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The Europa League - Sh1t got real...

Re: Improving the 'Europa League'

Spursalot said:
They could, but then the competition would make a loss. Which is the opposite of what a business is attempting to do.
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fine, then it will remain a tin pot competition
 
Re: Improving the 'Europa League'

Simples. Make it a a true cup competion. No seeding, knockout. No parachuting from Champions league. Winner and runner up go into next season's Champions league.
 
Re: Improving the 'Europa League'

Straight un seeded knockouts from the beginning

No CL drop outs

CL having less teams from the strong leagues (two tops) meaning stronger teams in the EL
 
Re: Improving the 'Europa League'

Winners get a CL spot would sort this competition out overnight.

And not that it's a UEFA priority but it would do the same for the FA and League cups, as they essentially become CL preliminary rounds.
 
Re: Improving the 'Europa League'

Move the games from Thursdays to alternate Tuesdays and Wednesdays to Champions League games.

The biggest one is removing the CL rejects from the competition. It really does devalue the competition. I'm surprised they don't place the CL semi final losers into the Europa League final.
 
Re: Improving the 'Europa League'

Two things:
- CL drop outs don't enter into the Europa
- Europa winners get CL entry for the following season
 
Re: Improving the 'Europa League'

Do people not feel though that not even being able to defend your title the next season is devaluing the cup? Its such a brick competition still that even after winning it, you'd rather just be participating in another one?
 
Re: Improving the 'Europa League'

Hootnow said:
Do people not feel though that not even being able to defend your title the next season is devaluing the cup? Its such a brick competition still that even after winning it, you'd rather just be participating in another one?
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You mean, like the championship? :p
 
Re: Improving the 'Europa League'

Take the losing Champions league teams out of it. They add nothing (6 of out this year's 8 went straight out of the Europa League). And they bring with them the mindset its a losers cup.

Increase the prize money. Advertisers will eventually up their money if the competition becomes more prestigious. UEFA can however afford to make a loss on the competition for a few seasons.

Take a round out of it. The competition is too long. 16 teams to get through to the knock outs instead of 32.

I am not in favour of the winners getting a Champion's League spot. That makes the Europa League seem like a feeder competition. It should be a proper competition in its own right that teams give a fudge about winning. Just like the UEFA cup was.
 
Re: Improving the 'Europa League'

elltrev said:
Some fans seem to look down on those who place more value on qualifying for the Champions League than they do on winning the Europa League, or who simply don't value the Europa League in general. The argument seems to be that "football is about winning trophies". But for me that argument is too simplistic; after all, who would prefer to win the Kappa Cup than to qualify for the Champions League? The quality and prestige of the competiton has to be taken into account. And unfortunately the quality and thus the prestige of the Europa League has got worse and worse over recent decades and years.

The first problem is that a lot of teams who used to play in the UEFA Cup now play in the Champions League - those who finish 2nd and 3rd and even 4th in the top domestic leagues. The Champions League has improved in quality, and the Europa League has suffered for it.

But then UEFA made things even worse with their more recent changes to the Europa League. In order to improve the quality of the Europa League, UEFA should:

- Abolish the group format. It takes away the excitement of cup ties and needlessly drags the competition out (it takes 6 games each to reduce the number of teams by half, rather than 2 games as is the case in a knockout format).
- Reduce the number of teams that play in it. At the moment 48 teams play, which means the inclusion of Israeli cup winners, Slovenian Champions, 4th-placed Cypriots and 6th-placed Ukrainians, all of whom are currently likely to finish bottom of their group anyway.
- Stop the teams who go out of the Champions League group stages from entering the Europa League. I think they hoped this would add to the quality of the latter, but actually it just reinforces the notion of the Europa League being inferior to the Champions League, and I would imagine these teams don't want to be there (see Mikel's recent comments).
- Give the Europa League winner a spot in the Champions League group stages.

The UEFA Cup / Europa League is never going to be as popular as the Champions League, so UEFA should stop trying to make it a carbon-copy of its bigger brother. A normal cup competition with less teams and a bigger prize would make it better quality, more passionate and exciting and less of a drain on team's squads (you'd only have to win 9 games to win the Cup).

Also English entry to the competition should stop being through the cups, or at least through FA Cup runners-up (see Stoke, Birmingham, Wigan / Millwall etc).

Thoughts?
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I agree restructuring needs to be done on a vast scale but not only to the Europa League but also the Champions League. In terms of both competitions, the coefficient should be roughly halved so that countries that now get 4 UCL places only get 2 and those that get 2 only get 1 etc. Those that get 3 would maybe get 2 or only 1 depending on how the restructuring went.

