UEFA Cup Final

[carheex]

What's all this about this year was the last ever UEFA cup competition? What restructuirng is to take place next year?

[Reece]

It's just been re-branded as the "Europa League" next year.

[Craig_H]

[Reece]

[Craig_H]

I thought he was joking with his question - i didnt think anyone was still unaware of the Europa League thingy

[Reece]

Well if that's the case it was a spectacularly unfunny joke

[SK]

there's supposed to be 12 grupes of 4 teams next year in the Europa Cup, or something to that extent, and it's supposed to be easyer for teams from smaller footbaling nations to get into the competition(and in the CL aswell). i think it's gonna do wonders for football popularity in smaller nations.

[Kenneth]

there's supposed to be 12 grupes of 4 teams next year in the Europa Cup, or something to that extent, and it's supposed to be easyer for teams from smaller footbaling nations to get into the competition(and in the CL aswell). i think it's gonna do wonders for football popularity in smaller nations.

UEFA are giving teams from small countries across Europe to be given the chance of being slaughtered 8-0 repeatedly.

[SK]

UEFA are giving teams from small countries across Europe to be given the chance of being slaughtered 8-0 repeatedly.

you think? well maybe in the start, but you have to start somewhere, and move on from there. and in time, i'm sure, more and more clubs, will be able to attract better and better players. i for one am looking forward to seeing more clubs having a go with the big boys.

[SK]

and don't forget shaktar are the only club that beat barca this year..

[dww]

Read the official press release: http://www.uefa.com/uefa/keytopics/k...id=754085.html

More talk of branding than football. I don't think the relaunch has anything to do with improving teams or getting better games - merely an attempt to stimulate attention and stop the decrease in revenue from the UEFA cup. I suspect that it will be more of less the same ****, different name. Expect most teams from big leagues to only take it seriously if they luck out and bumble to the semis.

[dww]

A slightly more informative article:

Europa League: Guide to Uefa Cup's replacement tournament

By John Ley [Telegraph]
Last Updated: 7:09AM BST 19 May 2009

On Wednesday, Istanbul's Sukru Saracoglu Stadium hosts the final Uefa Cup final between Shakhtar Donetsk and Werder Bremen. Then, a competition that took over from the Inter Cities Fairs Cup and then Fairs Cup, in 1971, will be replaced by the Europa League, starting in July.

But, just how different will the new-look, rebranded competition be for the competition teams and fans alike?

Question: How many teams will take part in the Europa League?
Answer: A massive 185 teams can take part, including those who will drop down from the Champions League group stage.

Q: How many games will it take to win the competition?
A: It could take as many as 21 games to win the Europa League. The first leg of the first qualifying round is on July 2. There are three qualifying rounds, followed by a play-off round, with 15 losing teams from the Champions League third qualifying round coming in. Then, the 12 groups of four teams, begin their group programme, of six games, on September 17.

Q: Who will represent England?
A: The teams finishing fifth, sixth and seventh. At present, that is Everton, Aston Villa and Fulham. The fifth and sixth teams come in at the play-off stage, beginning on August 20 and would have to play 17 games to win it. The seventh side starts at the third qualifying round, on July 30, and would have to play 19 games to be champions. There is also an outside chance of having another team, via the Fair Play League.

Q: What about the InterToto Cup?
A: It is no more, abolished to accommodate the Europa League.

Q: What happens to the old Uefa Cup trophy?
A: Uefa have confirmed they will use the Uefa Cup trophy for the Europa League, so nothing changes there.

Q: Where is the first final of the Europa League taking place?
A: In the Hamburg Arena, Germany (capacity 57,274).

Q: Why the change?
A: In an attempt to enhance the profile of European football's second competition. "We believe that a new name and a new brand identity will help with sponsors and with the whole identity of the competition," said Uefa General Secretary David Taylor.

Q: When will the games take place?
A: Just as with the Uefa Cup, the Europa League ties will be played on Thursday nights – on a Wednesday during weeks when there is no Champions League action.

Q: Where will I see the games on television?
A: According to Uefa, no contract has been signed yet for the UK television rights.

Q: How has the competition been rebranded?
A: There will be centralised marketing of broadcast rights, a presenting sponsor and an official match ball, in addition to centralised sponsorship from the knockout stage. There is also a new logo.

[Rich]

Bobbins title, just hope they don't can the actual cup you win, as it looks spectacular and much better than the gaudy piece of crap that is the Premiership!

[yukpo]

make srna a red rafa

quality right back and can cover midfield too, not too expensive. you know it makes sense

[dww]

Second rate? Shakhtar prove the Uefa Cup deserves a second chance

It may be set for a summer overhaul, but this competition deserves to be celebrated even outside Donetsk

Posted by Jonathan Wilson Thursday 21 May 2009 13.20 BST guardian.co.uk

With steelworks and mines closing and unemployment rising, Donetsk has been a miserable place of late. Last night's 2–1 Uefa Cup final victory over Werder Bremen doesn't solve the economic problems but it has, at least for one night, lifted the mood – actually, probably for several if the celebrations that followed victory in the semi-final are anything to go by. If anybody doubts that the Uefa Cup matters, they should try to find a quiet bar in the Donbass tonight.

It matters also to Rinat Akhmetov, the oligarch owner who has financed an astonishing redevelopment of the club over the past 12 years. When he took over the presidency from his assassinated predecessor there were suggestions he was acting out of expediency but as the coach, Mircea Lucescu, says: "He has fallen in love with the club." Last night, after the final whistle, he seemed to be everywhere: hugging players, shaking hands with dignitaries, grasping the cup.

