Opinion Piece | The Europa League has all of the Heart, Colour & Passion that the Champions League No Longer Does.
First thing to get clear here with this article; I am in no way, shape or form knocking the Champions League. It is the greatest club competition in world football, containing all of the best players & teams this planet has to offer. I am an avid watcher of the competition. Let's get that straight.
However, what is becoming increasingly obvious in recent times is Europe’s richest are getting richer, leaving a top eight, nine, ten teams & the gap to everyone else is growing wider & wider. This has led to the average, educated football fan having a good chance of predicting maybe five or six of the Champions League quarter-finalists before a ball is kicked on Matchday 1 in mid-September.
In turn, this has led to the expectation amongst the fans of these elite teams that the quarter-finals is when the competition really starts & the earlier rounds are a mere formality. So what does that do for the atmosphere at these group-stage & sometimes even last-16 games? It is flat, very flat.
Kick-off at a Manchester City v Dynamo Kiev Last-16 Champions League game at the Etihad Stadium in 2016 | Photo Credit
I attended a Real Madrid home Champions League group-stage game a few years back, my first time at the Santiago Bernabéu. I decided on the morning of the match to go & there were thousands of seats to choose from when purchasing online. I unfortunately could not get a seat in, or near, “Ultras Sur” so I decided to go behind the goal at the opposite end. With myself included, it was absolute tourist-mania.
Ronaldo printed jerseys, selfie-sticks & new official club shop merchandise everywhere. Plenty of “fans” there didn’t get to see the action live, they saw it through the lense of their phones via Facebook Live & countless Instagram Stories. Needless to say, apart from an excited gasp when Ronaldo or Bale touched the ball or when a goal went in, I would have felt very at home in a library.
That is not a prejudice against Real Madrid by any means, I have received similar reports back from group-stage games at the Nou Camp, Old Trafford, The Etihad, The Allianz (Juventus not Bayern), among others. The absence of an intimidating or hostile atmosphere for the away team is a small price these clubs pay for mass-globalisation. The presence of hundreds or even thousands of tourists, empty seats because of the high expectations of the part-time fans & empty seats owing to the very high prices for games that “don’t matter” has inevitably led to a noticeable lack of atmosphere.
The UEFA Europa League, “Europe’s B Competition”, keeps us entertained on Thursdays during the long season. Again to make things clear, I am acutely aware that the standard of the Champions League is much higher than the Europa League. I am not arguing the point of footballing quality. What I am arguing is when it comes to unpredictability, fan passion, colour, intimidation & atmosphere, the Europa League upstages its big brother.
The Europa League consists of Europe’s “smaller clubs” & they view the competition as their chance to show the rest of Europe what they can do & what they are about. How can the fans of these clubs get noticed by the rest of Europe, given that they cannot forcibly win every game for their team? Intimidation & memorability in the form of TIFOs, pyrotechnics, erratic behaviour, heckling, you name it. Is a UEFA slap on the wrist going to stop their expressions? Do you think fans of Olympique de Marseille regretted their massive pyro display prior to the 2018 final versus Atlético Madrid? Yeah, me neither.
There are instances of UEFA sanctions against clubs due to violence, racist, homophobic, anti-semetic fan behaviour. I do not condone such behaviour in any way & I am not using that as an excuse for fans who are trying to make a name for themselves or to get noticed.
These teams in the Europa League value the spotlight so much more than many Champions League teams because often they are not guaranteed European football every season & for many they have had to battle through several rounds of qualifiers just to even be there. They are going to try their hardest to ensure they leave an impression on the rest of the continent after each matchday.
While the more recent publication of TV money figures & the allocation of these funds to the Champions League exclusively, has left a sour taste in the mouth of a lot of these “smaller clubs”. They see it as the rich getting richer & leaving the rest to fight over the leftover scraps or just fend for themselves. There is a very strong anti-UEFA sentiment across Europe, the majority of which can be seen expressed at Europa League games.
A banner unveiled in the away end of a Europa League game between Udinese & Celtic in 2011 | Photo Credit
“I only tune into the Europa from the semi-finals onward”, “the standard was so bad I could only watch five minutes of it” or “I have it on in the background on a Thursday because there’s nothing else on” are all commonly heard from part-time fans & they are entitled to those opinions. But to those people I would ask that the next time a Europa League game is about to start, pay attention to what is going on in the terraces as well as what is happening on the pitch. You might be surprised, or even impressed with, the creativity & passion on show.
Here’s a little game for you; after next season’s group stage draws are made go ahead & write down your predicted top two to qualify from each Champions League & Europa League group. You would fancy yourself to do quite well with your Champions League picks, maybe twelve or more out of sixteen, but the Europa League is as erratic & unpredictable as any sporting competition out there. Getting 60% of your Europa League picks right would be a good result in my opinion.
Barcelona winning their group? Yep. PSG & Real Madrid finishing above Club Brugge & Galatasaray? Banker. Manchester City winning a group with Atalanta, Shakhtar Donetsk & Dinamo Zagreb at a canter? Yes, pretty much. It wouldn’t have taken a footballing Einstein to have predicted these outcomes from this season’s group stage.
How many of you would have backed Lazio to have finished behind Celtic & CFR Cluj? Beşiktaş to finish bottom of a group behind SC Braga, Wolves & Slovan Bratislava? Or clubs with the European notoriety of Sporting Lisbon & PSV Eindhoven to finish behind LASK Linz? Not too many I’d imagine.
Wolves players celebrate during a famous & surprising 4-0 victory over Beşiktaş during the 2019 Europa League group stage | Photo Credit
I love sitting in the comfort of my own home on Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays throughout the season watching the finest football Europe has to offer. But when it comes to actually attending games, off on an away day, experiencing the atmosphere of a new ground, visiting new countries & cities just to watch some live football; the Europa League is where the authentic football experience is & is where you’ll find me.
In short; mega money is ruining a more & more predictable Champions League, whereas the Europa League still has some old-school European character, fan pageantry & unpredictability to it.