Mauricio stated in his press conference that he wasn't a fan of the Europa League as he regarded it as a mark that a team had failed to get into the Champion's League. I have mixed views on it as it is a rather shapeless and ugly trophy. It replaced the Cup Winners Cup which had a meaning...you were the best of all the European teams to win (or sometimes to come second) in a national trophy. Now to qualify a team has to be a distant runner up to a national title, a cup winner or (worst of all) a failure in the Champions League. In the last case, the Europa acts as a lifeboat for big clubs who have cocked up! It is not meaningless to win the Europa...a team has had to slog its way round Europe and, at least towards the end, to have beaten some good sides. And it would look good in a trophy cabinet, especially one likes ours which has been a little bare of late. A trophy is a trophy as we found with the JPT. The kudos of qualifying for it though rather depends on the club. I would consider it an achievement for a club like ours as it would be another rung on the ladder...we would have done well in a trophy or climbed high up the League ladder. However, for teams like Arsenal or Liverpool, it would be a mark of failure in the League. The Europa Cup means the excitement of European matches in far away places with strange sounding names, but can also mean a distraction and a pressure on resources. In summary, I understand Mauricio's viewpoint (bearing in mind his previous CL experience), but qualification would represent a step up for Saints and winning it is an achievement.
I don't think the Europa league is exactly meaningless, although I will admit it probably does not have the prestige of the Champion's league. I agree with you about the failed champions league teams bringing the prestige of the Europa league down a level maybe. It would be an interesting statistic to see how many have come down from the Champion's league and gone ahead and actually won the Europa league instead. Not sure that many have, which might suggest they perhaps should not have been in the champions league anyway, or am I being a bit harsh. I suppose the other way of looking at it would be if the failed teams have won the competition quite a few times it could be argued that the standard is quite high in the Europa league too.
I think its more that players dont see the Europa League as a bigee. Teams that are knocked out of the CL lose their focus and drive and can't psche themselves back up when faced with teams on a winning run.
There are I believe 64 teams in the current phase of the Europa League and I guess som e have already been eliminated in a pre-league stage. That it a ridiculous amount for something that should be an elite competition, albeit not as elite as the Champions League. Add to that the teams dropping down from the Champions League and it would seem harder NOT to qualify for the competition than to actually qualify Having said that, by the time it reaches the later stages it does become interesting and it would be incredible if Swansea could win it.
It's like the European Milk Cup or League Cup whatever it's called this year.Were we to win at OT we would know in our hearts that it was because United wanted out.
I think the Europa League is far from meaningless, and any team would be glad to win it, with the possible exception of the elite teams of Europe like Bayern, Real Madrid, Barcelona, and maybe Man U. To say it is meaningless is to forget what a struggle it is simply to qualify to play in it. Top 6 in the Premier League, for example, not to mention winning either of the domestic cups, would be a fantastic achievement in itself for most Premier League sides, and the same is true in just about every other country in Europe (apart from Scotland). Having qualified, you then face the prospect of endless Thursday nights travelling around the back streets of Europe with all the attritional effects that has on your squad. Any team that can get through that, and still keep up a reasonable performance in their domestic league, is definitely a force to be reckoned with, and they deserve respect. It may not have quite the kudos of the Champions League, but the Europa League would be a brilliant trophy to win all the same.
Perhaps those who get knocked out of the Europa group stage should go on to contest the the "Pot de peinture européenne"
Its fun for away fans. That's about the only redeeming feature of the competition. In my usual "football addict" way, I always tune in to watch games on thursdays, but then switch off when it gets into my thick head that the games are on whole, glorified friendlies.
What I don't like as mentioned is the CL teams getting another bit of the cherry after a failed CL campaign. Chelsea won it after being dumped out of the CL, this then makes it harder for teams that have slogged to get into the knockout phase, then to say get Man City etc. So far we've played 6 games and another 4 games to go just to get into the knockout stages.
Don't like it. That's not to say I wouldn't be pleased if we won it, but I'd rather it wasn't a thing.
It's certainly equal measure benefit and hindrance. You get to be in Europe, which may have some positive effects on player recruitment and it's enjoyable for fans, but it comes with all the demands on squad depth as CL with none of the money with which to acquire and maintain it.
Teams in the Champions League can cope with it because they have big squads. If the teams who finished 5th, 6th and 7th got into the Europa League, then there'd be more meaning as they have the squads to cope. However, getting in it through silverware (Wigan and Swansea) means they aren't prepared for it and don't want it as Swansea will be wanting to get top half and Wigan will want promotion, with no distractions. There's also the fact that there's a top 6 and then a big gap to everyone else, so the team that comes 5th goes into the Europa League (Tottenham) and don't care much as they really want to be in the CL. In Spain, there's the top two/three (Real, Athletico and Barcelona) and then there's the rest. The team who comes fourth may be a little unprepared for the Champions League as there's a gulf in class between them and the three higher teams, but at least the next few below 4th are all around the same level and don't see themselves as too good for the Europa League.
Think Uefa would like a European super league and this would be the next stage. I guess potentially 8 leagues of 10 playing each other once with top 2 champions league knock out and 3/4 Europa league knock out. How many total European places are offered?
