Presentation of a new UEFA Europa League format

Dr Pawel Dimow

 

            Due to the intensive marketing efforts and introduction of centralized branding, UEFA has managed to build a very positive image of the Europa League and raise the attractiveness of the tournament in recent years. However, there is still a significant gap between it and Europe’s premier club competition – the UEFA Champions League. UEFA is trying to reduce that gap by making the Europa League more and more similar to the top club tournament but is this policy the best solution for European football? Both competitions have similar formats and participating clubs (from the group stage onwards) mainly from the same countries, usually ranked in the top 30 of the association rankings. Unfortunately, clubs from the remaining more than 20 countries are left out of the big game as they are not strong enough to compete for a place in the group stage of these two tournaments. Not being able to play with the best hampers the development of smaller clubs and widens the gap between them and their elite counterparts from the leading football countries. As this is an issue of significant importance to the prosperity of European football, I think it should be addressed by UEFA.

            If we take the current 2012/13 editions of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League for an example, we will see that all participating clubs from 14 countries (Andorra, Faroe Islands, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Malta, Wales, Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Macedonia and Northern Ireland) were eliminated by 26^th July while all participants of further 11 countries (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Republic of Ireland, Slovakia, Finland, Georgia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Moldova, Montenegro and Poland) were knocked out by 30^th August. Summarizing, 25 countries (47% of all UEFA member countries) were left without representatives in the European club competitions by the end of August. Furthermore, 45 clubs from the above mentioned countries were eliminated from the 2012/13 European club competitions before the start of their 2012/13 domestic league season! Andorra, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Malta, Wales, Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Northern Ireland remained without representatives on the European stage before their domestic league season even began. The situation could have been the same with more countries but they do not fall in this category as they use the spring-autumn format for their domestic leagues. Detailed information about the analyzed countries – starts of their domestic leagues, European club competitions participants and dates of their elimination – can be found in the tables below. 

 

12 July 2012 – 4 eliminated countries (49 remaining countries)

 

* FC USV Eschen/Mauren participate in the Swiss fourth division which started on 7^th August 2012.

 

24 July 2012 – 5 eliminated countries (48 remaining countries)

 

 

25 July 2012 – 6 eliminated countries (47 remaining countries)

 

 

26 July 2012 – 14 eliminated countries (39 remaining countries)

 

 

9 August 2012 – 18 eliminated countries (35 remaining countries)

 

 

30 August 2012 – 25 eliminated countries (28 remaining countries)

 

 

          It is easy to see that for all clubs from 25 countries, the 2012/13 edition of the European club competitions actually looked more like a couple of summer international games. And as the fans and media are mainly interested in the performances of the teams from their country in the UEFA Europa League, the interest in this tournament logically falls dramatically in countries which representatives are eliminated. This means that in the current 2012/13 season, the interest in the UEFA Europa League will be low in almost half of the European countries as from the end of August. No matter how hard UEFA will try, this situation will not change without domestic clubs left in the tournament.

          In order to show the difference between UEFA Europa League games which feature a domestic club and the ones which do not, I will use some examples from Poland and Bulgaria – countries which had their representatives in the group stage of UEFA Europa League in the past but do not have in the current 2012/13 season. In the table below, I present the TV ratings in Poland for selected UEFA Europa League matches (according to Nielsen Audience Measurement).

 

TV ratings in Poland for selected UEFA Europa League matches

 

 

          We can easily see that UEFA Europa League matches which feature a Polish club are much more attractive to the Polish fans than the ones which feature two foreign clubs. Here are some interesting comparisons which strengthen this statement:

-         UEFA Europa League group stage matches with the participation of Polish clubs easily top 1 million viewers but the finals of the tournament cannot attract such an audience on the same channel.

-         The UEFA Europa League group stage match between Lech Poznań and Juventus had approximately 4 times more viewers (2 974 908) than the 2012 final between Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao (≈ 700 000) and 2010 final between Atletico Madrid and Fulham (762 700).

