The UEFA Europa League - Is there any point in it?

By Simon Wright (Personal viewpoint)

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!

TV classics - Dream Team

IN OCTOBER 1997, Sky One and Hewland International came together to produce a football drama that no-one can live upto.  For ten years, viewers were gripped by ‘Dream Team,’ a series focusing on the events of a fictional club in the West Midlands, Harchester United.  For the first time ever, viewers got to see the makings of a football club and what really happens behind the cameras.  The show ended in June 2007, after 419 episodes full of murder, explosions, shootings, affairs, gambling addictions, pregnancy, battles for controls, match-fixing, bribery and murder trials.  Yep, Dream Team pretty much covered every base possible.  You wouldn’t want to be around this football club, because ten years of drama at Harchester United feels like the drama of an average family in their lifetime put together!

LOGO: HUFC emblem

     Dream Team began on Tuesday 15 October 1997, initially making two 30 minute episodes every Tuesday and Thursday.  The first series focused on the youth team, but for the following nine series, attention switched to the senior squad.  From series four (2000) onwards, the show moved into a successful one-hour Sunday evening slot.  At the height of its peak, Dream Team was Sky One’s most watched programme, with nearly two million (good figures) for a Sky show tuning into the series four finale, which culminated in the murder of unpopular chairman Prashant Dattani (Ramon Tinkram).

      The match action was used with permission from the FA Premier League and use of the Sky Sports archives, with a lot of the filming taking place at Millwall’s New Den ground.  The show proved the fronting ground for a lot of talented actors and actresses.  Jamie Lomas and Ricky Whittle became Hollyoaks icons, Rob Kazinsky likewise in EastEnders.  Duncan Pow is a hit with the Holby City fans, Stefan Dennis was the owner for a season in his break from playing evil Paul Robinson in Neighbours and Chucky Venice went into a similar show; Footballers Wives, after his Dream Team experience.  There were also a series of guest appearances from familiar football faces including Dennis Wise, Andy Gray, Harry Redknapp, Neil Warnock, Richard Keys and Alan Curbishley.

     The football might have been reality, but the off-field sagas that gripped the show were spectacular enough.  In series five, Harchester's first-team squad was travelling to the airport for the UEFA Cup final against AC Milan when it crashed off the M1.  Three first-team squad members were killed.  The following year, goalkeeper Jamie Parker (Jim Alexander) held the first-team hostage in 'The Siege,' in some of Dream Team's finest and grittiest scenes to be filmed.  After a tense stand-off with police, Parker was eventually gunned down to his death.

      The two most popular characters in the history of Dream Team were Lynda Block and Karl Fletcher.  Played by Alison King (now better known for playing Carla Connor in Coronation Street) and Terry Kiely, they were stalwarts in the show from its early beginnings.  Kiely’s character, Karl Fletcher was in the show from the first series and became instantly known for his ‘playboy’ lifestyle.  His character was a goal machine, helping Harchester to FA Cup success in 1998.  After an unhappy stint in Spain, playing for Real Mallorca, Fletch returned to Harchester and was accused of the murder of Dattani at the start of series five.  At the resulting trial, he was found guilty of his murder, before Lynda came clean at the last moment to reveal it was her who had struck the final blow.  Rather than be angry with her, Fletch and Lynda went onto have a steamy affair, but Sam Irving (Stefan Dennis) found out and called off the nuptials between him and Lynda at the altar.  With Lynda in jail, serving time for Dattani’s murder, Fletch went onto marry physiotherapist Abi O’Leary (Rachel Brady), and looked set to settle down at long last.  However, a crippling tax bill and a power struggle against manager Patrick Doyle (Shaun Scott) led to Fletch departing at the end of the sixth series for Saudi Arabia, in a bid to solve his money troubles.  He eventually divorced Abi, after she had a fling with French footballer Marcel Sabatier.  In series eight, Fletch returned to Harchester unexpectedly, but was struggling for fitness and was never deranged manager Don Barker’s favourite person.  In a showdown for supremacy, Barker murdered Fletcher in the changing room against a coat rail in the penultimate episode of series eight. 

     Lynda Block arrived in series two, as the wife of Chairman Jerry Block.  She got bored with Jerry quickly, and was soon having a sizzling affair with Latino player-manager Luis Amor Rodriguez (Martin Crunes) in one of Dream Team’s greatest ever storylines.  When Jerry’s dodgy dealings were exposed in series three, Lynda took over as chairwoman, but broke up with Luis when he went to play in Argentina for Boca Juniors.  So, Lynda continued her likings in Harchester managers, and went onto bed Ray Wyatt (Mark Moraghan), destroying his marriage.  However, series four was a power struggle for Lynda, with regular run-ins with the unpopular Dattani and a financial crisis that in the end saw her lose control of the club.  To compound matters, her affair with Ray was exposed to the press and sleazy local journalist Paul Hankin.  The resulting stress caused her to lose the baby she and Ray had been expecting.  In the final episode, Lynda’s patience finally snapped and she killed Dattani and ended up in jail at the end of the following series.  Series five was more of the same, with Lynda serving her time in prison after the breakup of her potential marriage to Sam Irving, as she was carrying on with Fletch.  She was released on a technicality three years later, on the day of Harchester’s darkest moment.

