Europa League is bloated and unfair

AS Burnley follow a trip to sweltering Athens and an acrimonious, energysapping defeat to Olympiakos with an engagement against a Fulham team rested for over a week, the Europa League is probably not flavour of the month at Turf Moor right now. Nor should it be. Don’t get me wrong. Sean Dyche (below) and Burnley should embrace a European adventure – it is a landmark achievement.

But UEFA have made an adventure an ordeal.

When Spurs lifted the inaugural UEFA Cup, they played 12 matches, starting with a 15-1 aggregate win over IBK Keflavik.

In the unlikely event of Dyche’s team reaching the final in Baku, they will end up playing TWENTY-ONE Europa matches.

For what was once a pure Cup competition, that is frankly ludicrous.

And along the way, they may have to face teams parachuted in after failure in the Champions League.

With commitments to the FA Cup and EFL Cup, plus the weekly Premier League grind, it adds up to an onerous – and unfair – workload.

It is a great honour to win, but the Europa League in its current guise remains, for much of its course, a bloated race of a competition.

THE International Football Association Board – the game’s law-makers – has been tweeting smugly about the perceived success of VAR.

And, with each passing week, the Premier League’s deferral of its introduction looks more ludicrous.

But how about the IFAB sorting out the offside rule? Last week, Pedro, before scoring, stole a march on Arsenal by being offside, but did not receive the initial pass. He was onside when he received the next pass, but had benefited by a yard in an “inactive” offside position.

Arsenal defenders looked stupid for initially doing their job.

Maybe if they can stop being so VAR smug, the IFAB can sort it out.