<http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2915/europa-league/2013/05/16/3982882/-?ICID=OP#>

To be perfectly honest, I think this article sums it up perfectly. My solution? Make the finalists automatic entrants into the following season's Champions League. But you can't deny that despite it being Goal.com, they pretty much hit the nail right on the head, and why the top teams so rarely take the tournament seriously.

Considering the fact that I was quite obviously cheering on Chelsea yesterday, you're making only yourself look bad. ;)

Try reading the article, if you're capable of understanding big words, that is.

according to some sources Europa league will gone. they says "Mickey Mouse cup". lol .

If my club won it, I'd be happy. :) I was happy that we tried to win it, in fact. I did not, however, lose too much sleep over being knocked out in the quarter finals, considering how many injuries we picked up against Inter and Basel.

If it were not for those injuries (and the fatigue), we quite probably would not have dropped points in the league, which was always the more important competition.

I'm happy for Chelsea. Doesn't change the fact that it's a failing competition that Platini is considering scrapping, because of the fact that the top teams simply don't take it very seriously. Even Athletico Madrid, twice EL winner in the last few years, didn't bother this season, because, and here's the important part: THEY WERE MORE CONCERNED WITH GETTING INTO THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE. ;)

Which is kind of ironic, when you consider that 3 of the 4 Europas League semi-finalists were teams who were knocked out of the CL at the group stage. ;)

Tough luck, kerang. You made yourself look stupid, just as I warned you.

To be fair, we didn't take this competition seriously till the last 2 matches. Notice that we didn't use our strongest starting XI in this competition till our matches against Basel & Benfica and that was it. Simply to secure our top 4 and qualify for Champions League next season.

Only team to hold Europa League title and Champions League (Until CL Final). Winning a trophy this year was very important to us and we saved our season. I'm totally happy with our result. Yes it could be better but it could have been worst too.

Anyways, next season is going to be EPIC! All the other clubs gotta watch out ;) KTBFFH!

^^ Exactly, Alex.

Well this thread sure got off-topic quickly. ;)

Maybe I should have known better...

I'm sorry Lodatz but this kid surely doesn't know what he is talking about.. :)

Any club would be happy to win a cup. Get over it

If man utd were in the final it would be a big deal

No-one said it's not a big deal that Chelsea won it (well, no-one serious, anyway).

But you can't deny that most of the time it's treated as a distraction by the biggest clubs, and it's not difficult to see why. More games, longer trips, lesser prestige, small(ish) prize money, etc.

The article has a good table which shows that the prize money for winning the entire competition (including the money for every stage along the way), is actually less than wining a Champions League quarter final tie ALONE, and only a couple of million more than topping your CL group.

Platini is even thinking about scrapping it altogether, and just making the CL bigger -- that's how unimportant it's become to the top tier teams. You can blame it on money in football, or whatever you like, but it's still a fact that generally the Big Boys ignore it, and concentrate on trying to get into the CL slots in the league instead.

And not just in England, either.

Thus, I reckon the way to make it more important, is to put the finalists into the CL the following season. THEN we'd see teams fighting for it with everything they have. :)

the problem is, i think the title u put there is inappropriate and misleading lodatz. why europa league SUCKS, thats a strong word there. its a EUROPEAN TROPHY, internationally recognized,not sucks at all imo, but of course top clubs should aim for top prize which is the CL, thats the main point of the post

but as rama said, any club would be happy to win a trophy, especially if they won it while making history like chelsea did, and since they dropped out of CL in the group stage which was embarrassing for a CL holder, they had more determination to win the EL to make amend of that

@kambinku: I chose the title because I was trying to sum up what the article was saying, is all. Point taken, though. (plus, it gets more people to look at the thread!)

But the thing is, it's not even just Goal.com saying it. It's coaches, players, and even Platini himself is thinking about scrapping it. I agree with you that it SHOULD be something awesome (hell, Tottenham's hey-days were based around winning UEFA Cup Finals), but either the way it's being run, or the negative effect of the CL beside it, is making it decidedly less-than-awesome. Did you know that Chelsea fans were only allocated 9,000 tickets, for that match? Most of the people at the stadium had nothing to do with either club -- how stupid is that?

And consider the fact that Chelsea DID drop out of the CL, and yet still got to play in Europe. 3 of the 4 semi-finalists were teams who had dropped out of the CL, and both finalists. How fair is that to everyone else?

The reason this doesn't happen more often is usually because those who drop out of the CL usually don't bother to try very hard in the EL, and instead make sure they get their league position to get back into the CL (like Man United last year, Man City the last two years, and Atletico Madrid this year). Chelsea and Tottenham giving it a good try this year was very rare.

If Arsenal get 5th this season, do you think Wenger (or his replacement) will think: "Aha! Here's our chance to win a trophy!", or do you think he'll say: "Holy crap, send out the reserve side and let's concentrate on getting back into the CL before the board and the fans kill me!"?