What that would mean is that a number of stronger teams would regularly be in the Europa League thus rasing its profile and cash levels through advertising and TV rights. Only cup winners should be given a place in the Europa League - FA Cup runners up should not get a place if the opponent has already qualified for Europe via other means. These places in those scenarios should always filter down the league table as a fairer barometer of season performance and reward rather than winning 5 one off ties. This is the case with the League cup and should be applied to the FA cup and all other national cups in different countries.

Retain the group stage in the Europa League - Its is guaranteed income for 6 games that clubs can negotiate but have possibly 1 or 2 knockout rounds prior to get it from 96 to 48 to 24 so that 6 groups of 4 can be created with the 6 group winners going through plus 2 best runners up so that instead of an extra round after the groups you go straight to a quarter final.

No drop outs from Champions League.

Regardless of strength of league you have to allow champions/runners up from the weaker leagues to have a chance of qualifying otherwise you destroy the dream. Preventing these countries from having representation is elitism. What uefa needs to do is make sure all of these weaker associations teams qualify against eachother so a small number can make it through in either competition but certainly the Europa league is not flooded with sub standard teams but those that get there have done so on merit.
 
Re: Improving the 'Europa League'

AdamB said:
- Europa winners get CL entry for the following season
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But there is that stupid rule about a maximum of 4 teams from each association in the CL, which is why we got dumped out in favour of Chelsea, so say for instance we finish 4th, Chelsea 5th but they win the Europa. Do they dump us out again?
 
Re: Improving the 'Europa League'

It can only realistically be taking out the CL teams parachuting in and the winners getting a CL spot.

Clubs will try harder to win it and put out strong teams. I understand the arguments about it being a 'feeder' competition but the cup will never revert back to its former glory, so at least give it a fighting chance to raise its profile.

I don't think the idea of making the CL like the original European Cup, whereby only the champions or 2nd place teams qualify. My reasons for this are because its too far gone in its current state financially to revert back and the top, top players will then be monopolised by the one or two teams with a realistic chance of winning the league (point in case to an extent, La Liga). Higher-level mercenary players will only go to financially doped clubs. Basically, you won't see players like Suarez at Liverpool or Lloris/Verts at Spurs because we 'only' have a chance if finishing 3rd/4th.
 
Re: Improving the 'Europa League'

Viper said:
But there is that stupid rule about a maximum of 4 teams from each association in the CL, which is why we got dumped out in favour of Chelsea, so say for instance we finish 4th, Chelsea 5th but they win the Europa. Do they dump us out again?
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Hmm. That's a very good point.
 
Re: Improving the 'Europa League'

Viper said:
But there is that stupid rule about a maximum of 4 teams from each association in the CL, which is why we got dumped out in favour of Chelsea, so say for instance we finish 4th, Chelsea 5th but they win the Europa. Do they dump us out again?
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Its an easy rule to change
 
Re: Improving the 'Europa League'

AuroRaman said:
It can only realistically be taking out the CL teams parachuting in and the winners getting a CL spot.

Clubs will try harder to win it and put out strong teams. I understand the arguments about it being a 'feeder' competition but the cup will never revert back to its former glory, so at least give it a fighting chance to raise its profile.

I don't think the idea of making the CL like the original European Cup, whereby only the champions or 2nd place teams qualify. My reasons for this are because its too far gone in its current state financially to revert back and the top, top players will then be monopolised by the one or two teams with a realistic chance of winning the league (point in case to an extent, La Liga). Higher-level mercenary players will only go to financially doped clubs. Basically, you won't see players like Suarez at Liverpool or Lloris/Verts at Spurs because we 'only' have a chance if finishing 3rd/4th.
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i guess it depends on how the split would be received. a stronger secondary European competition may mean that top players are more than happy to be competing in it - a stronger Europa League with better teams and a 'weaker' Champions League may mean the sponsorship money/tv revenue is more evenly split between the two and the mercenaries won't have to chase the Champions League money as they'll get a fair amount in the lesser competition.

id say that's just as likely to happen.

but the best option to even things up? the FA of each country should receive all tv revenue from European football and redistribute it throughout their leagues
 
Re: Improving the 'Europa League'

indianspur said:
significantly increase the prize money, nothing else matters

money rules football.
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I don't think it's even about the profit so much. If the prize money was enough to cover the win bonuses teams would have to pay out it would be a start.
 
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