EUROPA League Revamp

Was listening to the radio on the drive home from work and the subject of revamping the EUROPA League came up.

It's currently seen as the European equivalent to the Leage Cup where the big teams don't care if they progress or not. The likes of Spurs for instance couldn't care less whether they progress, and Man U and Man City will probably field youth / reserve sides. Thus devaluing the competition.

One of the ideas that came up to make it a more desirable competition that I liked was this. The winner of the EUROPA League gets entry into one of the later qualifying stages, or the group stage of the Champions League the following season.

For me this would mean all teams in the EUROPA League would have a real desire to win it and we wouldn't see these weakened sides being put out that make a mockery of a competition that many teams would give their right arm to be in.

Good idea / bad idea?

 

This is a good idea, I hope that if it is ever proved that someone deliberately didn't qualify (maybe say Liverpool) or someone got knocked out deliberately (maybe say Tottenham) then these teams should get banned from Europe and let teams who do want to play in the competition play (say the bottom 14 currently in the Premier League).

 

I think it's an excellent idea but without trying to steal your thunder I've been saying this for a while.

I would even say that it's ridiculous that the winner of the Europa League isn't a granted a place in the champions league.

 

Well I agree with you then 5 goals

 

I've thought this idea was great for years as well to be honest. It's just common sense, and really the ultimate prize for such a competition would be CL entry. Far better than any cash prize the Europa League could ever offer.

 

up the coverage and prize money and everyone would be interested

 

Would love this as it would become much more interesting.
The problem is finding a free berth to allocate the winner of the Europa League too.

 

I know this would **** over the league cup etc. but does anyone else agree that they should have champions league one week on tues/weds and then europa league the following week on tues/weds. Then the winner gets champions league qualification.

 

I was suprised when i found out this wasn't the case so yeh i think its a good idea

 

Yeah but what could happen then is a team could get to an FA cup final then win the Europa and would get in the champions league. How is that fair if its at the expense of a team that's finished 1st twice in a row in their domestic league (or something similar)

What needs to be done to stop devaluing the competition is to not let teams who finish 3rd in the CL group into it, why should CL teams be rewarded for failure in the CL. They also need to stop letting people qualify through it with their fair play record (e.g Fulham) because that's just ridiculous.

 

I think they should scrap the damn thing. Why reward teams not good enough for the champions league? It gives mediocrity a reason. No one should aspire to be mediocre.

 

Why reward clubs not good enough to win their domestic league with a 'Champions' League place?

Champions-only (league and major domestic cup) in the Champions League, next set of clubs enter the Europa league.

That way the winners of the CL can truly claim to be the best of the best and the quality of the Europa League (2nd-5th in league and League Cup winner) is high enough to get massive ratings.

If the league champions also win the FA Cup then the winners of the League Cup get the CL place and an extra Europa place is given to 6th place. In an unlikely treble, the second CL place would go to 2nd and Europa qualification would go down to 7th. Two legged CL games, more single leg games in the Europa due to larger numbers.



Last year's qualifiers would be;

Champions League
Man Utd (1st)
Man City (FA Cup)

Europa League
Chelsea (2nd)
Arsenal (4th)
Birmingham (League Cup)
Tottenham (5th) - Qualifying round
Liverpool (6th) - Qualifying round


No more 'losers' in the Champions League and a much stronger Europa.

 

That would mean in 2008 Portsmouth would've been in the CL and Chelsea (2nd) wouldn't. How does that get rid of the losers in the competition? THe quality would just decrease, seeing as the main competition comes from Spain, England and Italy/Germany anyway.

 

Two things they need to do:

A). Award the winner a CL place
B). Half the size of the Europa League

It really is far too big, and every ****er and their dog seems to be in it at the moment. You get in for league finishes, you get in for being cup runners-up, you get in for winning the fair play league, and all sorts of nonsense. If the CL is the elite tournament, then the Europa League should be a level below that and something many clubs aspire to. However, atm it's just filled mostly with dross. I mean look at the teams who got access to it. Stoke, Fulham and Birmingham. Hardly a level below the elite.