     The match-fixing scandal in the 2003-2004 campaign, caused by controversial chief executive Pilar Hernandez (Marem Hernandez) and bitter ex-player Stuart Naysmith (Terence Maynard) led to a chain of events which ultimately conspired to the death of the HUFC squad in Cardiff.  UEFA relegated Harchester United to the Coca Cola Championship and sweeping changes for the pre-season saw the feisty Don Barker (Jon Morrison) come in as the club’s new manager.  From the outset, Barker did things his own way and wouldn’t take any prisoners.  Clyde Connolly (Timothy Smith) couldn’t take it and jumped off the stadium after a Champions League match and Barker eventually lost his job over a sex scandal.  Having taken a position as West Ham’s director of football, Barker’s ultimate aim was to finish off Harchester.  He killed Fletch, revealed the secret of an affair between Ryan Naysmith (Ricky Whittle) and Chelsea Wright (Karen Ferrari) which drove nutty Viv Wright (Phillip Brodie) into a fit before the Championship playoff final.  After Harchester beat West Ham 1-0 to secure their place back in the Premiership, Barker wasn’t going to take it lying down.  So, he drove his cordoned off BMW, with petrol cans and Fletch’s body in the boot into the Harchester team coach.  The coach exploded, killing all but three of the first-team squad.

     Sadly, despite a new look and new characters, the glory days of Dream Team had come to an end.  Storylines either got boring or more sensationalised and in April 2006, it was decided that the show would be axed after a tenth and final series.  The tenth series focused on a storyline which evolved around the ‘Dragonslayer,’ a mysterious individual, exposing the secrets of the club.  The show bowed out with the offices of the Dragons Lair, Harchester’s ground going up in flames thanks to a dropped cigarette.  It was a disappointing conclusion, as no-one knew whether the ground exploded, killing thousands or Harchester won the Premier League title on the last day of the season.

     Dream Team certainly had its day and was quality football drama.  It has every right to be called a ‘TV Classic,’ especially if you liked the match action, attractive women and dramatic cliff-hangers.  Although a campaign for the ten series on DVD to be released has failed, the fictional legacy of Harchester United remains in the blood of many fans of the show.  There may be no revival, but the memories will remain forever.

More information on Harchester United can be found at http://www.harchester.net/ and http://www.harchester.tv/, where the latter continues the story where the TV drama ended for approximately another season and a half.

UEFA Champions League Matchday 6 - Arsenal finish the English job

ARSENAL required a win last night and finished the English job of ensuring all four sides qualified for the knockout stages.  As the UEFA Champions League heads into its winter hibernation, the Gunners recorded a 3-1 win over the whipping boys of Group H, Partizan Belgrade, without being anywhere near their best.

BATTLE: Samir Nasri showed his class again last night

A tetchy first half hour was eased when Robin Van Persie went over and got a very fortunate penalty.  There seemed to very minimal contact from Marko Jovanovic, but the makeshift Arsenal captain couldn’t care less, as he confidently powered the penalty away, his first goal of any description since May.  If anyone thought that the floodgates would open, then they were to be seriously mistaken as the Brazilian Cleo bought the Serbians level, with a shot that took a wicked deflection off Sebastian Squillaci and looped over Lukasz Fabianski into the net.  A pin drop could be felt around the Emirates, as Arsene Wenger’s side looked on the edge.  Those growing fears were ultimately eased by substitute Theo Walcott, who took advantage of a poor cleared header from Jovanovic to produce an instinctive shot that Vladimir Stojkovic never saw.  Qualification for the next round was secure as Samir Nasri scored his 12^th goal of an impeccable season for the Frenchman, rounding off a brilliant team move, something the Gunners lacked all night.  Bakary Sagna was dismissed for clipping one of the Partizan strikers, when the last defender with four minutes to go.  It could be a costly dismissal, depending on who Arsenal ends up getting in the next round, but they dragged their way through for the eleventh year in a row.  The news was good elsewhere, as Sporting Braga’s dream was dismissed, seen off 2-0 in a tame affair by the group winners Shakhtar Donetsk.

TROUBLES: Salomon Kalou couldn't find a way through

Didier Drogba made an emotional return to the Stade Velodrome, but Chelsea continued their miserable record of late, beaten 1-0 in France by Marseille.  All the early threat came from Marseille, with Mathieu Balbuena hitting the frame of the goal in the first half and Gabriel Heinze having a flashing header ruled out for offside. However, Soulyemane Diawara was lucky to get away with two dodgy challenges in the box, one which was initially penalised by the referee, only to be over-ruled by the extra official behind the goal.  The only goal came with ten minutes remaining; Taye Taiwo’s shot was deflected, but fell perfectly for Brandau, who rolled the ball past Petr Cech.  Chelsea’s first slip-up in Europe this season, but how long has Carlo Ancelotti got left in the West London dugout.  Elsewhere in Group F, UEFA are bound to investigate the distasteful crowd scenes in the dead rubber between MSK Zilina and Spartak Moscow.  Play was held up for twenty minutes, with flares being thrown onto the field.  For the record, the Russians came from behind to win 2-1.

