THE UEFA Cup, increasingly marginalised as a second-rate competition behind the cash-rich Champions League, will be given a much-needed facelift in terms of both credibility and income when it is renamed the UEFA Europa League as of next season – effectively a last-chance saloon for a withering tournament.
The change will be music to the ears of middle-ranked nations such as Scotland who have never received the full benefit of qualifying for Europe's poorer sister. But it's not all good news. UEFA has performed a U-turn and opted to preserve the status
quo to allow domestic cup runners-up such as Queen of the South (and not so long ago Gretna and Dunfermline) to take part whenever the winners of the trophy have already qualified for Europe. It is a decision which will not go down well with the SPL.
Going into the two-day executive committee in Bordeaux it was assumed that every proposal on the agenda would receive the necessary backing. Not so.
Having originally assured journalists that a recommendation to scrap cup runners-up competing in the newly named competition had sailed through, the proposal was in fact quashed. UEFA's top brass, it seems, was over-ruled by its own members. And that makes bad reading for the SFA and SPL who had made it clear they were in favour of as many European places as possible reverting to league placings.
"The fact is that the executive committee did not accept the change proposed by our club competitions committee," UEFA general secretary David Taylor told Scotland on Sunday. "That means we stick with the current position. The feeling is there is a better opportunity, through these means, for smaller clubs to sample European competition since many of them will find it very difficult to finish third, fourth or fifth."
Taylor denied that preserving the cup runners-up policy would fly in the face of the entire rebranding principle, designed to boost the status and stature of the UEFA Cup. But he admitted that Scotland was among "a significant minority" who had wanted domestic cup runners-up to stay out. "A number of countries, including Scotland, were concerned that weaker clubs were getting access to the competition, not performing well and dragging down the national co-efficient. But they are out of step with the rest of Europe."
Nevertheless, those who do qualify for the new-look Europa League will have plenty to excite them. Revenue will be virtually doubled when broadcasting rights are brought under the control of UEFA instead of being sold on a match-by-match basis, while the competition will mirror the format of the Champions League proper, with a home and away group stage before switching to straight knockout. Meanwhile, UEFA ratified the increase in the number of European Championship finalists from 16 to 24 from 2016 onwards.
But concerns persist that the quality of the finals – comprising six groups of four with the top two advancing along with the best four third-place teams – could be reduced.
The full article contains 524 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