It matters to the players, for a European success is a European success. The younger ones – and this is a young side – may find Shakhtar is a stepping stone to greater success, but even if it is not those five Brazilians can go home with tangible reward for their European success. For Mariusz Lewandowski and Igor Duljaj, the two bald old men of the squad at 30 and 29 respectively, the chance of a glamorous move has perhaps passed, but their memories of their careers will now be moulded around a gala success.

It matters to Lucescu who, not for the first time, has proved the doubters wrong. When Shakhtar lay fifth in the Ukrainian league at the winter break, it seemed his time in Donetsk was coming to an end. Of 21 games since the spring resumption, though, Shakhtar have won 17 and drawn two, conceding just nine times. And yet they are still a progressive side, the incarnation of Lucescu's belief in neat, technical football. Both their goals last night were relatively direct in construction, but there were also beguilingly long spells of pass-and-move intricacy.

Lucescu's faith in youth is telling as well. For him it is principle as much as economic necessity. It was apparent in his early days at Dinamo Bucharest when, as Vasile Ianul, the president who appointed him in 1986, said, "Dinamo played probably the best football ever seen at the club". Lucescu's success there gave him a template from which he has never really deviated. "We had seven players under 20 years old and seven players in the national team," he said. "I realised then that you'll never win with 30-year-olds with no motivation."

Everywhere he has gone, Lucescu has implemented the same beliefs: young players, encouraged to play without fear, always passing, always interchanging. That he is a big admirer of Arsène Wenger will not come as a shock. In the past, that has led to his sides being too open. His Internazionale team, for instance, scored 25 goals in five home games but picked up only a point away in the same period, leading to his departure.

"Lucescu is a strange person," said the late Romeo Anconetani, who gave the former Dinamo winger his break outside Romania with Pisa in 1990. "After a 6–3 defeat to Inter he came to me smiling and said he was very happy to have scored three goals. I looked at him thinking he might be joking, but he was serious. I pointed out that although we had scored three, we had let in six, which was disastrous."

It had been a problem at Shakhtar too, as had Lucescu's efforts to rectify it. Since Christmas, though, the balance seems just right. "More than anything else," the centre-back Dmytro Chygrynskiy said, "we are strong in our collective team play and with our discipline on the pitch, which was one of the things we lacked in previous seasons. Before we would often play too defensively and protect our goal but fail to score, or sometimes we would score enough, but concede even more. Now our team is an integral unit."

After winning league titles with five different clubs in three different countries this at last, after a string of quarter-finals and a Cup-Winners' Cup semi-final with Dinamo Bucharest in 1990, is international success for Lucescu. He is 63 now and while the possibility of a return to Italy may present itself, he has pledged his loyalty to Akhmetov, who has, it must be said, shown unusual patience with him after a series of European disappointments.

And it matters to the fans, not least because of that victory over Dynamo Kyiv in the semi-final. Shakhtar, after years of having to hear about their rivals' two Cup-Winners' Cup victories under Valeriy Lobanovskyi, in 1975 and 1986, can now point out that it was they who were the country's first winners of a European title since independence. There was even a brief pitch invasion by a cat, evoking memories of the cock that held up Dynamo's final against Atlético Madrid in 1986.

But should it matter to the rest of us? Well, yes and no. The world, clearly, has moved on since the competition's golden age when it was arguably a harder tournament to win than the European Cup, featuring, as it did, half a dozen teams from each of the major nations. But that is only logical. The Champions League should be the pre-eminent tournament, and should feature the best sides from across Europe. You can argue about the distribution of wealth, and about the exact seeding and qualification process, but by and large it has succeeded in becoming a showcase for the best football in the world.

The Uefa Cup thus becomes, necessarily, a secondary tournament. But that doesn't mean it is a bad thing. On the contrary, it is there for those teams without the resources to compete in the Champions League, providing them with European exposure and experience, an additional revenue stream and – not that anybody really seems to factor it in these days – a chance of glory. The mass migrations of Celtic and Rangers fans for finals in recent years suggests just how much it means to clubs of their stature.

Will the rebranding of the Uefa Cup as the Europa League revolutionise our perception of it? Of course not, although the new structure is more sensible in that it will get rid of the absurd group stage that eliminated only two of five teams (as we will find again when the European Championship expands to 24 teams in 2016, any group from which more than half the sides progress will always bear a whiff of futility). A persuasive case could be made for a pan-European knock-out, but in the modern world guaranteed fixtures and the income they bring will always prevail, however much fun it would be to see Everton or Manchester City facing a one-off tie away in Maribor or Batumi.

Will English teams give the rebranded competition any more respect? Probably not, conditioned as they are to believe that qualifying for the Champions League is the greatest thing a team can achieve, and staying in the Premier League is the second greatest. But then, the competition isn't really for those who cannot see beyond the end of their own balance sheets.

It's for the likes of Zenit and Shakhtar, Werder Bremen and Rangers, Sevilla and Sporting, Marseille and, yes, Middlesbrough. Their comebacks from three down against Basel and Steaua Bucharest in 2006 stand alongside the Wilf Mannion-inspired demolition of Blackpool in 1947 (the only game his future wife Bernadette ever attended) in the collective consciousness of the club – and football, surely, is about those memories rather than the ground-out draw that secures a comfortable 13th-place finish.

Sides of that middling stature should be allowed a chance of success and the Europa League, as the Uefa Cup did, gives them a chance to dream, perhaps even to progress. So what if it's a secondary competition? Assuming you can find a sober Shakhtar fan in the next week, just ask them if it feels second rate.