EUROPE’s second premier club competition began last night, as the third edition of the UEFA Europa League returned. However, is there any prestige in this competition for let’s be honest; the second-rate sides in European club football.
The UEFA Europa League made its debut on the football scene in the 2009/10 season, following the decision to restructure the even worse UEFA Cup. Back in the 90s, there were three European competitions, which were merged into two in 1999, when the Cup Winners Cup was ditched. The old UEFA Cup format had an opening first round, a tedious and pathetic second group phase where losing two of your four group matches was normally okay to progress, then more knockout football until a predictably drab final. British success in this competition was fairly normal though, with Liverpool winning it in 2001 following that amazing 5-4 final against Alaves in Dortmund. Both Celtic and Middlesbrough made it all the way to the final and if it wasn’t for UEFA Cup glory in 2003, the name Jose Mourinho would still largely have been unheard of.
The new format of the Europa League does make the competition a bit more entertaining to watch, despite the demanding schedule. Four qualifying rounds are followed by 48 teams proceeding into a typical group stage. Twelve groups of four teams, with the sides competing playing each other home and away, like the Champions League. After Christmas, the 24 sides that ended first and second go into the third round, joined by the eight ‘lucky losers’ who finished third in their UEFA Champions League groups. From there on, knockout football takes place until the final at the beginning of May, which this year, will be held in Bucharest, Romania. The final play-off round this year saw the likes of AS Roma, Sevilla, Panathinaikos and Palermo knocked out before even reaching the group phase; teams you would expect to be around in the final reckoning.
This season, Britain will be represented by five sides. After winning the Carling Cup in February, Birmingham City enter Europe, despite playing in the Npower Championship. After reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League last season, Harry Redknapp’s Tottenham start rightfully as favourites. Two years after their historic run to the final in Hamburg under Roy Hodgson, Fulham are back in the Europa League, with Martin Jol in charge. Stoke City embark on their first continental campaign in over 40 years, a fitting reward for their run to the FA Cup final last season. Finally, Celtic earnt a reprieve into the competition, after the side that beat them in the final playoff round; FC Sion, were expelled for fielding ineligible players against the Scottish side. However, it wasn’t a great start for the British teams last night in the opening set of fixtures. Celtic lost 2-0 to Atletico Madrid, Fulham were held 1-1 at home by dangerous Dutch side FC Twente, Birmingham got soundly beaten 3-1 at home by last year’s uninspiring runners-up Sporting Braga, Tottenham escaped with a 0-0 draw from Greece against PAOK Salonika and Stoke held Dynamo Kiev to a 1-1 stalemate in the Ukraine, coming so close to a historic win.
With the extra demand on playing Thursday nights and Sunday afternoons every fortnight, most Premiership managers will see it being a poisoned chalice rather than a reward to play in the UEFA Europa League and I can’t blame them. For example, my team Liverpool missed out on European football this season for the first time since 2000. Although the club won’t get any of those special Euro evenings at Anfield, lose a bit of income from television revenue and ticket sales, it is predicted that Kenny Dalglish will see a major benefit for not being in an extra competition which, providing going all the way, will consist of another 20 matches! Not only does it mean that Liverpool can focus more on the domestic cup competitions, but it provides a far clearer run than say Tottenham in the fight for fourth place in the Premiership.
Despite the added demand, I’m disappointed that many clubs, not just English ones don’t treat the competition with the respect it does deserve. Once you are in it, you should do what you can to win it and it can provide memorable moments for the fans. The UEFA Europa League is the perfect competition to blood some of the youngsters in your squad into battle. Harry Redknapp has sent this message across already, by controversially leaving the gifted Rafael van der Vaart out of his 25-man Europa squad until the knockout stages at the earliest. Although I admire Harry’s determination to play the youngsters, he hasn’t got the right balance. After all, the fans and TV viewers want to see the likes of Bale, Lennon, van der Vaart, Defoe and Modric – not Livermore, Kane, Obika and Cudicini. Youth policy has worked in this competition before. Chris Smalling would never got his move to Manchester United had he not featured for Fulham in the early stages of the 2009/10 competition and Hodgson used the group stages to gives the likes of Martin Kelly, Jonjo Shelvey and Jay Spearing a chance in Liverpool’s first team last season; without compensating for a swift early exit too. I love to see youth given a go, but it is frustrating to see some treat it better than others and that leads me to the question; if you don’t want to take it seriously, don’t bother qualifying for it.
This season’s competition does have the likes of Atletico Madrid, PSV Eindhoven, Sporting Lisbon, Schalke 04 and PSG – but they aren’t the Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and AC Milan of today’s world. I think UEFA have found the right balance and don’t need to make swift changes to the UEFA Europa League. It works well but should be taken far more seriously. Otherwise, you have to question its general worth. Channel Five don’t bite!
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