Europa League 2009-2010 Season Preview

Europa League? I had not heard about this league until the end of last season, when someone told me that the good, old and unimportant UEFA cup does not exist anymore and the cup will be reformed to become the Europe League this season.

At first I was excited because the UEFA Cup had lost its charm years ago and was only the ugly step daughter of the mighty Champions League. The Champions League was maybe one of the greatest things the UEFA did in the last 30 years, but it was also the end of the UEFA Cup. It is a bit like FA Cup and League Cup in England. Everybody takes the FA Cup seriously and wants to win, with the League Cup you never know.

New image, new logo, all sounded very exciting…Bravo Mr. Platini !

Since my team VfB Stuttgart needs to go through the Champions League qualification and might end up at the Europa League, I finally took the time and tried to understand what it is.

And what a disappointment…Basically it is a marketing gimmick, new branding, new image, new logo, but the same s… competition. Nothing changed, only a bigger group stage in order to get more money to smaller clubs and make the competition even more boring. The fundamentals have not changed at all.

I guess in order to change the importance of the Europa League, one would need to reform the Champions League and this is obviously not going to happen so soon. Too much money is being made there. But I have one small suggestion that could be implemented: I believe teams that are being kicked out early in the Champions League should not go automatically to the Europa League. This makes this cup even more meaningless and downgrades it. It basically sends the message that the cup is so bad, we are now sending the teams from the Champions League to make it better and at least these teams can play in the Europa League.

So for me there will be only one hope, for Stuttgart to qualify for the Champions League and to not being kicked out too early and end up in the Europe League.

And who will win the Europa League next season...well who really cares?

4 Comentários

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Por ruxspin

23.07.2009 17:32

Cheer up the Europa league builds teams up to compete in the demanding Champions league format. P.S. Hows Thomas Hitzleburger doing ? still shooting on sight ? P.P.S Thanks for beating Birmingham City last night there scum! a bit like Bayern JA!

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Por josephjmichael

24.07.2009 06:36

Teddy , Bayern Scum ???? Waht would you call Aston Villa then ???

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Por ruxspin

26.07.2009 13:25

I wrote a bit like Birmingham youre more shite than scum ,whilst Villa are tops remember Rotterdam or were you still in lederhosen?

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Por ruxspin

05.08.2009 22:15

The draw is Friday Aston Villa ,Everton and Fulham will have it all to do competing on all fronts but that is ideal preparation for champions league campaigns next season.

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