-         The above mentioned highly marketed finals on TV4 cannot compete even with the second qualifying round match Śląsk Wrocław – Dundee United (891 827) which was broadcasted on Polsat. It is true, however, that Polsat reaches more Polish households than TV4.

-         When Fulham plays in the final with Atletico Madrid it attracts 762 700 viewers on TV4 but when the Cottagers play Wisła Kraków in the group stage, the audience on the same channel is 1 212 596.

-         When Braga meets Porto in the final, the game is watched by 910 680 viewers on TV4. However, when Braga visits Lech Poznań in the Round of 36, the TV4 viewers are 2 033 290. Moreover, the two legs of the Round of 16 between the future finalists Braga and English Premier League giants Liverpool attracted a total audience of 862 470 viewers on TV4.

          The other country which I will use as an example is Bulgaria. If we check the lists of the 50 most viewed programs for May 2010, May 2011 (the last program on the list had an audience of 386 000) and May 2012 (the last program on the list was watched by 381 303 viewers) published by GfK Audience Research Bulgaria we will not find the 2010, 2011 and 2012 UEFA Europa League finals, which were broadcasted by the Bulgarian National Television BNT1, there. However, if we look for the games of the Bulgarian clubs in the UEFA Europa League, we will find some of them even in the top 20 of the most watched programs of the month (Please, see the table below).

 

TV ratings in Bulgaria for selected UEFA Europa League matches

 

 

           Some interesting observations can be made here as well:

-          Even a second qualifying round match of a Bulgarian club vs. a small Slovenian counterpart (CSKA Sofia – Mura) takes a place in the top 30 of the most watched programs of the month.

-          When Fulham (which was also used as an example in the Poland case) plays Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Europa League final, this match cannot attract an audience which will secure a place in the top 50 of the most watched programs of the month. However, when Fulham visits CSKA Sofia for a group stage match, the TV audience is 756 000 and the game is the 19^th most watched program of the month.

            The examples of Poland and Bulgaria (the situation is similar in almost all European countries) clearly show that football fans want to see clubs from their countries in the UEFA Europa League and by far prefer to watch these clubs rather than foreign ones. According to me, UEFA should take the preferences of the fans into consideration and try to offer them a product which will meet their expectations in a better way. In connection with this, I would like to suggest a new format of the UEFA Europa League which will guarantee at least one representative for each country in the group stage of the tournament.

 

New format of the UEFA Europa League

 

          In order to be more precise and clear, I will describe how the new format of the UEFA Europa League group stage would have looked like in the current 2012/13 season. The main points of my concept are:

 

• The UEFA Europa League group stage will consist of 80 clubs divided into 16 groups with 5 clubs each. All teams which are eliminated in the three qualifying rounds and play-offs of the UEFA Champions League (44 clubs in the 2012/13 edition of the tournament) will automatically receive a place in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League. The holders of the trophy (Atletico Madrid) and Liechtenstein cup winners (USV Eschen/Mauren) complete the list of 46 automatic group stage entrants. The remaining 34 teams will need to win promotion from the qualifying rounds.

 

• As the UEFA Champions League is no longer a competition which features national champions only, I think that the Liechtenstein cup winners should receive the right to participate in the qualifying rounds of this tournament. Furthermore, the team which was defeated in the Liechtenstein cup final (FC Vaduz in 2011/12) should be granted a place in the qualifications for the UEFA Europa League.

 

• 161 clubs entered the 2012/13 UEFA Europa League and the same teams will enter the competition in the new format. As already mentioned, holders Atletico Madrid and Liechtenstein cup winners USV Eschen/Mauren receive automatic promotion to the group stage while Liechtenstein Cup finalists FC Vaduz round the number of clubs which will participate in the qualifications to 160.

