Does anyone care about the europa league

It probably depends on whether your favored team is in it. Now, only the final is. Want to watch the Europa League on TV, as most people still do?

Arsenal put out a heavily diluted starting lineup with three recent academy graduates but nevertheless prevailed in a chaotic game that provided no venue for serious defending. Manchester United demonstrated even less concern for the outcome, starting just the one regular in Marcus Rashford. Back in , when the UEFA Cup — as it was recalled until a rebranding in — first kicked off, 32 teams got to partake in the Champions League, just as now.

But the qualifying round had just two teams in it, playing for the final berth. From there, it was a straight knockout tournament, contested only by the champions of those 32 nations.

So a secondary tournament made sense, offering European competition to another 64 teams. Today, 79 teams take part in the Champions League if you include the extensive qualifying stages, while the Europa League has ballooned to fully teams from preliminaries through the final. But the amount of European soccer is abundant nonetheless.

Because the only thing soccer executives seem to know to do is to create yet more soccer. Because games mean money, and money solves problems. Never mind that the product becomes ever more diluted. In other words, the prize for winning the Europa League is not having to play in the Europa League anymore the next season. There is something to be said for putting in players in games like this who are hungry and have something to prove. Andros Townsend, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Adam Smith could have all been given a chance while giving some of our first choice players a rest.

UEFA could just make it a straight home and away knockout competition, scrap the third-placed dropouts and award the winner a Champions League place. That way everyone would be interested. Skip to main content Skip to navigation. Battle of the Leagues: Welcome to the tournament! Champions League football—taking precedence—is allowed Tuesday and Wednesday fixtures, the Europa League is an austerely Thursday occurrence. This forces clubs playing the whole competition, from the group stage until the final played this year on Wednesday , to play Thursday-Sunday schedules for an extended period.

City's FA Cup run affected their performances as well, but that particular trophy begins in January, after the UEL group stage is completed. The likes of Chelsea and Man City can cope with these demands because the calibre of player they employ are usually of top European standard.

Challenging on multiple fronts takes its toll on teams who received advantageous resting periods, exceedingly more clubs who are not afforded such luxury. FourFourTwo Football news, features, statistics. Quizzes, features and footballing fun. Get the best features, fun and footballing frolics straight to your inbox every week. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands. Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors. Thank you for signing up to Four Four Two.

You will receive a verification email shortly. There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.