Europa League 2

[JurgenKlopp]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46421656

'Europa League 2': Uefa confirms new tournament from 2021

• 32 minutes ago
• From the sectionEuropean Football

Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin confirmed the news after their meeting in Dublin
A third European club competition with the working title 'Europa League 2' will be introduced from 2021, Uefa has confirmed.

The seventh-placed team from the Premier League will enter the play-offs of the new tournament.

As part of Uefa's 2021-2024 cycle, the Europa League will be halved in size to 32 teams with an extra play-off round between the group stage and last 16.

The new tournament will be played on Thursdays alongside the Europa League.

Every country's champions will still enter the Champions League, but the other teams from smaller countries will go straight into 'UEL2' qualifying instead of the Europa League's early rounds.

The new competition and Europa League will have the same format - eight groups of four teams with the winners going into the last 16. There will be a play-off before that round for the teams who finish second in the group and sides who finish third in the groups of the higher tournament.

The winners of the tournament will qualify for the following season's Europa League.

The Champions League format does not change.

Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin said: "The new competition makes Uefa's club competitions more inclusive than ever before. There will be more matches for more clubs, with more associations represented in the group stages.

"This competition was born out of ongoing dialogue with clubs through the European Club Association."

At least 34 countries will have teams in a group stage, compared to 26 at the moment.

 

[bluebell]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46421656

'Europa League 2': Uefa confirms new tournament from 2021

• 32 minutes ago
• From the sectionEuropean Football

Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin confirmed the news after their meeting in Dublin
A third European club competition with the working title 'Europa League 2' will be introduced from 2021, Uefa has confirmed.

The seventh-placed team from the Premier League will enter the play-offs of the new tournament.

As part of Uefa's 2021-2024 cycle, the Europa League will be halved in size to 32 teams with an extra play-off round between the group stage and last 16.

The new tournament will be played on Thursdays alongside the Europa League.

Every country's champions will still enter the Champions League, but the other teams from smaller countries will go straight into 'UEL2' qualifying instead of the Europa League's early rounds.

The new competition and Europa League will have the same format - eight groups of four teams with the winners going into the last 16. There will be a play-off before that round for the teams who finish second in the group and sides who finish third in the groups of the higher tournament.

The winners of the tournament will qualify for the following season's Europa League.

The Champions League format does not change.

Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin said: "The new competition makes Uefa's club competitions more inclusive than ever before. There will be more matches for more clubs, with more associations represented in the group stages.

"This competition was born out of ongoing dialogue with clubs through the European Club Association."

At least 34 countries will have teams in a group stage, compared to 26 at the moment.

Teams don't take the Europa league seriously, why would they this?

 

[JurgenKlopp]

God knows, trying to make the EL more manageable I guess in dropping it from whey seems like 100 teams to 32. Just do that, no need to create a second division essentially

 

[Holle]

Brimg back the Cup Winner‘s Cup.

No need for anythong else really.

 

[the count]

More teams in European competition means more money for EUFA presumably.
While we turn our noses up at the Europa league there are plenty of counties and teams happy to be in it.

 

[darkstarexodus]

Great for clubs from smaller leagues. Bad for teams in the big leagues slumming it. Maybe a chance to get a trophy tho. And makes the current Europa less unwieldy.

 

[Silver Sean]

Here's an idea. Have a champions only competition. Maybe call it the European Cup. Then let people who finish lower down the table compete in a second competition. Maybe call it the UEFA Cup. Then have all the country's cup winners compete in a third one. Maybe call it the Cup Winners' Cup.

 

[Modo]

With four teams from the top leagues entering the Champions League, the Cup winners cup format is a bit redundant and was rightly abolished.
Nowadays usually one of the top four teams also win the cup competition, which obviously means that they'll rather enter the Champions League and their spot goes to the other finalist who lost the competition so basically it becomes the "cup losers cup".
The cup winners cup was a decent competition when the European cup only consisted of league winners.