 

• I would like to suggest an innovative method of staging the qualifications which will guarantee a minimum of 4 matches and maximum of 5 matches against a different rival for every participant. According to their club coefficient, all 160 clubs are placed in 4 pots with 40 clubs each. Every club will play 1 match against a rival from every pot, including their own pot (4 matches in total). All 160 clubs will be ranked in 1 league table which will be updated after every matchday. After 4 matchdays, the top 68 clubs in the standings will qualify for the one-leg play-off. Every club from the top 34 will host a match of direct elimination against a rival from places 35 – 68 of the standings. The pairs will be determined by a draw with the condition that clubs from the same country and clubs which have already played against each other cannot be paired together. The winners of these matches will qualify for the UEFA Europa League group stage. Clubs will have motivation to earn as much points as possible in order to finish in top 34 and guarantee themselves the right to be the host of the one-leg playoff match.

 

• In order to keep the intrigue and curiosity, the first draw will be for Matchday 1 and Matchday 2 only. In the first two matchdays every club will play one home and one away game. Two clubs from the same country cannot play against each other and there are no other “regionalization” principles. For the purpose of increasing the competitiveness and interest in the matches, lowest ranked clubs from Pot 4 will always host the matches against the highest ranked rivals from Pot 1. For example, a match Internazionale Milano – Cefn Druids will not generate much interest in Milano and Italy while a match Cefn Druids - Internazionale Milano will be a huge event in Wrexham and Wales. Furthermore, playing at home, Cefn Druids will have a bit higher chances of achieving a better result.

 

• The second draw for Matchday 3 and Matchday 4 will be completed on Friday after Matchday 2. Clubs will again play one home and one away game against rivals from the remaining 2 pots. Clubs which have played their last game at home will be visitors in Matchday 3 and vice versa. The draw for the one-leg playoffs will be completed on Friday after Matchday 4.

 

• If two or more teams are equal on points, the following criteria will be applied to determine the rankings (in descending order):

          -            better goal difference

          -            higher number of goals scored

          -            higher number of goals scored away from home

          -            lower number of red cards

          -            lower number of yellow cards

          -            faster first goal, faster second goal, etc.

           As the league table contains 160 teams, the criteria which determine the rankings will play a significant role. In order to encourage teams to play fair, criteria like “lower number of red cards” and “lower number of yellow cards” can be introduced. These two criteria, however, may not be the best solution as they may influence the decisions of the referees, who will be under pressure knowing that every card they show may be decisive for the faith the clubs. Furthermore, there are referees who usually show more cards and referees who do not punish the players with cards often. In order to encourage attacking football from the beginning of the match, criteria like “faster first goal”, “faster second goal”, etc. are introduced. According to these criteria, the club which has scored its fastest goal earlier will have an advantage (all games are taken into consideration). If two teams have both scored their fastest goal in the 5^th minute (seconds are not counted), then the second fastest goal and so on will be decisive.

 

• The new format of staging the qualifications for the UEFA Europa League has some advantages over the current one. In my opinion, these include:     

       

-         The number of matchdays is reduced from 8 to 5. As a result, the qualifying campaign would have started on a more appropriate date - 26^th July 2012 (the date of the second qualifying round second leg, according to the current schedule). The current 2012/13 UEFA Europa League qualifying campaign started on 3^rd July 2012 and this date is too early as it is long before the start of the domestic league in most of the countries. Clubs are not able to reach good form so quickly after a short summer break and as a result the football played in the first rounds of the qualifications is not of high quality. Furthermore, starting official matches so early in the summer interrupts the preparation for the new season of many clubs. With the new schedule, we will avoid such problems.

-         The current format of staging the qualifications is not efficient in my opinion as the early rounds feature only clubs from countries with a lower association coefficient. As a result, these early rounds are generally perceived as summer games between weak teams and generate no interest in the higher ranked countries. If teams from all countries are engaged from the first Matchday then the whole continent will follow the whole qualifications with interest and passion.

