The UEFA Cup Is In Decline

Since the expansion of the Champions League to include more runners up than champions, the UEFA Cup has been in terminal decline.

Of course the UEFA Cup, or Europa League as it will be as of next season, has always been a second rate comparison the European Cup but now it is just a joke.

Take this example, Everton finished in fifth place in 2008 therefore automatically qualify for the Uefa Cup first round where they proceed to get beaten over two legs by Standard Liege, a team beaten in the Champions League qualifying round three by Liverpool.

Everton have a good seeding in Europe due to reaching the quarter final in last years competition and only losing on penalties.

If Everton had not finished fifth they would have qualified for the competition by being the best team in the fair play league (who hadn't already qualified for Europe) this instead went to Manchester City who qualified after two knockout rounds and got and easier draw than Everton in the first round and are now in the last 16 with a good chance of winning the thing.

This is just one case of many which makes a mockery of the competition. Last week two English teams sacrificed glory in the competition, in favour of league status (Aston Villa) and silverware (Tottenham).

Neither team's gambles paid off, Villa and Spurs exited the competition Villa drew and lost their next league games and Spurs lost narrowly in the Carling Cup final but won on Wednesday to ease relegation fears.

O'Neil's decision to rest his key players due to their unexpected success in the league (competing for the coveted fourth champions league spot) was a particularly bizarre one, considering that his side started in the Uefa cup back on 19 July through Intertoto Cup.

Surely if you're going to go to the trouble of qualifying for the bloody competition at least try to win it, rather than trying to keep alive slim hopes of getting a qualifying for the superior competition.  The changing of priorities of managers shows the sheer pointlessness of this cup.

Uefa have rebranded the cup for next year as I said. It will consist of three qualifying rounds then 48 teams competing in eight groups then a round of 32. Different branding, same old rubbish, note to Uefa no matter how you rebrand a can of cheap value beans it's still the same barely edible food inside.

This is the same more complex rules and same old barely watchable group stages where teams from the big five countries are usually teams who finished below fourth? I mean who wants to watch games like Artmedia Bratislava and Braga other than supporters of those teams?

The fact that the losers from the Champions League third qualifying round and the Champions League group stage third place teams get in at various points devalues the competition even more.

As a Manchester United fan I was glad we didn't have to go through the ordeal when we failed to qualify for the knock out stages of Champions League three seasons ago.

The other thing which makes this competition pointless is the prize, wait for it, yes that's right entry into next year's cup. It's like playing Mario Kart and your prize being to get to complete the same race again.

Although I've done nothing but lay into the Uefa Cup I do believe the Champions League is to blame. Since there were more runners up than the Champions League this competition has suffered.

Rather than having sometimes the second best team in Germany playing the second best in Germany we have a far more mediocre cup with so few teams actually wanting to win it.

I would love to see how the rest of Europe sees the competition rather than just here in Britain. Please tell me what is the point of the UEFA Cup?