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Europa League Final 2011 Preview
2010/11 Europa League Final Preview
Ozren Podnar
How once prestigious competition has turned into a provincial affair
Something terrible has happened to the Europa League: its organizer, UEFA, has forsaken it. The proof? Today's final in Dublin feature a team called Sporting Clube de Braga. Not that there's anything wrong with the club's name, of course. What is wrong is UEFA's deplorable attitude towards this competition, reduced to a shadow of what it used to be until a decade or so ago when it was called the UEFA Cup.
Braga are a nice little club from the north of Portugal, who have put together a decent squad that last season finished second in the League behind Benfica. This year they have not been so good, ending the campaign on the fourth place, a cool 38 points behind champions and neighbours Porto - incidentally, the team they play tonight in Dublin.
It is no doubt curious that tonight Braga are hoping to win their only second major trophy in their 96 year history. And it is ironic that they have had to rely on UEFA to provide them with that chance. The only piece of silverware Braga call their own is a single Portuguese Cup won in 1966, half way through their existence. Ok, they also won an Intertoto Cup in 2008, but it is questionable how significant that title was. Just as questionable as how significant the Europa League has become when such a modest outfit as Braga can reach the finals.
You see, in seriously run competitions like the Portuguese League or Cup, the team sporting Arsenal-style red and white shirts have a hard time even reaching a domestic cup final. Last time they managed to do so was back in 1998 (and they lost too).
However, in the neglected, forlorn Europa League, even Braga have been allowed to shine, just like Fulham last year, or Middlesbrough in 2006, or - horror of horrors - Alaves in 2001. Each time an also-ran reaches a later stage of this competition, a chunk of the ancient glamour of the UEFA Cup seems to fall off the growingly decrepit facade. As older fans will no doubt recall, even the old Inter-Cities Fairs' Cup, which would become UEFA Cup in 1971, was a high quality affair, in which the biggest European teams were gladly involved, playing to win with passion and zeal.
The problem is not Braga's ambition to be crowned winners of a cup in which they take part. They have the full right to exploit the improbable opportunity presented to them by the powers-that-be. Their success is not even undeserved. The problem lies with UEFA's failure to create any incentive for the big teams that, somewhat reluctantly, participate in the Europa League. Under the current UEFA's system of rewards, it is much, much more lucrative to simply take part in the group stage of the Champions League than to win one or several Europa Leagues.
Laughing Stock of European Soccer
The Europa League, UEFA's stepchild, has became a laughing stock, as demonstrated by a Jose Mourinho tirade last September. Commenting on Real Madrid's tough group with Milan and Ajax, compared to an easy group awarded to Barcelona, Mourinho joked that "while Real faces serious opponents, other teams are lucky to have rivals more worthy of the Europa League."
When faced with the possibility of failing to qualify for next season's Champions League, Bayern's Franck Ribery whined in disgust: "It's crap to play in the Europa League," the Frenchman reportedly said. Luckily for him, Bayern ultimately won a place in the premier competition, leaving the shame of this second-rate cup to Hannover.
Tottenham's manager Harry Redknapp recently showed indifference regarding his team's qualification for the next Europa League. In Redknapp's opinion, playing in it may interfere with the efforts to achieve a top-four finish in the Premiership, which guarantees a place in the coveted Champions League.
This cannot have been UEFA's goal, or was it?
Each season, the competition reviled by all bigger teams in national leagues around Europe features numerous truly big names - only to see them drop out at the speed of light in order to concentrate on what really matters: gaining a spot in the big league, where the money is.
Porto to Save the Europa League's Dignity
This season, it was Liverpool, Manchester City, Rangers, Juventus, Atletico, Bayer Leverkusen, Stuttgart, Paris SG, Benfica, PSV, Ajax, Dinamo Kiev, CSKA Moscow and Zenit among others who failed to do their job in the Europa League - either because they were too busy pursuing other goals, or because they were too disappointed over not achieving those goals. Compliments to Porto, the only one among top clubs to have taken their task seriously, and whom we wish the best of luck this evening, lest the Europa League lose what little dignity it has left.
The neutral fans would like to see the best teams take the centre stage and play it out in a star-studded final match worthy of the stature that the Europa League is supposed to have as the successor of once prestigious UEFA Cup. Unfortunately, the biggest clubs perceive having to take part as a punishment.
Until it stops awarding the participants what amounts to mere pocket money in comparison to the riches intended for two dozen privileged teams, UEFA will see their number two competition sink into anonimity deeper by the year.
UEFA Cup - all the previous match reports, news and analysis from the old UEFA Cup.
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