-          As all 160 clubs participate from Matchday 1, smaller clubs from countries with a lower association coefficient will have a guaranteed opportunity to face strong teams (this is very difficult to happen with the current format) and this will be a great opportunity for them to learn and grow. Such matches vs. elite teams will significantly boost the interest in the UEFA Europa League in countries with a lower association coefficient. As a result more fans in these countries will follow the competition, more sponsors will be attracted and the value of the media rights will rise (UEFA should centralize the media rights for the qualifications as well). For example, with the current UEFA Europa League format, the football community in Armenia can only dream of seeing Armenian team playing against a global brand like FC Liverpool. The new format will turn the dreams into reality for the football community in countries with a lower association coefficient.

-          In my opinion, the unique league table featuring all 160 participants will be very interesting for the fans and media and will be largely analyzed and commented. With the current format, clubs compete only against their direct rivals in the qualifications and playoffs. Now every club will compete against the remaining 159 teams. The league table will clearly show where the place of every team is among all the competitors. I believe that smaller clubs, even if they lose theoretical chances to finish among the top 68 clubs, will be particularly motivated to perform well and earn prestige and respect by finishing higher in the standings. As the goal difference will play an extremely important role in the rankings, clubs will be encouraged to play attacking football and score as many goals as possible. Another argument in favour of such league table is that we will have uncertainty and intrigue till the final whistle of the games.

-          I believe that due to the fact that they will be decided in one leg, the new playoffs will have the atmosphere of a final match. In comparison with the double leg playoffs, we will have more matches decided by extra time and penalty shootouts. This means more emotions, drama and higher interest.

 

• Clubs from countries with a high association coefficient are used to start the European club competitions from the later stages and may not be pleased with the fact that they will be required to participate in the qualifications from the beginning. They should understand, however, that clubs from the lower ranked countries need to play with them in order to grow. A compromise should be made for the good of European football. Starting the qualifications from the beginning should not be a big problem for the big clubs as, according to the new format, qualifications will start three weeks later and will be shorter. Furthermore, their schedule will not be overloaded as they will only need to play 4 or 5 matches in the group stage (instead of the current 6). Furthermore, in some of the games, the big clubs will be able to give playing time to reserves and youngsters as they will face rivals which are theoretically much weaker. In my opinion, many of the smaller clubs would be happy with such a solution as they will be still playing against an elite brand and will have better chances to achieve a good result. Smaller clubs can learn a lot even if the play against the reserves and youngsters of teams like PSV Eindhoven, Newcastle United or Olympique de Marseille.

 

• The 34 winners of the one-leg playoffs will join the 46 automatic entrants in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League. On the basis of their club coefficient, all 80 clubs are placed in 5 pots with 16 clubs each. The clubs will be drawn in 16 groups of five with each group having one team from every pot. Clubs from the same country cannot be drawn in the same group. Each club will play one game, either a home or away one, against each other club in its group. Similarly to the qualifications, in order to secure high interest and raise the level of competiveness, the lowest ranked clubs from Pot 5 will host the highest ranked ones from Pot 1. The home and away games are distributed in the following way:

 

---	1	2	3	4	5
1	---	Home	Away	Home	Away
2	Away	---	Home	Away	Home
3	Home	Away	---	Home	Away
4	Away	Home	Away	---	Home
5	Home	Away	Home	Away	---

 

 

• It may be argued that the quality of football will drop in the UEFA Europa League group stage with 80 clubs from every European country. I agree this will happen but the decrease in quality of football will be minimal. As a proof, I present how, for example, the 5 pots would have looked like in the current 2012/13 UEFA Europa League:

 

 

 

 

 

            The above 80 teams include all 48 participants in the current 2012/13 UEFA Europa League, all participants which were eliminated in the qualifying rounds and playoffs of the 2012/13 Champions League and CSKA Moskva (the highest ranked team eliminated in the 2012/13 UEFA Europa League qualifying rounds). We can see that the top three pots are comprised of really strong teams, some good clubs are ranked in Pot 4 and only Pot 5 is dominated by smaller clubs from countries with a lower association coefficient. Even in the last pot, however, we have teams like the Azeri Neftçi PFK, which have won 2 points in 5 games of the current 2012/13 UEFA Europa League group stage, Ludogorets Razgrad, which have won the Bulgarian treble in 2012, and Luxembourg champions F91 Dudelange, which have managed to eliminate the strong Austrian champions FC Salzburg in the second qualifying round of the 2012/13 UEFA Champions League. Furthermore, Pot 5 (like all other pots) contains clubs which are elite national brands and the UEFA Europa League group stage matches featuring these teams will generate huge interest in their countries. In my opinion, despite the risk of slightly decreasing the quality of football in the UEFA Europa League groups, every country should be given the chance to have a representative in this stage of the competition. This policy will definitely have a positive influence on the development of European football.

