Race is on to stay OUT of the Europey League
IN European competition this season, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk have lost five matches and drawn five. They have won only six of 16. Yet, they are three games away from being Europa League champions.
And to think there are plenty around Europe who don’t see the competition as a complete joke.
Here, in England, the joke is wearing thin.
Right now, the only compelling battle in the top half alf of the Premier League is thehe race to stay OUT of the Europa League.
Even Tim Sherwood od (right) spoke of the Europa League as though it would bee the o ne unwe l comeme by-product of FA Cup p glory.
“A lot of players are not too interested in playing in the Europa League,” he said. aid.
That is an understatement. ement. The fundamental sadness is that its predecessor was a lovable rogue of a competition.
Granted, the UEFA Cup originally had a more stellar field when the European Cup invited only champions, but the visceral thrill of do-or-die knockout football was its main allure.
The Champions League gets away with its bloated format because, often, you are watching excellence on a loop. The Europap Leagueg is mediocrity on a loop.
Then, of course,cou come the demands it placesplac on competing clubs, especially as it often seems harder to get out of than to get
into. On average, over the last 10 years, a team fa falls 2.3 Premier L League positions in th the season after it h has qualified for t the Europa L League.
In that decade, there have been only eight instances of a team improving its Premier League position alongside a Europa League campaign.
That compares to 19 instances of a team’s Premier League form declining and five of it stagnating.
In 2004-05, Newcastle United played 12 games in the newly formed Europa League and saw their Premier League fortunes drop NINE places.
Newcastle suf fered again in 2012-13. They played 14 Europa League games and dropped ELEVEN places in the Premier League.
This season, Premier League prize money is £1.2million per place.
And that is another reason why the Europa League holds little appeal for English clubs.
Compared to the domestic competition, it is simply not that lucrative.
Everton’s run to the last 16 – where they were beaten 6-4 on aggregate by Dynamo Kiev – probably earned them around £2million.
It will certainly be far less than the difference between Premier League prize money earned this season and last.
To clubs from a lot of other nations, the prize money IS hugely attractive.
There is now also the carrot of a Champions League slot for the eventual winners.
And just because the Premier League is awash with billions and English clubs do not need the cash should not be grounds for rubbishing the competition.
But someone needs to take a stand against its unwieldy, tiresome format.
England’s representative on UEFA’s executive committee, David Gill, might be one to make a start.
Otherwise, clubs likely to be in the Europa League next season – Liverpool, Spurs, Southampton – should name kids in their squads for the competition. That would be both sensible and a protest.
A protest against a competition so bloated in its ordinariness that qualifying has become a punishment not an achievement.