Arsenal fans will meet the news that their English rivals could fail to qualify for the next round of the Champions League with mixed reviews. Mirthful though it might make them the prospect of Chelsea, Man City and Man Utd having nothing to distract them from performing in the league would be daunting indeed. Or is that the case? They could fail to qualify but still be forced to play in the Europa League. On one hand the fact that the third placed Champions League group teams qualify for the Europa League means that there is in essence a European football safety net for the bigger clubs, but on the other hand: do they want it? Obviously some will but those striving for domestic success will definitely see it as more of a hindrance than anything else.
Financial benefits
The main reason for wanting to participate in the Europa League is obviously the revenues generated for the clubs but whilst it may be welcome for some for others the amount received is negligible, particularly if it impacts where the club may finish in their own league, and therefore the money they receive for their final place in that league.
In the Europa League last year’s winners, Porto, received €7,837,046 and the runners up, Braga, received €4,528,191. Not bad you might think, particularly for Braga who parachuted in to the competition out of the Champions League. Apart from that however the money is pretty limited. For qualifying to the knock out stages each team was awarded €200,000, for progressing to the last 16 they received €300,000, €400,000 for the quarter-finals and €700,000 for the semis. On top of this each team receives a win bonus of €140,000 per win in the group stage and €70,000 per draw. In total €150,360,000 was distributed between clubs in the Europa League.*
At first this sounds pretty good, but not if you compare it to the Champions League. In Europe’s top competition each team receives a minimum of €7,200,000 just for being in the group stages, which is the same as the winners of the Europa League get, with a win bringing in €800,000 and a draw €400,000 The winners of the Champions League receive €31,500,000. In total €754,100,000 was distributed amongst Champions League participants last year with finalists Barcelona and Manchester United both receiving over €50m.
So as you can see although for some smaller clubs this money might be worth playing for, for others it is not. If Man City end up in the Europa League, as it appears they will, then would it really be worth having to do all of those away days across Europe and damage their domestic prospects for less than £10m.
There is always the prospect of silverware on offer but I sincerely doubt that any of the three English clubs not yet qualified for the knock out rounds of the Champions League care too much about success in the second tier.
What do they say?
Roberto Mancini’s is the most likely team to end up in Europe’s second competition and the Italian manager only rates his sides chances as thirty per cent of staying in the Champions League. The Italian insists however that if they do slip down to Europa they will give it their all:
“If we be in Europa League we will try to win the Europa League because I think in the end it is an important trophy. It’s not like the Champions League but for us it is important.”
I wonder how many of the fans would agree? What you will say for City is that they are more than capable of putting out a reserve side that could win the competition should they wish to, but as the games become more important as the season wears on and players get tired and injured you would think that Mancini would see the Europa League as nothing more than a side project.
In reality Manchester United should be fine against Basel and even though they have been playing badly recently they should have enough to overpower the Swiss giants. Chelsea’s situation seems a little more precarious. They must win or secure a 0-0 draw to go through against a Valencia side that scored seven in their last European game.
Despite winning the competition last year Villas-Boas insists slipping out of the Champions League is not an option, when asked what he thought about potentially being Abramovich’s first manager not to qualify from the group stages he said:
“I’m not going to answer that question. My focus is only on this game not what’s going to happen afterwards. I haven’t even thought about going out. We cannot speak about that.”
Tottenham’s performance in the Europa League perfectly demonstrates the larger clubs attitude to the competition. It is simply not worth it. Redknapp’s side are almost certain to fail to qualify from their group but then again it is hardly surprising for a manager who consistently fails to put out his best side. Even for clubs who are grateful for European opportunities the competition is an unwelcome distraction. Stoke’s form has suffered considerably after playing in Europe this season and Tony Pulis will be hoping the trend does not continue.
For more news and stories follow me on Twitter @H_Mackay
*All financial figures are from www.Uefa.com
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