UEFA Announce Conference League:

[Franck]

Smaller league clubs being in the EL just to get destroyed by mid table clubs from the top leagues doesn't help anyone. At least this way they will play other teams that are comparable to them around Europe and have a better measuring stick for improvement year over year than getting smoked by a club with individual players that cost more than their entire squad.

Nobody wants even matches against Pyunik Yerevan, it is the chance to test yourselves against Europe's best that makes European competitions attractive. This new third-rate competition only moves smaller countries further away from the interesting European fixtures and the TV money.

Malmö FF fans don't give a flying f*** that they will most likely lose at least 5 of their group stage matches when they make it into the Champions League, the away trips to Turin, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Istanbul make up for it, and the TV money is the kind of thing that domestic dominance is built upon. Even in the Europa League you'd get teams like Man United, Valencia, Lazio or Fenerbahce coming to town, best you can hope for with the ECL will be what, Everton's reserves?

The ECL will be a third-rate competition against teams from Belarus and Kazakhstan that nobody will turn up for, nobody will watch on TV and UEFA will pay you a pittance for participating in. Clubs that still have a shot at winning the league won't bother trying in the qualifiers as the potential CL/EL spot through the league win is much more tempting.

Like others in the thread have hinted at I think it might be time for Scandinavia and other countries like Scotland, Croatia, Greece and Poland to just give UEFA the finger and organise their own European competition.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

I remember a third tier European competition before..the Intertoto Cup aka UI Cup. The ultimate yawnfest and joke competition which was great background TV during summer break to be fair.

This reeks like an attempt to make the EL more valuable as a media asset. Everything else looks like media spin. Now of course the easiest way to make the EL more valuable would be to reduce the top countries' CL allotment back to two teams.

 

[Havre]

The ultimate yawn fest for who?

Maybe fans of these Kazakh teams enjoyed those games? The Intertoto Cup wasn't huge in Norway, but I can't ever remember it been seen as a problem.

For a lot of teams European football is one qualifying round every summer. I really only see it as a good thing if the more or less best teams in Norway and Kazakhstan get to play a couple of more games against each other. Who cares if fans of Arsenal don't find those games interesting? Hopefully it will be a tournament in which a good Norwegian team might feel they are competitive in - and therefore find interesting. Even if it is 3rd tier getting to any sort of European final for a team from Norway, Kazakhstan or whatever would be, for them, sensational.

And by the way. I'm not going to watch it much.

 

[Albatros]

I'm all for having more opportunities for clubs of lesser leagues, but it shouldn't come at the expense of others. This Conference League would make much more sense if it was for leagues ranked 30+ exclusively.

 

[Evilo]

But in the old time there were also 3 European tournaments

But no group stage. You could play 2 games and be out.

 

[Havre]

I don't know if this is the perfect format, but seems like a reasonable idea to test in my opinion.

My biggest worry would be teams from the big leagues treating it as a joke. Not that I would blame those teams. Personally I consider the EL a joke so... and many English teams used to see it that way as well.

More likely teams will do like Spurs are now in the EL using it as an opportunity to give squad players some games. So as long as the cost of travelling etc is higher than the income I think this should work out well.

 

[Albatros]

I could see the occasional Bournemouth going for silverware if their domestic season allows that, but a lot of big teams will drop out losing purposefully which makes me think this format won't be very durable.

 

[HajdukSplit]

I feel UEFA should have made this tournament more regional, it would avoid the crazy travel and maybe create some rivalries (depending on which part of Europe). It's not something totally out of the ordinary as UEFA did do this in the latter years of the Intertoto Cup, albeit a very broad range

Maybe do a further breakdown (SE Europe, SW Europe, former Soviet bloc, Nordic, British etc..). Of course it won't guarantee much in some regions but I know in the ex-YU area most of the matchups will be built up (albeit for wrong reasons which is UEFA's worry, hence why they do their best to avoid potential CRO-SRB matchups, think there have been only 4 matchups all of them more than 15 years ago now)

 

[hatterson]

Playing weekend midweek weekend for a stretch in the autumn is not a problem. As the total number of games in Norway is not that high. 30 league games and only one cup. Few players from the Eliteserie play much for national teams as well.

