Keir Radnedge Europa Conference League
At Villa Park on May 19, 1999, Christian Vieri and Pavel Nedved scored the goals that gave Lazio a 2-1 win over Mallorca and secured their place in football history as the last-ever winners of the European Cup Winners’ Cup.
UEFA president Lennart Johansson and his executive committee had decided that the competition was an anachronism. Never mind that in its 39-year history, winners had included the likes of Ajax, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Juventus, Manchester City and United, and Milan.
However, the romance of the game had to bow to the bottom line. For Johansson’s UEFA, the lottery of a cup competition did not conform to the all-commanding cash-safe concept of mini leagues.
Patronisingly, in an ominous pointer to the future, they decided that mixing the mighty and minnows was an anachronism. The formula allowed too many small, surprise clubs to sneak into their grand vision of how international club football might be “sold” to cash-rich broadcasting partners and sponsors.
The outcome of these deliberations was that UEFA slimmed down to two competitions, the elite Champions League in which the richer grew richer, and the UEFA Cup for the hopefully envious also-rans.
Trouble was, this ignored reality. The European football map had been redrawn less than a decade
Something to fill the Cup Winners’ Cup gap was essential. Now, 22 years too late, we have it: the UEFA Europa Conference League
earlier by the collapse and fragmentation of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. Bafflingly, UEFA was apparently blind to the fact that it was no longer a cosy, private little club of 35 nations but an elasticated net of 50-plus.
All wanted their share of the international limelight, and the subsequent 20 years has demonstrated that however UEFA might have pulled and pushed its endlessly complex web of qualifying rounds the club competitions were no longer fit for purpose. Something to fill the Cup Winners’ Cup gap was essential. Now, 22 years too late, we have it: the UEFA Europa Conference League.
The idea of reviving the third competition was down to Michel Platini, who had ousted Johansson as president in 2007 with a direct appeal to his new constituency of middle and lower-ranked associations. They offered their majority of votes at a price. That price was participation and a share-out. Hence UEFA’s rush to adopt centralised TV marketing and sponsorship, accepted reluctantly by the majors
“for the good of the game”.
By 2018, when current president Aleksander Ceferin’s exco approved the restoration of a third competition, Platini was banned and gone. Working out the format and slotting it into the European schedule took time but the outcome is probably as good as it is ever likely to be.
Coming up with the title was the next headache. The original working title was UEL2 until UEFA adopted the “conference” label familiar as a
representation of high-end competition in North America. Perhaps unfortunately it also possesses negative connotations as the former name of England’s fifth tier.
One bright aspect of the restoration is that UEFA has capitalised on the opportunity to standardise its club competitions. Each will see a simultaneous group stage and then the now-traditional three knockout steps towards a single-leg final. Hence both the Europa League and the Conference League will feature 141 matches over 15 match weeks. Matches in both will be played on a Thursday with an extra early kick-off option for the Conference League.
Of course this would not be a UEFA competition if it were all clean and clear without a fixture twist in the tail.
In the case of the Conference League this means an additional knockout round before the round of 16. This will feature clubs who finish second in their groups plus third-ranked teams “relegated” from the Europa League. The ultimate winners earn the right to play in the Europa League the following season.
UEFA president Ceferin hailed the reorganisation for “making our club competitions more inclusive than ever before.” As he said: “There was a widespread demand by all clubs to increase their chances of participating more regularly in European competition.”
DON’T RULE OUT SUPER LEAGUE JUST YET
Any idea that Ceferin’s Super League bete noire has vanished into the dustbin of football history is premature. Expect further developments later this autumn. Keeping the ball rolling is a Spanish court that has criticised the deal with which UEFA bought off the nine clubs who retreated from the project as a “disguised sanction”.
Last April, Madrid’s 17th Commercial Court issued an injunction barring UEFA from retaliatory action against the 12 founding clubs of the Super League. Subsequently Judge Manuel Ruiz de Lara referred UEFA’s disciplinary threat against renegades Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus to the European Court of Justice for a ruling on a possible breach of EU competitions law.
If the Court should rule in the trio’s favour, the fall-out could be as extensive as its Bosman Verdict back in 1995, in terms of undermining the authority of not only UEFA but also FIFA. Judge Ruiz de Lara has also urged UEFA to withdraw the “agreed sanctions” imposed on the nine clubs who abandoned the project.
Back in May, UEFA said that the nine (Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea, Internazionale, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Milan and Tottenham Hotspur) had accepted a series of “reinstatement measures.” These included the forfeiture of five per cent of their European income for a season, a voluntary overall donation of €15m to the grassroots game plus signing uptoa €100m fine in case of breach.
For Judge Ruiz de Lara the agreement was in itself a breach of his own original injunction.
EUROS EXPANSION UNDER CONSIDERATION
UEFA is informally considering whether to expand the European Championship finals from 24 to 32 teams. Such an expansion would mean more than half of UEFA’s 55 members reaching the finals though it is unlikely this could be rushed through for Germany in 2024.
Everyone will welcome the return to the single-venue system. No one wants another 11-nation staging after the nonsensical mess which was Euro 2020.
Ceferin has conceded: “It’s not correct that some teams have had to travel more than 10,000 kilometres and the others 1,000. It’s also not fair to the fans. Some fans had to be in Rome and in a couple of days they had to be in Baku, a four-anda-half-hour flight. I don’t think we will do it again.”
He could speak out because the concept was approved before his time. Ceferin had inherited the awful extravaganza from Michel Platini. The Frenchman came up with some good ideas during his presidency, such as Financial Fair Play. The Euro 2020 format was one of, if not the, worst.