More interest in the Europa League

I think most people would agree that the Europa League generally doesn't generate a whole lot of interest, particularly in countries which are traditionally strong in European club football (think Spain, England, Italy or Germany). Sure it was fun watching Fulham get to the final, but did anyone apart from Fulham fans actually watch their games? Anyhow I found this article on the Telegraph website describing a five point plan to attract more interest to the "lesser" European competition. Here are the five points:

1. Play it at a reasonable time. Basically, no more daft 6pm kick-offs.

2. Play it another day. The main idea seems to be that CL on Tuesdays and Wednesdays followed by Europa League on Thursdays is a bit of an overkill. The author suggests playing the Europa League the weeks the CL isn't on.

3. Forget the League. Scrap the group stages, make it a straight knock-out, possibly with seedings to keep the better teams in.

4. Deal with the dropouts. Scrap the idea of putting the rejects from the CL groups stages into the Europa.

5. Make it worth winning. i.e. the winner of the Europa League gets to play the CL the following year.

My thoughts:

1. Very much agree. How many people can make a 6pm kick-off during the week?
2. Why not?
3; Very good idea. One of the things I liked about the UEFA cup was the straight knock-out format, more exciting. Won't happen because of TV revenue losses though.
4. Not so convinced by this one, having the CL rejects increases the level of the competition which is a good thing IMO.
5; Yes, yes, yes! If you make it worth winning, the better teams might take it seriously rather than focus all their attentions on their domestic leaques to make the CL the following year.

What are your thoughts on this?

1) the 6pm kick offs are mainly for russian sides due to it being winter time and about -19 and so people can watch it all over europe lol
2) that's what they had been doing the last few years no idea why stopped.
3) i don't like the league but i think there should only be 2 from each country at most.
4) c.l dropouts improve the state of the competition but i don't believe they should be in the europa league if your out of europe you should be out completely.
5) i think that's would work well .

I would agree with all of those points. I don't think those in the CL should be dropped down to the Europa league on being eliminated from the group stage (the quals stage I'll allow) - it bloats an already bloated competition!

I've always advocated it as a straight knock out competition if only for all the matches to mean something. Alot of the group games are an exercise in how to navigate the tournament with minimal effort.

The final point about the winner being given a CL spot is good - but what would happen if they already had one via the league? I guess it could drop to the losing finalist, but I've never been comfortable with that.

add another CL spot to said league sodhat?

Mad for Chelsea wrote:2. Play it another day. The main idea seems to be that CL on Tuesdays and Wednesdays followed by Europa League on Thursdays is a bit of an overkill. The author suggests playing the Europa League the weeks the CL isn't on.

I don't like that. The midweeks with no European football are used all season for England games, in winter for Carling Cup games and in spring for FA Cup replays, the rounds of cups would be staggered and teams would have less time to prepare travel and accomodation for away trips after the draw.

If they played Europa League on Tuesdays and Wednesdays it could be watched even less because the majority of neutrals will just watch the Champions League, providing in that situation a network picks up the Europa League, and even then they might drop it due to viewing figures.

It will never get the intrest of some people with it being on Channel 5 & ITV4 FFS!

1. Play it at a reasonable time. Basically, no more daft 6pm kick-offs- Totally agree with this it should be treated the same way as the Champions league.

2. Play it another day. The main idea seems to be that CL on Tuesdays and Wednesdays followed by Europa League on Thursdays is a bit of an overkill. The author suggests playing the Europa League the weeks the CL isn't on- Think the problem with this idea is their is more games in the Europa league so it's hard to fit in but it would be better.

3. Forget the League. Scrap the group stages, make it a straight knock-out, possibly with seedings to keep the better teams in- In 2003 Celtic got to the final of the old UEFA cup when every round was knockout over 2 legs. It was really exciting and much more entertaining than the group stage.

4. Deal with the dropouts. Scrap the idea of putting the rejects from the CL groups stages into the Europa- It's not just the group stage losers that get dropped into it if you fail to get through a Champions League qualifier you get dropped down to the Europa League. It just undermines and dilutes the tournament.

5. Make it worth winning. i.e. the winner of the Europa League gets to play the CL the following year- This would be great for the tournament their have been times when teams have almost thrown games in the Europa League to concentrate on finishing in the Champions League spot in their league.