Why it's time for English clubs to start loving the Europa League
As Sevilla defeat Dnipro to lift Europe's other trophy, Martin Cloake argues that England's clubs should drop the attitude over the competition
By Martin Cloake
"To win something and share it with the fans is the greatest feeling in football." Those are the words of Unai Emery, coach of Sevilla. He said that before his team made history on Wednesday night by becoming the first team to win the trophy four times, and the first to retain it twice. And he's right.
It's fashionable, certainly in England, to deride the Europa League. It's 'Europe's second class competition'. As the English Premier League reaches its conclusion, the talk is of the race to avoid the Europa League. Fans and pundits seriously discuss the benefits of teams missing out on a higher league finish in order to avoid the competition. Playing in the Europa, it is said, damages a team's chances of doing well. All of which is complete nonsense.
Make no mistake, the Europa League is a horrible competition. Not only is it a cup competition that is half league, half cup, it's a competition in which teams that get knocked out of another competition get the chance to compete, and one which admits teams from way down national leagues, sometimes for the daftest of reasons. Fair play qualification? Do me a favour.
Its purpose seems to be to give as many clubs as possible the chance to make some money by competing in a Champions League lite, therefore heading off any challenge to the institutionalised supremacy of the Champions League regulars. It has reduced the once-proud UEFA Cup, a competition said by many of those who played in it to be at least as tough as the old European Cup, to a sad shadow of what it was.
But the point of sport is surely to win, or to do as well as possible. So arguing that you win by not doing as well as possible is perverse. In fact, the argument about the benefits of not qualifying for the Europa League is very perverse indeed. Much current wisdom has it that clubs that, because of the increasingly institutionalised nature of the Champions League regulars, have little to no chance of winning the Champions League, need to avoid qualifying for the Europa League so they can increase their chances of qualifying for a competition that they have little to no chance of winning.
It's not exactly Roy of the Rovers, is it?
It's also argued that the Europa League, as a sprawling competition, exerts a greater toll on clubs. More games, you see. More pressure on squads. Except that qualifying for a Europa League group of four presents a team with exactly the same number of group stage games as qualifying for a Champions League group of four. And, arguably, much of the opposition in the Europa League group stages is not as testing.
Of course, it really all comes down to money. The Champions League is the only show in town because it's where the big bucks are. Therefore anything else is not really worth the time. When English clubs and English pundits say the Europa League is a distraction, what they really mean is that they think it's beneath them. It's not really worth bothering about.
All of which is further illustration of the short-sightedness and arrogance that plagues the English game. Gaining experience from playing in Europe is surely better than gaining nothing by not playing in Europe. Clubs such as Spurs and Liverpool, which have been said to have suffered through qualifying for the Europa League, have deep enough squad resources to cope, and any failings in those squads would apply equally in other competitions. And, in any case, there's that question of experience.
This season, many Everton fans have pointed to the club's sustained attempt to compete in the Europa League as a reason for the failure to finish in the top half of the Premier League. But would that squad really have secured a higher league finish? And is there not a longer-term benefit from gaining experience against European opposition to be considered?
The Europa League doesn’t have the glamour or the financial rewards of the Champions League. And regular qualification for the Europa may grate because it underlines the institutional barriers reinforced by the way European competition rewards its top achievers. But it can offer valuable team-building experience and, as Unai Emerey, Sevilla and the 7,000 Sevilla fans present at the final will surely testify, it can also offer the invaluable experience of winning a major tournament.
It’s about time English clubs started looking at what the Europa League can offer, rather than moaning about what it doesn’t.