 

• There is another significant argument of why clubs from countries with a lower association coefficient should be awarded with more guaranteed matches in the European club competitions. Currently, in order to have a chance to achieve good results and eventually reach the dream group stage of either the UEFA Champions League or UEFA Europa League, preparing for their European campaign, many of these clubs spend significant, for their standards, amount of money on player transfers and player wages. They fall into debts hoping to turn them into profits with the huge prize money that will be earned in the group stage of the two major European club competitions. Furthermore, these clubs hope to promote their players on the European stage with good performances in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League and then to sell some of them abroad with a large profit. Unfortunately, due to the strong competition, most of them are quickly eliminated from the European club competitions, usually already in the summer after playing 2 or 4 games only. The dreams are over but the debts remain. Moreover, the newly signed players on big contracts remain in the squad and continue to collect their large wages. In many cases players are lured to these smaller clubs by the opportunity to play and promote themselves in the European club competitions. After the quick elimination, they lose motivation and interest in playing in a not very strong domestic league. These are serious problems for the smaller clubs and I think these problems can be tackled successfully with the suggested new UEFA Europa League format, which will guarantee the clubs from countries with a lower association coefficient more games against better rivals and larger share in the prize money.

 

• Due to the fact that there are 5 clubs in each group (like it was in the last 5 editions of the UEFA Cup from 2004/05 to 2008/09), each club will play on 4 matchdays and will have one matchday off. After the 5 matchdays are completed, the 16 group winners qualify directly for the Round of 32. In order to add more intrigue and make the competition more interesting, the 16 teams which have finished second and the 16 teams which have finished third in their groups will participate in a special one-leg playoff for promotion to the Round of 32. Each second placed team will host a game of direct elimination against a third placed team and the pairs will be determined by a draw (clubs from the same group and country cannot meet with each other). These playoffs would have been played on 6^th December 2012 (the date of Matchday 6 of the current UEFA Europa League). The winners of the 16 playoff games will join the 16 group winners in the Round of 32. This format will make sure that the intrigue in the groups will last till the last matchday. It will encourage the teams to compete hard for a higher place in the group standings as higher places give bigger awards. First place in the group gives direct promotion to the Round of 32, second place in the group gives the right to host the one-leg playoff and the third place in the group gives the right to participate as a visiting team in the one-leg playoff.

 

• In the round of 32, each group winner will face a playoff winner with the condition that teams from the same group and country cannot be paired together by the draw. In order to award group winners, they will play the second leg at home. The rules of the knockout phase will be just like the ones of the current UEFA Europa League. In the new format, however, no clubs from the group stage of the UEFA Champions League will be moved to the UEFA Europa League. In my opinion it is not fair to give teams, which have not participated in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League, a chance to win this tournament.

 

Conclusion

 

            At the beginning of this article, I have expressed my doubts whether the policy of making UEFA Europa League more and more similar to the UEFA Champions League is right. Due to the fact that from the group stage onwards, UEFA Champions League features the best clubs from countries which usually rank in the top 30 of the association rankings and the UEFA Europa League features weaker clubs from the same countries, the interest in the Champions League will always be much higher. I will use a metaphor to describe the situation in a more interesting way. If we sell fruits and have one apple which is bigger and looks more delicious than another one then everybody would want the first apple. In this case, it will be better to offer our clients an orange instead of the second apple. Quite a few of our clients would prefer the orange over the first apple. So, as the Europa League in its current format cannot compete with the Champions League, it may be better for UEFA to consider modification of their second most prestigious club competition and offer the football community something different. I believe that the suggested league competition between all 160 clubs in the qualifications, the one-leg playoffs and the involvement of clubs from all countries in the group stage would give the UEFA Europa League its own distinctive soul and contribute to the charisma of the tournament.

