Europe’s Poisoned Chalice – Commentary on the 2012 Europa League

With the knockout stages of the 2012 Europa League kicking off in the middle of February, coincidentally on Valentine’s Day, many an anxious football fan can be forgiven for being less than sincere when asked about one’s immediate thoughts whilst out on a date that day.  Moreover, while the tournament, a rebranded forerunner of the old UEFA Cup, continues in the shadow of its more televised and illustrious sibling, the Champions’ League, many football connoisseurs will be more than keen on the Europa League, relishing its almost lunatic parity and sheer unpredictability.

The truth is, the Europa League has grown in profile since its inception, as a refurbished tournament in 2009, to become a rather watchable and truly engaging spectacle in its own right. While the Champions’ League group stages are often a procession, the groups in the Europa League are almost impossible to pick and remain interesting with their competitiveness right through to Matchday Six.  And while the Champions’ League has a divide between the favourites and no hopers, the spread is much greater and more even in the Europa League with an almost innumerable number of good teams, who can all win the tournament, while the gap between the favourites and the no hopers is much narrower.  Some of Europe’s biggest names and most storied clubs will be kicking off in the quest to reach the final at the National Stadium in Bucharest, Romania.

Ironically, the demotion, through a combination of incompetence and downright arrogance, of Manchester heavyweights, United and City, from the Champions’ League group stages to the round of 32 in the Europa League, has added some additional ballast to a burgeoning fight-card.  With the fortunes of the both clubs, one the World’s richest and the other one of its most followed, now entwined with 2012 tournament, the progression of both clubs will be followed as the competition evolves.  Additional eyes will be tuned in on Thursdays and fans will be following the travails of both clubs as they seek to negotiate a tricky path from the round of 32 to the podium.  There is no dearth of motivation either, as City, smarting from their elimination in the Champions’ League, want to win their first European Trophy, while United manager Alex Ferguson has already declared that United are in it to win it.

Additionally, the presence of Tottenham Hotspur, who are in the purplest of patches and are outside bets for domestic silverware in England, will lend more sheen to a product in need of some desperate lustre.  Spurs are seeking to make the step up from being a good team to a great one, a sizeable club to a massive one – and the path to such elevation goes through the glory of winning a continental crown.  Having won the UEFA Cup twice, in 1972 and 1984, while adding the now discontinued Cup Winners’ Cup in 1963, Tottenham’s pedigree is unquestioned and they have the trophy very much in their sights.

The tournament is not light on pedigree though with Athletic Bilbao, Lokomotiv Moscow, Ajax, Anderlecht, Lazio, Atletico Madrid, Schalke, Porto, Valencia and PSV, all lining up in the elimination rounds.  Between them only PSV and Ajax have won the Champions’ League in the last quarter century but have all been regular participants in the latter stages and final rounds of both continental and domestic competitions.  More importantly it’s been a while since they won a trophy and will be eager to pick up another one.  Then you have the curious cases of Hannover ‘96 and Stoke City, two clubs that are middling clubs that are overachievers in their domestic leagues, but have made the most of an initial foray into Europe.  Few clubs will relish Stoke’s direct, physical style while Hannover continue to make a mockery of predictions of failure as they remain in the top eight in Germany.  Both clubs were expected to struggle as they balanced a European campaign with a domestic season but have risen to the challenge.

In the beginning, European football was often a welcome adventure for clubs from across the continent as they were rewarded for a good domestic season with a chance to venture into the unknown.  Of course, nowadays with the Internet and other media connecting the far reaches of the Globe as if they were just next door, the mystery and aura of European football has all but disappeared.  However the pursuit of glory and the desire to put down a marker to create a legacy remain strong.  The Champions’ League is often a closed shop that only the very teams who compete in, can return to.  However the Europa League provides an excellent alternative and is a very worthy piece of silverware in its own right.

On the flip side, declining attendances and TV audiences have more or less decreed that the tournament shift playing days so as to not compete with the Champions’ League.  As a result, Europa League games are usually on Thursdays, so as to not interfere with the coverage of the former on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  This creates a dilemma for the clubs involved.  While they play to win, the short recovery time to the weekend’s games in domestic leagues wreaks havoc on clubs’ rosters.  On one hand resting players for the, often more important, weekend games weakens the Europa League squads, while the opposite leaves the team ripe for fatigue on Sunday’s big kickoff.  Although some of the bigger clubs have little to complain about with massive squads to draw upon, the constant chopping and changing for a late week game has made the prospect of playing the Europa League somewhat unpopular.

However, unfashionable as it may be, it is still a continental crown and you can be sure that players, management and fans alike will celebrate the trophy, should they win on May 9.

Full Draw:
http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/season=2012/draws/index.html