Is anyone really following the Uefa Cup these days?I firmly believe Uefa cup should be completely scrapped, or the name of the competition be changed to I Am Not Bovvered Cup or to I Don’t Want To Be Here League.
I am saying this because I used to follow Uefa Cup a lot back in the eighties and nineties, being that my team, Inter Milan, was regularly in the cup by failing to win the Italian Championship or the Italian Cup, but still ending up second, third or fourth in the league.
Let's not forget, in fact, that, from the sixties up to the late nineties, the European Cup (now Champions League) was the cup for the teams who had won the title in their own country the year before, and the Winner’s Cup (now defunct) the cup for the teams who had won the respective national cups.
Uefa was the cup for the top teams that had won nothing the year before but managed to finish close to the top. In other words, Uefa was the competition for the teams who had under-achieved the year before, and so these teams had a point to prove.
The Uefa cup used to be the most difficult cup to win. If the old system was still in use, on this year's tournament of the Uefa Cup we would have teams such as Chelsea , Liverpool , Arsenal, Fiorentina, AC Milan and Juventus. Champions League would still be good with Inter Milan, Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. Winners’ Cup will have Roma, Portsmouth, Valencia and Borussia Dortmund.
But with the new structure of the Champions League replacing the old European Cup, allowing the second, third and fourth team of the major European leagues to take part, the Uefa Cup basically ceased to exist. You either have an under-achieving team from the year before who cannot stop thinking of being stuck in the wrong competition (such as AC Milan this year) or a team who is avoiding relegation (such as Sampdoria or Tottenham).
Not only that, winning the cup now does not generate as much money as reaching one of the Champions League spots! That is an absurdity, because football, and sport in general, have always been about winning trophies... but if the trophy is not good anymore, why spend time and energy for it? No wonder Aston Villa, Manchester City and Tottenham played a weaker side in Uefa Cup last week.
Reaching fourth place in the league or not to be relegated is now more beneficial than winning the Uefa cup. Gone are the days when winning silverware was the biggest prize of all. I remember Fiorentina in the 1989-1990 season, they were struggling to stay in Serie A but they played the Uefa Cup with the best squad they had and almost managed to win.
The new system however, not only devalued the Uefa Cup, but also downgraded the importance of winning the national title. In fact, you could become the champion of Europe only if the year before you had won in your national league. Winning the title meant to be the national champion and playing the year after in the elite of European football. Now, you can play in the Champions League even if you had barely managed to squeeze into fourth place in your league.
How Liverpool, for example, could have been considered Champion of Europe in 2005, if it had not managed to win a national title for fifteen years? It should have played and won the Uefa Cup instead... nothing to be ashmed of, I can assure you.
4 comments:
Hey its Felipe... i would like to say that where not in the 80s anymore and first of all Moratti has spent around $300 million in the transfer market, exceeded only by Roman Abramovich of Chelsea F.C.. There have been nine coaches under his ownership, the last coach being Roberto Mancini, who was fired from his post in late May 2008 after winning three consecutive domestic championships. So you cannot complain why teams go for main competitions like the champions legue...maybe if im honest its the best Marketed competiotion in the world, and its a Dream to win it!! better than anyother cup ive seen..PS: Good luck against Man U
I think you are right. there is no point in it.
As an Arsenal fan it is not a competition i have given much serious thought to over the past ten years or so but now with it looking likely that we will be in it next year i have been paying attention to how the EPL teams in it this year are treating it.
It is a joke to be honest. What Villa did this week really underlines the insignificance of the uefa cup - they threw the game so they could focus on qualifying for the cahmpions league. They have already invested lots of time and effort getting this far in the competiotion (via intertoto means they've played 12 games i think), but when there is a real chance they could be playing in the CL next season they droped it without appology (as far as i know, if any villa fans know otherwise pleas correct me).
I don't disagree with what they have done. It is not worth wasting effort on when there are much much bigger fish to fry.
The way the CL is now is pretty good. i enjoy the games, not just Arsenal's but others too. There are some historical rivalries & grudges developing too which always makes the games a bit more interesting.
So i wouldn't change the CL back. But i agree that the uefa cup is pointless now and should just be retired. rebranding it the Europa aint gonna make any difference.
What im trying to say is that you cannot slag of teams that are trying to improve financially and target Champions league competition .. my opinion is, it’s the best competition in the World, where all the major player are..and the Uefa is a thing of the past as the Champions is the present and future …do we all agree??
Good comments guys. I am not against Villa or Tottenham because they played a weaker side in Uefa, I understand what they did and agree with them. However, what they did is showing the insignificance of the cup.
As per Felipe, the CL is the cup for future he is right but I personally would like to bring back the old system.
I also know it is never going to happen.
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