And if Spurs get 5th, do you reckon ABV will think: "Aha! We've got a second chance at this trophy, boys!" or will he think: "Holy crap, send out the reserve side before the fans and the board kill me for failing to get into the CL again..."?

I want it to be more than it is -- hence me jumping on the bandwagon of the finalists going into the CL. I think if that were the case, top clubs would go for it more.

As it is, in competitive leagues like the PL, it'll be mainly ignored by everyone except teams who are there from Cup victories, like Wigan and Swansea next year, who clearly are nowhere NEAR getting into the Champions League. That's who the EL is for, ultimately: teams who have little-to-no shot at even getting into the 'real' European competition, let alone winning it.

(And then Chelsea come along, having been dumped out of that 'real' Europe, and take it away from them. :p )

See what I mean? It needs to change, if it is to mean anything.

I Think the article and much of Lodatz's ideas echo my own.
the Europa League is a good competition that is being stifled by terrible formatting. IT SHOULDN'T BE SCRAPPED as it is vital for many lower level clubs around Europe and helps to enhance football development from the EL clubs all the way down to grassroots.

THE WAY I SEE IT, THE FOLLOWING ISSUE NEED TO BE RESOLVED:
#1-PROBLEM: The MOST damaging thing about the current format of the EL is its prohibitive length. IF you qualify for the EL the amount of games you need to play just to get to the latter stages almost equal that of a domestic season. It's hard enough for ANY club to cope with such a schedule especially most of the EL clubs who simply don't have the depth to deal with it. Not only does this act as an obstacle to their progression in the tournament, it also acts to hinder their domestic league positions and thereby stifle their progress, leaving them to stagnate or regress (see Newcastle and COUNTLESS other examples).
SOLUTION: Make it a straight knock-out competition like it used to be in the old days. This will make it more exciting (no dead rubbers as are often seen in group stages) and it will also make it more manageable.

#2-PROBLEM: MONEY. The amount of money being offered simply pales in comparison to that of the CL. As such, most clubs would rather try to fight for a CL spot than progress in the EL tournament simply for financial reasons.
SOLUTION: This can be easily be remedied as some of the insane amounts of money UEFA makes can be more intelligently distributed. Not only will it help the smaller clubs who really need the money, but it will give much added incentive to take the competition seriously.

#3-PROBLEM: CL Group runner-ups are allowed to enter the EL. There are a few issues with this. Most importantly it is unfair to all the teams that had to make it through qualifier and all the previous stages of the EL just for the CL runner ups to drop in later in the tournament. Moreover, it's hard for anyone to take a torunament seriously that acts as a sloppy-seconds for underachievers.
SOLUTION: Easy; do away with the drop downs. Again, this would be fairer to the teams that started the competition and would also allow them a better chance of progressing further.

#4-PROBLEM: The winners aren't adequately rewarded for their efforts. I've already spoken of the money issue but here I am referring to the fact that it doesn't allow them to progress anywhere. In other words, all they would get is the ability to play in the Super Cup (big deal).
SOLUTION: I agree with Platini. The Winners of the EL should be given an automatic birth to the CL. THIS would MOST CERTAINLY make the teams take the competition seriously.

IN SUMMARY, the problems with the EL are immensely solvable. The solution is NOT to scrap it and ruin the CL by diluting it further but rather to address the issues everyone can see so clearly.

I've thought about Problem #3 too, Foot, but there's an issue with that solution. If, say, Chelsea had dropped out of the CL this season, and NOT gone into the EL... then their schedule is cleared up until the end of the season.

That means they have a huge advantage over their domestic rivals for CL slots. So, in effect it'd be handing the teams who perform the worst an advantage over those who perform better, in terms of who will be back next year.

Let's take the Arsenal season, this year. Arsenal were having a bit of a rough season, until Bayern knocked them out. Since then, they've gone on an unbeaten run for the last 3 months, because they had nothing else to worry about other than playing one game a week to catch up with Tottenham, who played with mid-week games for a month and a half longer. (I am not comparing the standard of the EL to the CL, just highlighting the effect on schedule).

It's sort of like how Wigan won the FA Cup... and then got relegated. You could not expect them to just give up their Cup dream for league points, so, they were screwed. Obviously when talking about European places, it's a league of 4 (+3), not 20, but the effect is the same.

What do you think?

Btw, if it wasn't clear, I agree with all the rest. :)

I understand you argument but I don't think it'd quite work out that way. You said yourself that most teams that come out of CL usually play their reserves in the EL unless/until they progress far enough into the tournament for them to have a good chance of winning it. As such, it doesn't make THAT big of a difference right now. It def. affects the smaller teams far more, especially as they have to play more games. Besides, you can make the same argument regarding the FA Cup and CL, for example.
At the end of the day, the big clubs want to be in all these competitions and I feel as though most clubs aren't majorly concerned about the advantage not playing in the EL or CL would give to their rivals.
The positives far outweigh the negatives in my view.