Europa winners for Champions By Football Italia staff The winners of the Europa League trophy are set to be given automatic entry into the Champions League from 2015-16. UEFA are due to unveil the plans in London tomorrow during the Executive Committee meeting. In a bid to increase interest in the Europa League, which already replaced the UEFA Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup, there will be an extra prize on top of the silverware. The winners of the Europa League will gain qualification for the group phase of the Champions League the following season. Curiously, the two Finalists this year – Chelsea and Benfica – had both gone into the Europa League after their elimination from the Champions League. Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis explained why Serie A sides were not too upset to go out of the tournament early. “The Champions League brings in money, whereas the Europa League costs clubs money. The Europa League should be abolished, as it is of no interest to the media, nor to the fans seeing as the stadiums are often half-empty. “This competition does not bring a healthy economic return for the clubs. Instead, it just ruins the domestic campaigns because teams who play on two fronts inevitably lose something in terms of their League form.”
Now tell me is what Dela said wrong ? He also talked about how stupid it was to allow clubs that were in the CL to drop down to the Europa league.
If they abolish it, then abolish it, but they won't. If you're in it, try to win it, or forfeit your place to a team below you that may try to compete in it. Seems senseless to just give up on it because it hurts the league and hurts revenues in other ways. I know I'm being an idealist, and that De Laurentis is right in terms of game day revenues, but is that true of teams from other leagues? Are Bundesliga, EPL, Liga's stadiums empty when their teams compete in Europa? No.
i have found that in this day and age the average Italian doesnt care about futbol as much as they used to when i was growing up in the 80s and 90s. Or they are just casual fans, like they watch games here and there or when they can. Where as English, germans, spanish are passionate and u still see their lower table and even 2nd division stadiums packed. especially england...even the small teams have fans full of hope and their reactions to goals, etc is praiseworthy, even though i dont like their football. The hardcore italian fans or ultras are more of like gangs which half of them in the stadium arent even watchign the games, they are chanting, doing fireworks and startign fights. lol i think italians just need feed that passion back into people about football and part of it is teams making their fans hopeful. If you keep hoping to get somewhere but your team decides to sell players or crap out of EL and u have no hopes of scudettos, then what is the point of cheering? just hoping you can stay in the league? well over time u stop caring. These match fixing scandals also dont help, people just say italian football is rigged and what is the piont of watchign? this is what i dont get why teams like lazio, napoli, even roma and them dont take EL seriously...if ur not close to a scudetto, why not try to win some kind of trophy to keep your fans happy? i see these italian team managaments as selfish and one by one they are losing fans. cuz all they care about is putting few bucks more in their pocket rather than building a successful team.
Probably why you do not get it is you are wrong going from what you have written in your post. Like you and your bretheren many people in Italy are gloryhunters so they support Juventus, Internazionale and Milan at the detriment of their local team. It happens to a lesser extent in Spain as well. Lazio did take the Europa League seriously. We played 14 matches in Europa League and lost once. Even then most of our fans do not care about it. It is an unrewarding competition. Our players suffered from fatigue from playing so many matches and our League form suffered. Napoli did not care and they finished in the Champions League places. The Europa League does not offer enough financial incentive to take it seriously compared with the Champions League.
Fix stadiums and control the dumb arsed ultra's that take things too far, and maybe more people will start coming again.
first off dont assume the reason i became juve fan was that, around the time i started watchin juve i had no clue about how the leagues, CL and everything was or whether which team had the most championships, etc....and if that was the case i would've been a supporter of a bigger club like barca or man u if it was glory hunter...furthermore i wouldnt stick with my team thru rough times. around the time i started watching juve i was a 9 yr old boy in Iran with limited chances to watch the games, but i liked baggio, schillaci and other players cuz of the way they played the game and decided to follow the team...anyways....alot of fans of smaller teams in thsoe other leagues are also a fan of a bigger team. Just cuz someone like QPR doesnt mean they're not a chelsea or arsenal fan...alot of times they are fans of both teams. and the excuse of fatigue caused your team to mess up serie A is a weak excuse, we had CL and we didnt miss a step in the league...same with milan and Napoli played 2 less games than u guys. you're telling me those 2 games can make and break you? also why was UEFA cup much more important back in the day and EL is not? i'm personally happy when my team won UEFA and we won it 3 times, i'm proud of it....i loved seeing baggio lift that trophy...and im sure chelsea fans were happy they lifted EL trophy this year too.
No. Napoli played six less games then us in Europe. Furthermore Napoli sent out weak teams which is why Napoli lost five of the eight games they played in Europe this year. Milan played eight games in Europe as well. Lazio played mostly full strength team so it is an excuse and a legitimate excuse as well, unless of course you have a better thoery of explaining the fact we fell away. The UEFA Cup was worth more because there was more money involved. Before the Champions League the European Cup was only available to League winners so UEFA Cup still had big teams in it. With the advent of the Champions League the UEFA Cup was third even below the Cup Winners' Cup. The Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Cup were amalgamated to form the Europa League. As I told you before the Europa League does not provide enough financial reward to make it a competition worth taking seriously and that is not just inclusive to Italy.