By Joshua Abbas-Owusu.
The new footballing season brought a different competition called the Europa Conference league. Why is it being made?
You could point to one thing and that’s UEFA, trying to make more money. It allows UEFA to get even more money from TV rights, so then when you add the earnings, they already make from the Champions League, the Europa League, and now the Conference League UEFA will continue making a lot of profit from the likes of BT and ESPN and various other networks from around the world and they will benefit from that.
But then when you read more into it you will realise that it allows teams from smaller leagues to participate in a European competition for potentially the first time, where in the past that may not have been a possibility since it was hard for teams to qualify for the Champions League or the Europa League group stage.
This competition being made allows the clubs involved to generate money for themselves through gate receipts and TV revenue.
But when talking from a sporting point of view it allows teams like Rennes, Feyenoord, and Union Berlin a shot at glory because their chances of winning a European trophy in the top two premiere tournaments, which are the Champions League, and the Europa League are remote, so this opportunity presents a chance to add a trophy to their cabinets.
It also allows teams from the likes of Estonia and Cyprus among many others a chance to participate in a European competition bearing in mind this could be the first time they do so in 20 years teams like Union Berlin, therefore making the tournament much more obtainable for fans from these clubs.
UEFA's reasoning for making such a competition is because they want to give smaller teams who might not get that much broadcasting money from their respective leagues a chance to generate some revenue through this competition. Having European football for these clubs helps attract more fans from different countries like Norway, Malta, Estonia, and Gibraltar this bolsters the viewership of the tournament, because fans from these countries do not watch the team that they support participate in European tournaments. As well it gives fans who are not normally involved in European adventures a chance to experience something rare in terms of going to different nations instead of having to go to the same old locations when they are playing league games.
Expanding on the financial point every team in the competition gets over 2.5 million pounds, this might not be seen as life changing money for the likes of Spurs or Roma, but they are already rich plus their respective leagues generate enough revenue however for the smaller clubs, it would make all the difference because it could help with transfers, potentially improve the training ground or a debt the club might be suffering from.
When you make it to the group stage each team you beat, you get around 426,000 pounds, and grabbing a draw is worth 115,000 pounds. If you go all the way you will get a cool 15 million pounds. It also has positives as it helps smaller teams financially.
From a sporting perspective having the Europa Conference League can potentially look negative because teams will feel that having a third tier competition means that anyone can just get into Europe. Whereas in the past participating in a European tournament was seen as a privilege and that it showed you have earned that right while now it is seen as a free ticket for anyone to have a bad season but still get into European competition.
Also having the Conference League allows the Europa League to become a much harder European competition. It makes the weaker teams participate in the Europa conference League therefore having better teams competing in the other tournaments. For that reason, it will make managers select stronger lineups because they can no longer afford to take the opposition for granted anymore and that gives the fans a better spectacle.
Even though the introduction of this competition drew a lot of skepticism, it allows the smaller teams to finally enjoy a European adventure and attracts new fans from different nations, plus it gives the teams participating a financial boost.
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