would welcome any chance for Charlton to play in European competition, & would even go as far as welcoming the return of the Anglo-Italian Competition.  

 

drawnablank

I would have loved if we had made it into Europe and would have been very annoyed if we had fielded weakened teams. The top four places are inaccessible to the vast majority so the Europa League is a chance at Europe for the rest of us. Saying that, I don't think the current format works, there are too many games and I don't agree with the knocked out Champions League teams being dropped in at the beginning of the knockout stage. The top teams are focussed on the Champions League and see the Europa League as an inconvenience, I can understand why. Teams like Stoke and Fulham see it as a great achievement and give it a real go. Then there is this group of teams who treat it like an inconvenience but don't realise that it is their only real hope at European success. Spurs and Villa come to mind. Villa once played a reserve side late on in the competition to focus on the league, what were they focussing on? Finishing as high as they could which would put them back in Europe. Spurs had a great year in the Champions League but to change the fortunes of the club they needed to make it again this year. I can't see Spurs getting a Champions League spot next year so they should look at the Europa League and domestic cups as a chance of glory.

I wish for the day to see a Charlton side walk out at the Valley in a European match.

Deadred

But we are in Europe this year Drawnablank! Are'nt we in Sopin / Portugal pre season?

ISawLeaburnScore

Villa once played a reserve side late on in the competition to focus on the league, what were they focussing on? Finishing as high as they could which would put them back in Europe.

The game that probably started the ball rolling on the MON discontent at Villa.

Villa Reserves rolled over 3-0 in Prague when they took 3,000 out there all to miss out on 4th as the fallout from that choked their season.

My mate went out there and spent well in excess of £500 after having his passport nicked and having to arrange an alternative flight home all to watch Villa Reserves. To say he wasn't best pleased!

Exiled_Addick

I think ISaw has it right, bring back the Cup Winners Cup as a straight knock-out competition. As the Champions League is made up of the top 3 or 4 of the best leagues and the top 2 of a lot of the less glamorous leagues by the time you get to the teams in the Europa league you're looking at a bunch of mid table teams or runners up from fairly weak leagues. The games generate no more interest than a Bolton vs Fulham game to anyone other than the fans of clubs involved, especially when there are so many games in a oversaturated market.

FIFA/UEFA and the TV companies will never cotton on to the less is more concept though.

jimmymelrose

I look forward to seeing two teams from the same country win each competition, the winners of The Champions League being a team that finished 3rd or 4th (i.e. Spurs or Arsenal in England) and the winners of the Europa League being the Champions (i.e. Manchester United). That really would show up the ludicrousy of current European competition.

Obviously the answer is to have the elite competion for the elite only: The Champions (Cup preferably), and the UEFA Cup to be a cup for the 2nd to 4th placed teams.

Also, let's get back to calling a cup a cup, and a league a league. If UEFA ran the World Cup it would be called The World League! Personally I only watch the knock-out stages in The Champions thingy anyway.

JustFloydRoad

Man Utd, Tottenham and Rangers qualify in top 8 of the Europa League.

Chris_from_Sidcup

Draw for the last 16:

Bodo/Glimt v Olympiakos

Fenerbahce v Rangers

Ajax v Eintracht Frankfurt

FCSB v Lyon

AZ Alkmaar v Tottenham

Real Sociedad v Manchester United

Viktoria Plzen v Lazio

Roma v Athletic Bilbao

oohaahmortimer

will Graeme Souness go to Rangers away leg

PragueAddick

Well I thoroughly enjoyed watching Viktoria demolish Ferencvaros last night. I was certainly confident they would overturn the 1-0 deficit from the first leg, but the tie was over by half-time. I can't see them getting past Lazio, if I'm honest, but the money they have earned  so far (just short of €10m, not including match day or TV) goes a long way. 

But I particularly enjoyed it because it shows how much Hungarian football is in deep shit thanks to that slug Orban rigging it. For years Hungary and CZ were just about at parity, not surprising when the populations, the post Communist history, and the economy are almost the same. But in the last 3-4 years CZ has pulled away from them, especially at club level. Ferencvaros are the current champions, but now they find themselves 5 points behind the leaders- which is none other than Puskas Academy, Fat Viktor's home village football club with an average attendance of 900. Fehervar - where Dobbo was supposed to be now - are well off the pace, 8th in a 12 club league. But then what's the point of even trying to compete when the President spends taxpayers' money taking his village team from the 4th level to top of the league. It's not so much written in the stars, as in the grubby political agreements, they will win the league. And probably each future season as long as the walking pork barrel is in power. I don't know for whom I have more contempt, Fak Viktor or Dobbo's agent. 

BTW Ferencvaros have a new management team: Robbie Keane and Rory Delap. I wonder how long that will last. Meanwhile a star for Viktoria last night was Matej Vydra, now 32. Lost his pace of course but in a rich vein of form. 

stackitsteve

It’s very unlikely but the path for Fenerbahce means Jose Mourinho could face Roma, then Man Utd and then Spurs. (His last 3 clubs)