Also with better pitches the season can now easily be stretched at both ends. Before that was always limited due to the weather. And we got this strange break in the middle of summer. That could be shortened.

We'll see what the clubs think. After getting passed the disappointment of it getting even tougher to play in the CL and EL I think clubs will like this new setup. And I think it will benefit players playing in Norway.

Also worth noting that there’s far fewer players logging big international minutes in Norway, so that international break is much more of a break which helps a lot in terms of rest during that period.

One of the biggest issues with the compacted schedule for the top teams now is that a large chunk of their starting XI goes on those breaks and plays 2 or even 3 sets of 90 mins.

 

[TheMoreYouKnow]

The ultimate yawn fest for who?

Maybe fans of these Kazakh teams enjoyed those games? The Intertoto Cup wasn't huge in Norway, but I can't ever remember it been seen as a problem.

For a lot of teams European football is one qualifying round every summer. I really only see it as a good thing if the more or less best teams in Norway and Kazakhstan get to play a couple of more games against each other. Who cares if fans of Arsenal don't find those games interesting? Hopefully it will be a tournament in which a good Norwegian team might feel they are competitive in - and therefore find interesting. Even if it is 3rd tier getting to any sort of European final for a team from Norway, Kazakhstan or whatever would be, for them, sensational.

And by the way. I'm not going to watch it much.

There's a fallacy in this. For the English top six club fan all of these teams are obscure and so obscure teams playing each other seems fine, like they got something in common, right? But in reality of course no-one is obscure in their own mind. The Kazakh teams don't think of themselves as little clubs destined to play the team of Norway and Albania forever, just like the teams of Norway don't want to play the teams of Kazakhstan and Albania. All of them want to play Liverpool, Juve or Bayern. That's the kind of match that actually helps them as the visibility galvanizes local supporters and sponsors while generating international visibility. Playing FC Astana or Bodo/Glimt doesn't; that's just another fixture to fill the calendar.

 

[Havre]

There's a fallacy in this. For the English top six club fan all of these teams are obscure and so obscure teams playing each other seems fine, like they got something in common, right? But in reality of course no-one is obscure in their own mind. The Kazakh teams don't think of themselves as little clubs destined to play the team of Norway and Albania forever, just like the teams of Norway don't want to play the teams of Kazakhstan and Albania. All of them want to play Liverpool, Juve or Bayern. That's the kind of match that actually helps them as the visibility galvanizes local supporters and sponsors while generating international visibility. Playing FC Astana or Bodo/Glimt doesn't; that's just another fixture to fill the calendar.

Not sure what you point is really. Sure - they all want to play the big teams, but would they rather play good teams from comparable nations instead of not playing anyone? That is the real question here.

I am pretty sure Bodø/Glimt would have rather played in a "CL" group this autumn against a good Swedish, Swiss and Kazakh team instead of playing no European football after the last EL qualification play-off.

 

[Albatros]

Swedish or even Swiss sure, Kazakh rather not.

 

[Havre]

What is wrong with Kazakstan other than the long travel?

It won't be perfect of course.

The Norwegian league is extremely "random" in the sense that few clubs are able to consistently be top teams. Rosenborg and Molde might be the exceptions. I think what they need to take another step in terms of overall quality is to play more regularly against other European teams. Games against the likes of Arsenal are fun, but not necessarily ideal for development - as the difference in quality is too high (even if Molde played decently at home for 60 mins or so against Arsenal). Some games in this new CL probably won't be that interesting even for a Norwegian team (because the opposition is just too weak), but others should be. There are only so many "top" games in the Norwegian league per year so to get the chance to play solid teams from other comparable countries should help teams to develop. It hopefully also gives the league a shot at competing for points in the UEFA ranking in a better way. Now since most teams never get anywhere you either get "a lot" of points from one team that get through to the group stages or you get nothing. The new "CL" should hopefully make that distribution more representative for how strong the league is.

 

[Albatros]

What is wrong with Kazakstan other than the long travel?

A lot of anonymous and mediocre teams without any significant club or fan culture. It's like playing against a generic opponent and not many people will want to watch that.

 

[Juve]

Is this trophy in which Arsenal may have a chance at winning?

 

[Lambo]

But in the old time there were also 3 European tournaments

But in K.O. System and fewer games. Now you ve every day football.