Fixing the Europa League

Claudius

Gab Marcotti had an interesting article on Soccernet yesterday for fixing the Europa League. He had a three-legged approach:

1) Play on Tuesdays, with Champs League on Wednesday/Thursday. Idea being that people are tired of football by Thursday
2) Keep Champs League drop-outs separate, so that the teams that started the competition can be assured of being in at least 3 semi-final berths
3) Regionalise - turn into 4 regions, northeast, southeast, etc., to reduce fan travel

http://www.espnfc.com/blog/marcotti-musings/62/post/2424677?fb_action_ids=10155481221340285&fb_action_types=og.comments

I disagree with all 3. I think we need to differentiate it as much as possible from the Champions League, else it will always look like the ugly step-sister. My recs

1) [font=helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif]Make it a knockout throughout. Play a prelim and then go straight to a 64 team knockout. Let the fans print out brackets like NCAA March Madness / open betting pools, and get rid of the dreary group stages. Every match counts. [/font]

[font=helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif]2) Find some weeks to play UEFA Cup on its own, e.g., the round of 64 should be played with no Champions League, to make it front-and-centre. Leagues will always say they need free midweeks, but in reality a lot of midweeks are free throughout the season[/font]

[font=helvetica, arial, lucida grande, sans-serif]3) No Champs League rejects. They may bring glamour but it appears unfair and devalues this Cup. Similarly, no Champs League place to winner, so...[/font]

[font=helvetica, arial, lucida grande, sans-serif]4) Money-money-money. But not to everyone. Have a big pot at the end. Beaten finalist gets 10m pounds, winner gets 20m pounds. Make it worthwhile [/font]

Clrnc

I agree with Marcotti's 1st idea. Make it Tues so that they don't view Europa as harmful to their league progress. I agree with the prize money as well.

Other than everything now is fine. UCL place for the winner is a huge carrot for any clubs in Europa.

I feel that maybe there are too many teams in the group stage, can try to knock more clubs out in the qualifiers. I am in favour of pushing all the last 16 losers of the UCL into Europa.

Claudius

why keep giving them chances though? the link between the two contests is devaluing the less prestigious contest. and i'm not really sure Champs league clubs are that excited about falling to Europa. look at what teams like Liverpool do once they are there. you need to solve fundamental issues

Clrnc

Have you watch the Besiktas defeat? Liverpool players were devastated they lost. They started their first team in both legs too.

goon

Europa league is what it is, you can't polish a turd as they say. The rewards of CL qualification at the end is probably as good as it gets.

Irishgunner

1) CL qualifying place for the losing finalist if it's feasible.

2) Currently the round of 32 has 8 eliminated CL teams added. I'd reduce this to 4 CL dropouts: the 4 3rd placed teams with the highest points total, and the 4 3rd placed teams from the UEFA cup with the highest points totals. This keeps the group stages interesting, since teams will always have a chance of qualifying (kind of inspired by the Heineken cup).

3) Make the round of 32 a one off knockout tie, in order to speed things up a bit and cut down on fixture congestion.

4) Moving games to Tuesday mightn't be a bad idea

Claudius

not sure i understand the Tuesday logic all that fully.

Klaus

The only way to 'save' the Europa League would be to eliminate it entirely and instead extend Champions League to 64 teams, as has been suggested. But that would pose a whole new set of problems. It is what it is: the Championship of Europe.

Qwiss

No one is moving the CL to Thursday for the Europa, thats nonsense.

Eliminating group stages, limiting numbers, etc isn't a goer because it would cost poor clubs money. Same with the big pot at the end.

No Champions League rejects is a double edged sword. Does it help or hurt the Europa to have United, Inter, etc fall into it?

Having the Europa on non-CL weeks seems like the best idea I've heard but I wonder would it actually work with International breaks, foreign league breaks, domestic cups, etc

Bold Tone

Very simple.
Scrap the bloated competition and go back to the direct knock-out Cup Winners Cup.
Teams finishing 5th, 6th and 7th in their domestic leagues will not be respected whichever day they play.

marv3llous

Reduce the group phase to 32, increase the money pot for the teams who get in, will create a fight for 8th place in big leagues.
Same amount of places for leagues as in CL (5th-8th in PL, La Liga, Bundesliga get in etc), rest of the leagues will have to fight for the remaining spots and no bullshit entry tickets like FA Cup win etc
Play on Tue/Wed like CL
No CL drop outs in knockouts
Winner gets CL spot

Much, much better competition instantly

Rex

I think I have watched like 5 EL matches in the last three years or so. The reason for that isn't going to change regardless of what is done to the format - I have zero interest in seeing Spurs, Mettalurg, Eindhoven, Everton and the like. I don't think I am alone in making that choice.

Timbob

Step1: put better teams in to the competition.
Step 2: ...

Rex

Pretty much. Problem is that the CL is so bloated. Hardly any teams I want to watch that end up playing in the EL.

Claudius

Klaus wrote:
The only way to 'save' the Europa League would be to eliminate it entirely and instead extend Champions League to 64 teams, as has been suggested. But that would pose a whole new set of problems. It is what it is: the Championship of Europe.

There is something to be said for canceling it.
If Platini was brave, a consolidation might work where Platini protects only the top 16 ranked clubs (combination of league winners and top clubs) and everybody else plays a knockout to get the field down to the usual 32 Champions League teams.

Only challenge here is, as Qs says, some smaller clubs might depend on the guaranteed revenue coming from 3 Europa home games. Not worried about quality dropping in Champions League because by only having 32 clubs in the league and protecting the top 16, we would end up with much the same quality in the marquee competition as at present.

Something has to be done, though. Like Rex, I have watched fewer than 5 games in last 3 years. Hell, I struggle with most of the Champs League as it is 🙂

banduan

1) Make it knockout all .the way through
2) Only Finalists of FA Cups of each country qualify. In the event of those teams also being eligible for CL, best semifinalists qualify.
3) Matches are only one leg and held in a neutral stadium midway tween the two clubs.

Burnwinter

Klaus wrote:
The only way to 'save' the Europa League would be to eliminate it entirely and instead extend Champions League to 64 teams, as has been suggested.

This is the way I'd go.

I think there are a few really creative ways you could reorganise an expanded comp, including a more sensible dual division system - the current relationship between the CL and the Europa is really half-arsed.

Rex

Not sure I like the idea of expanding the CL. I feel there are already too many matches with teams I have very little interest in, and it already isn't that much fun to watch the big teams completely overwhelm the smaller teams in the group stages.

Qwiss

banduan wrote:
1) Make it knockout all .the way through
2) Only Finalists of FA Cups of each country qualify. In the event of those teams also being eligible for CL, best semifinalists qualify.
3) Matches are only one leg and held in a neutral stadium midway tween the two clubs.

So its the Cup Winners Cup, yay!!

Big Willie

Think Cup Winners, Runners Up and potentially Semi-Finalists Cup.