Europa League steps out from the shadows

Is it right and proper that Manchester United and Manchester City are obliged to play football matches in the most obscure, recession-battered, dreary boondocks of Europe?

But enough of their home fixtures in the Premier League.  The Europa League draw last Friday produced some glamorous fixtures in the last 32 of the tournament.  Manchester United face Ajax in a clash-of-the-titans tie destined to have Channel 5 executives drooling.

City, meanwhile, will play the holders Porto in another high-profile tie.  Roberto Mancini’s side are likely to take the tournament more seriously than their neighbours; they are still at the stage where they need to win as many trophies as they can to legitimize their status as one of the continent’s major clubs.  Besides, City have greater squad depth than just about any club in the world, so can afford to rotate their side.

It all adds up to an more-than-usually appetizing round of fixtures.  Stoke City v Valencia looks good, too.  As long as you ignore Stoke.

The competition has its detractors and it is not hard to see why.  With the Champions League ever increasing in profile and importance, the other UEFA club competition appears increasingly tacked-on.  Tottenham Hotspur could hardly disguise their desire to be knocked out – though Harry Redknapp’s joyless dismissal of perhaps the club’s best chance of a trophy this season is hardly worthy of praise – and fielded scratch sides in most matches.

The tournament feels bloated, with too many teams, too many qualifying rounds – Fulham’s campaign began in late June, for heaven’s sake – and little glamour.  Thursday night football also has an inbuilt smell of artifice about it.

Perhaps the best thing to do would be for UEFA to bring back the much missed Cup Winners’ Cup.  The confederation would have an extra Final, surely a better occasion than the Super Cup, and an extra high-profile night for television viewers around the globe.

The problem is the wretched group stage.  Group stages work in international tournaments because teams only play each other once; every match assumes a massive importance.  Play on a home-and-away basis, however, and clubs begin to feel they can coast.  There have been few gripping nights for the English clubs in the Champions League group stages in recent seasons, until their poor performances this time around left Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City all needing a result on Matchday 6.

The group stages, though, guarantee teams a minimum of six matchdays, meaning more revenue from both attendances and television rights.  Another problem for UEFA is the end of communism; not in the political sense, but in the fact that what used to be the USSR is now myriad nations, each with their own domestic league and collection of qualifying teams.  The same applies to post-break-up Yugoslavia.

So we must continue to rely on the knock-out stages for real drama.  Either that or hope that the English sides continue to be mediocre in Europe.  This season’s performances have often been dismal, with only Arsenal and Stoke City sealing progress with a game to spare and only Chelsea winning through in the final round of group games.  In football as in real life, the British are having trouble in Europe.

So let’s enjoy the knock-out stages for what they are; genuine, competitive football.  Matches aren’t important simply because they are in a particularly high-profile tournament; they are important when they matter.