Should Sunderland get a place in Europe if they win the Checkatrade Trophy? A campaign has been launched to give the winners of the cup, contested by teams in League One and Two, a place in the Europa League. Sunderland take on Portsmouth at Wembley on Sunday in the final of the Checkatrade Trophy. A petition has been set up on the change.org website reading: "It's fairly obvious by this years teams competing in the final that the winners should be offered participation in the Europa league in 2019 / 2020 season." It's not clear if the petition is a spoof or not, but some fans seem to have got behind it nonetheless. Chris Anderson·wrote: "It’s a cup final, and we would paint Europe red and white, Haway the lads." David Martin said: "Get into them!" cant see why not as there are some crap European teams that get in
That has to be a joke, surely? They are trying to make the Europa more prestigious, not devalue it further. Inviting third / fourth division English teams would be ridiculous. Although it would be funny if Man City U21s won the Checkatrade then the Europa and ended up in the Champions League ha.
The Europa League, (if that's it's current name), is already a poison chalice of a competition for those teams that are there just to make the numbers up till the Champion League rejects join in. Why subject another Team to it, specially as they might find the financial cost of competing in it to be a drain on their resources. Add to this that they would be involved in early qualifiers, useful for match fitness no doubt, but likely to be a string of defeats. No way to prepare for the Season. Burnley's foray into that competition this Season should be a warning.
Hope to god this is a wind up. Yes we're in a cup final and at Wembley but in the grand scheme of things it really is a tin pot competition.
That's an absolute joke. The Checkatrade's proper name is the Associate Member's Cup. Although it wasn't set up that way initially, the Associate Member's Cup became the partner competition to the Full Member's Cup which was only set up to give top flight clubs another competition to play in when English clubs were banned from Europe in 1985. As these completions were an alternative to European competition, they shouldn't be a gateway to it. As for the Europa League being a poisoned chalice, it's only become that because it's been devalued by changing the qualification requirements. Both that and the Champions League are badly in need of reform.
Yep - I'm delighted that we're in the final - it is, in relative terms, the biggest knock out trophy that we could realistically win this season. But to even think about suggesting a Europa league spot for it is an utter joke!!
I was part of the team that won the Friendly Cup for South Moor Juniors Under-14's. I demand we are entered into the Europa League belatedly for this gross overlook of magnificent proportions.
Absolutely - possibly for another thread but the europa (UEFA) cup and Cup Winners Cup were always very prestigious competitions and everyone wanted to win them. Back when the European cup was for the winners of a league. As soon as they changed it so that the top 4 teams got into it and called it the "Champions league" (when, in reality, you didn't have to be a champion of anything to qualify for it) made it all a joke. My 10 pence - the "Champions league" should be for those who win a major trophy in their country (League title, FA Cup and League cup for England) Europa can be those who reach the final of those 2 cups and finish second in the league. This would not only make the tournament more worthwhile, it would make the cup competitions in this country competitive again. If a CL place is at stake for winning those cups, you can nail on that the big sides won't be playing the kids. Have to say that the comment from @Makemstine Roger about the quality of teams in that competition is spot on - there are some awful sides in there which would struggle in our league! All because UEFA want to open it up to more people and completely devalue it!
It's not the opening up that devalues it. The champions of every country in Europe should get into the Champions League without having to qualify. Second place (and perhaps third) in the top few leagues should qualify you for the Champions League qualifiers. Top 4 and domestic cup winning should qualify you for the UEFA Cup. That way TV revenue and prize money would be spread further around Europe, improving the quality (albeit slowly) of every league in Europe. Qualification would be harder for both competitions for English, Spanish, Italian, German clubs this restoring the elite status of the competitions.
Champions League should be a league for champions, a league of about 10-12 teams, where you have to play eachother only once. The winner of leagues like England, Spain etc should automatically qualify whilst lesser league winners, Ireland, Wales etc will have to qualify in a knockout competition in order to whittle it down to the 10-12 teams. If UEFA wish to have a final then the top 2 play eachother for the cup. Either that or change the name to the Champions, Runners Up and Also Rans Cup!
Thing is though, if you do that you limit opportunities for teams like Steaua Bucharest to win it like they did in 1986. It was more of a level playing field then and anyone could win it. Yes, you want the big names there to give the competition prestige but creating a situation where only a handful of clubs can realistically win it is boring.
But isnt that the case now in? Giving the big clubs second, third and fourth chances if they lose an opening league game against someone like Shaktar Donetsk. Ideally it should go back to the 2 leg cup competition from years ago, no seeded teams etc, then the lesser teams could cause an upset. But then wheres the money in that?
Yeah it is. That's what I'm saying. You need to let the champions of everywhere in automatically. Not make them qualify. The old format was much better.
The Europa league is beyond us anyway for the present time, we cannot cope with 6 group matches and 46 league games plus the league and f a cup !. If we win the checkatrade we should opt out next season as the fixtures have piled up. Why could the final not be at the end of May ?. Newcastle won the intertwobob cup a few years ago if I remember. The play offs should be scrapped and league winners only in the champions league for me.
No of course not. It's been up two days and only has 68 signatures. That's 67 embarrassments and one massive twat. Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk
