The
Europa League, long regarded as the impoverished relation of the glitzy
Champions League, was boosted on Friday (May 24) by UEFA’s announcement
that the winners would qualify for the elite competition from 2015.In an attempt to increase the prestige of its secondary competition, UEFA also said 16 teams rather than the current six would qualify directly for the group stages.
The Europa League winners will enter at the playoff stage but could even gain direct access to the group stage if the Champions League winners also qualify via their domestic league position, thus freeing up a place in the group stage.
UEFA has also ruled that a maximum of five teams from any one country would be able to compete in the Champions League from 2015-16.
This means in the unlikely event of the winners of the Champions League and the Europa League coming from the same country but finishing outside the top four, the team who finished fourth in their domestic league would not take part in the Champions League but go into the Europa League instead.
Also, if the Europa League winners had qualified for the following season’s Champions League through their domestic league position, the Europa League runners-up would not get a Champions League berth.
The Europa League, which succeeded the UEFA Cup in 2009-10, is by definition UEFA’s secondary competition and has lacked sparkle partly because of the relatively poor financial rewards for participants compared to the Champions League.
As a result, too many clubs treated it as more of an obligation than an honour to compete in it.
“We think these modifications, these amendments, changes to the Europa League will first of all have a huge impact in terms of boasting the Europa League as such. But as a knock on effect or domino effect, they will also have an impact on the national leagues,” UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino told a news conference.
“Why they will have an impact on the national leagues? Because when the Europa League becomes even more exciting, even more entertaining, even more interesting, the competition to qualify for the Europa League will suddenly become also more exciting and more interesting.
“As the president was saying at the beginning, some teams seem not to play the Europa League with the same enthusiasm that they play the Champions League. Now they have a chance also through the Europa League to go in their national leagues so they will play the Europa League in a certain way.
“They will play their national competition to qualify for the Europa League, in case they don’t qualify for the Champions League and maybe try not to qualify or be too tired or these sorts of things.”
The decision was taken after detailed discussions between the European Club Association comprising Europe’s top clubs and UEFA and the change will come into effect after the current TV contract for the Champions League expires in 2015.
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