 

We have 4 slots to fill, so wed probably have to include CC, so this year would be

1) Man Utd
2) Man City
3) Birmingham
4) .....

 

I always assumed the winner did get into the champs league.

I also agree Chappaz that there are way to many teams in the competition, especially teams (no disrespect) that don't really bring much quality to make it an attractive prostpect so say you've beaten, "not quite the best, but some very good teams."

 

Chelsea the 4th team?

Imagine how ridiculous Birmingham in the CL would be. Rewarding clubs for doing well in 5 games, against opponents of varying quality, as opposed to 38 games would be siilly IMO. You could play, and beat, 5 League 2 clubs and qualify for the CL.

 

These are the current teams in the Europa League. I've highlighted the teams which I would consider a challenge and worthy participants which makes the EL a 'step below' the CL:

I mean some of those teams are finishing 4th-5th in some utterly woeful, woeful leagues. Just look at AEK Larnaca, who finished 4th in the Cypriot First Division. I don't even think the winner of that division is good enough for a league like this, nevermind 4th.

 

to not say Athletic Bilbao as a challenge says to me you haven't watched it this year they played a mostly youth team and lost to psg by a fluke own goal and a shocking dive awarded penalty bit harsh in some of your choices as a test and picking Kiev who were quite frankly woeful i can't see your logic other than well known names.

i could name a few others who you didn't who were a bigger test than some you did

 

Okay fair play about the whole 'Cup team in the CL' problem.

Champions League
53 clubs, each the champion of their country's top flight. Teams to be seeded with qualifying rounds to filter it down to 32 clubs (16 through from qualifying joined by 16 top seeded clubs). 8 groups of 4, top 2 from each go through to the knockout rounds, eventually leading to the Champions. Teams knocked out will enter the Europa league at some stage.

Europa League
Next 3 clubs in the league (depending on national seeding) get a Europa League place, along with the winners of the domestic cup winners. If the domestic cup winner has already qualified through league position the extra slot goes to the next league place.

Cup Winner's Cup
Winners of the league cup and FA Cup enter a new competition. This is in addition to any other European competition the club may have qualified for and is a straight seeded knockout competition. Chances are top English clubs qualifying will field weakened sides but will be taken more seriously by clubs who do not normally compete in Europe. Possibly to take place in the summer.



Champions League
Man Utd
(Rangers)

Europa League
Chelsea
Man City
Arsenal
Tottenham
(Celtic)
(Hearts)
(Dundee United)


CWC
Man City
Birmingham
(Celtic)
(Rangers)


This greatly improves the quality of the Europa League, turns the CL into a true elite competition (no more 4th placed teams) and gives more importance to the cups.

- It increases the honour of finishing 1st as opposed to 2nd.
- Makes the Europa League a premium product from a broadcast point of view.
- FA Cup grants both a Europa League spot and a place in the CWC.
- League Cup grants a place in the CWC.

Although not a bigger incentive for the mega clubs to win the cups, it opens up Europe to many more clubs and could make it the 'FA Cup of Europe', full of giant killings. In this case it'd give the full Man City squad a chance to play at competitive level, since big clubs will no longer field weakened sides for the much tougher Europa League.

In the Champions League (Champions Cup?) the seeded clubs would be;

Man Utd
Barcelona
Borussia Dortmund
AC Milan
Lille
Porto
Zenit St Petersberg
Shakhtar Donetsk
Ajax
Olympiacos
Fenerbahce
Anderlecht
FC Copenhagen
Basel
Sturm Graz
APOEL Nicosia

Along with the teams such as Rangers and Dinamo Zagreb coming through the qualfying stages.

Teams outside that Cup are still fantastic and the Europa league would be a much closer competition.

*puff* *pant*

Have I fixed it yet?