Champions League And Europa League Gap Set To Be Bridged By Sevilla?

Finally, the Europa League should take a few significant steps to some overdue recognition—in the UK, at least, where it has been routinely lampooned ever since its inception.

For the first time, the winners will receive the supplementary reward (to accompany the 15kg trophy) of a place in next season’s Champions League. If holders Sevilla retain their crown on Wednesday and Valencia get through their Champions League play-off in August, La Liga will have five participants in the group stage.

This is a footnote for now, however, as we look at a policy that is the logical conclusion to the reformatting and re-branding of the UEFA Cup. This is only the competition’s sixth season as the Europa League, so it seems a shame that so many rushed to judge its new look as a success or failure.

The reasoning was sound, with a shift to a closer shape an attempt to ape the Champions League itself, and to begin bridging the gap between the top table and the rest in European football. It has worked to an extent already, with Atletico Madrid winning in 2010 and 2012 before going on to make the 2014 Champions League semi-final.

Now there’s an extra helping hand in the quest to narrow the divide, it will be interesting to see what happens next, particularly if Sevilla emerge triumphant. They have certainly paid their dues in the competition.

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If Unai Emery’s side were to beat Dnipro in Warsaw on Wednesday, they would become the first club to win it (including in its guise as the UEFA Cup) four times—they are currently tied on three with Juventus, Inter and Liverpool.

That theme of consistent domination, proving that a club is ready to make the step up and become a contender, is important. Others who have done well in the Europa League have struggled to make an indelible mark in the senior tournament.

Zenit Saint Petersburg are a good example. Having lifted the UEFA Cup in 2008, they made their Champions League group debut the following season. They have reached the last 16 just once since then, despite ample transfer activity, including the arrivals of Hulk, Axel Witsel and Javi Garcia.

One can be more optimistic for Sevilla. For a start, they were very close to qualifying by the league route this season. Saturday’s 3-2 win at Malaga would have been good enough for the Estadio Sanchez Pizjuan club to leapfrog Valencia, had the latter’s Paco Alcacer not netted a vital late winner for Los Che.

The Andalucian club’s strategy of building brick by brick is especially compatible with the Europa League. In an interview with El Pais, published this week (in Spanish), long-serving sporting director Monchi broadly described the club’s plan as selling in order to grow.

His job has been spotting potential stars, from the club’s academy as much as the transfer market, developing them and selling them on.

They made an astronomical profit in selling Dani Alves to Barcelona, five years after he joined from Bahia, while Alves’ fellow Brazilian Julio Baptista had gone to Real Madrid in 2005 for 10 times the price that Monchi had paid Sao Paulo for him two years before. A teenage Sergio Ramos, who came through the ranks, joined Baptista in that same summer for a hefty €27 million.

It hasn’t always been plain sailing for Monchi, but he and the club pulled themselves out of a post-Juande Ramos slump by going back to basics, and profiting from forced sales to renew the playing squad.

Last year’s Europa League winners were built on the profits from selling Alvaro Negredo and Jesus Navas. This time the iconic Ivan Rakitic, Alberto Moreno and Federico Fazio generated the cash for the club to play with. Their options are such that the prolific Kevin Gameiro will probably start on the bench in Poland.

Widespread press speculation in Italy suggests that Emery himself might be the next to go (as reported by Football Italia), but Monchi provides the continuity. If all else goes to plan in the next week, Sevilla could be set to prove how a modestly run club might use the Europa League as a trampoline to greater things.