            In order to boost the development of the clubs from countries with a lower association coefficient, UEFA should give them an opportunity to play more games in the European club competitions and face elite counterparts from the highest ranked countries. For example, just like Andorra and San Marino are not eliminated from the qualifications for the European championship after 2 games only and can meet Spain or England, FC Lusitanos and SP Tre Penne should have an opportunity to play more than 2 games per season in the European club competitions and face quality teams like Atletico Madrid or FC Liverpool. Undoubtedly, competitive matches vs. elite rivals will be welcomed with huge enthusiasm by smaller clubs, their fans and media in their countries, and such matches should be taking place. They will not only improve the quality of the players of the smaller clubs but will also raise the knowledge and skills of the club administration members who will deal with the organization of these high-profile matches.

            We are currently having a situation in which mainly due to the fact that the prize money from the participation in the UEFA Europa League (€150.36 million distributed to 56 clubs in 2011/12 compared to €754.1 million distributed to 32 clubs in the 2011/12 UEFA Champions League) are not very attractive to them, the big clubs from the rich countries with a high association coefficient are not very motivated to perform well in this tournament and prefer to concentrate their efforts on the domestic league. These clubs, however, are favoured by the current format which allows them to start from the later qualification rounds or even from the group stage. At the same time, the UEFA Europa League prize money are huge for the standards of the smaller clubs from countries with a lower association coefficient and they are extremely motivated to give their best on the pitch in order to reach the dream group stage and earn the much needed significant financial bonus. The current format, however, makes it very difficult for these clubs to reach their aims. Is it fair to favour the ones who are not very motivated over the ones who are extremely motivated? Speaking about motivation to play in the UEFA Europa League, I will attach the example of the English clubs. They reached the UEFA Champions League final in 7 of the last 8 editions of the tournament and won it 3 times in this period of time. We even had an all-English final in 2008. At the same time, the powerful clubs from England only managed to reach the Round of 16 in three and the quarterfinals in one of the last 5 editions of the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League. The respected Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson even described the UEFA Europa League as a “punishment” for his players. It is true, however, that motivated or not, the presence of a club like Manchester United in any tournament will always attract the interest of fans, media and sponsors. Nevertheless, in my opinion, the involvement of more clubs with great motivation and enthusiasm to perform well in the tournament will raise the attractiveness of the UEFA Europa League.

             Due to the facts that all clubs which start the qualification will have a guaranteed minimum of 4 matches (including one vs. a strong club with a high club coefficient from Pot 1) and all countries will have at least one representative in the group stage with a guaranteed minimum of 4 games there (till late November), the interest in the UEFA Europa League will skyrocket in countries with a lower association coefficient. As a result, from the commercial point of view, the TV channels in these countries will be willing to pay much more for the acquisition of UEFA Europa League media rights. Football fans mainly want to watch clubs from their countries in the European club competitions and I will again emphasize two examples from Poland and Bulgaria.  On the same TV channel, the UEFA Europa League group stage match between Lech Poznań and Juventus had approximately 4 times more viewers (2 974 908) than the highly marketed by UEFA, 2012 final between Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao (≈ 700 000) and 2010 final between Atletico Madrid and Fulham (762 700). In Bulgaria, the UEFA Europa League finals cannot break into the list of the 50 most viewed programs of the month and cannot even compete with the second qualifying round match between CSKA Sofia and the small Slovenian club ND Mura 05. This match was the 27^th most watched program in July 2012 and attracted a TV audience of 459 000 viewers.

            I am aware of the fact the my idea is a brave one and will be found controversial by some football experts but I think the new format will revitalize European football and contribute to the development of the game particularly in countries with a lower association coefficient.