On Tuesday night, a far from clinical Manchester United got the point they required to top Group C. They fell behind to their rivals, Valencia; Pablo Hernandez put the Spaniards infront after a glaring error from Michael Carrick.  It was the first goal that United have conceded in Europe this season.  Anderson levelled the match, following up the quickest from Ji-Sung Park’s shot, which had been excellently stopped.  The major positive for Sir Alex Ferguson will be the return to top form of Wayne Rooney, who looked evidently dangerous all night for the first time in a long while.

CONFIDENT: Jermain Defoe looks back to his best

Spurs spectacular campaign continued, with another special match in Holland, but their 3-3 draw against FC Twente was enough to top Group A.  Tottenham took the lead three times in the game, the first coming when 40-year old goalkeeper Sander Boschker made a calamitous attempt to clear a Peter Wisgerhof back pass and the ball trickled in on 12 minutes.  It was a goal that would be perfect to grace any Christmas blooper DVD.  Denny Landzaat scored a retaken penalty to make it 1-1 at half-time, but two confident finishes from Jermain Defoe, either side of a good header from right-back Roberto Rosales had the visitors infront again.  Nacer Chadli drew the Dutch champions’ level again with a near-perfect free-kick, securing European football after Christmas for FC Twente.

RARE: Miller's first CL strike in four years wasn't enough

Rangers were already out of the qualification race in Group C, but they earned a hard-fought 1-1 draw in Turkey against Buraspor.  Kenny Miller scored his first Champions League goal in four years, but the hopeless Turks earned their first and only point of the group stage courtesy of a Sercan Yildiram effort.  Elsewhere in Europe and AS Roma’s 1-1 draw in Romania against CFR Cluj, good enough to qualify in Group E.  Marco Borriello’s early goal made it a comfortable night for Claudio Ranieri’s side, but it was a miserable week for the Italian sides.  AC Milan were shocking at home to Ajax and lost 2-0 in the San Siro in Group G, a perfect start to Frank de Boer’s caretaker reign after Martin Jol’s resignation on Monday.  Meantime, the job prospects are far from good for Rafa Benitez, after his witnessed his Inter side suffer an embarrassing 3-0 loss in Germany to Werder Bremen.  Ten points off the pace in Serie A, Rafa’s position is in severe jeopardy, especially if Inter don’t win the under-strength FIFA World Club Championship in Abu Dhabi later this month.  Finally, congratulations to FC Copenhagen, whose 3-1 win over Panathinaikos in Group D was enough for them to become the first Danish side to escape the group stages.  The Greeks miserable campaign was sealed by a stunning header for ex-Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse.  Just a shame that it was in the wrong net!

Sixteen gone, sixteen remain and a quarter of the sides remaining are English.  Can Tottenham continue their fairytale?  Will Arsenal improve?  Can Chelsea hold it together?  Or have Manchester United got something in the tank?  We will find out more in February.  Happy Christmas from UEFA! 

Serbian Hooligans Force Abandonment of Euro Qualifier

HOOLIGANS shamefully returned to the football world, forcing the abandonment of a Euro 2012 qualifier between Italy and Serbia.

The match, between two teams who failed to deliver on their promising potential at the World Cup this summer, was only seven minutes old, when the referee was forced to take the players off the pitch in the stadium at Genoa.  The match was stopped, due to a series of horrendous incident, the worst being flares thrown onto the pitch by Serbian hooligans in the Italian goalmouth, with the target being the Italian goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano.

Viviano had to hide for cover, as one of the flares hit him on the back of the head.  His opposite number, Vladimir Stojkovic of Partizan Belgrade was hit by a flare on the Serbian team bus, when leaving the team hotel.  Amazingly, the flare thrown came from Serbian fans.  Emotionally tormented after the incident, Stojkovic refused to play in the match.  Kick-off was delayed by half an hour, due to crowd trouble involving both sets of supporters.  There had been trouble all day in the Italian city, with scuffles forcing riot police on the streets.  In the carnage, a police car was attacked and set on fire.  Pictures from Italian television showed some supporters leaving the stadium before the match eventually kicked off, already sensing that more trouble was ahead.

17 people have been arrested by Italian police, with 16 supporters being injured in the clashes throughout the day.  The two teams, who are in the same Euro 2012 group as Northern Ireland will not play a rematch, as it is thought that UEFA will award the Italians a 3-0 victory.  UEFA are investigating the trouble, which certainly looked pre-meditated and planned, rather than something in the heat of the moment.  The Serbian Football Association face a heap of trouble, with the president of the Serbian FA immediately saying he was “embarrassed” to be associated with a country on nights like this.  A severe fine, and the possibility of playing the rest of their qualifiers behind closed doors is more than likely, even expulsion from the tournament could be a possibility.  Time after time, UEFA have fallen weak at the final hurdle, when it comes to maximum punishments.  This time, they must make an example out of Serbia, to prevent this sort of trouble happening again. 

Let’s just hope that this was just an ugly day for football….and not a return to the dark old days of the 1980’s.