Main And Secondary European Competitions For Team Soccer

The UEFA Cup was substituted with Europa League a few years back. In much earlier days Europe had 2 lower tier competitions - UEFA Cup and Cup Winners Cup. The Cup Winners Cup merged with UEFA Cup, before the latter was changed to Europa League.

For the teams that participate in the Champions League, the teams which were eliminated at the start of the Group Stage may stand a chance to play in the Europa League. The team that wins the Europa League at the end of the season will be drafted into the Champions League following season.

Despite UEFA wanting to market Europa League by placing similar points as the Champions League, the tournament never really gained much recognition. Imagine it as the third place in FIFA World Cup tournament, which people generally do not care about. Furthermore the financial side of it does not appeal to the clubs from the tier 1 leagues in Europe.

As one example of how large the gap in prize money could be, the victor of the Europa League having a perfect record while in the Group Stage will get only 25% extra in reward money than any team which simply participated in the Champions League first Group Stage. If for example the team did not progress towards second round of Champions League, but qualified for the Europa League via third spot in the Champions League Group Stage, there is extra reward money to be accounted for.

Let us look at the value of the 2 competitions from another perspective. Whenever a team wins the Europa League without obtaining maximum points during the Group Stage, it brings home fewer prize money when compared to a team that just took part in the Champions League. What's more, only the champion in the Europa League can secure a ticket to play in the Champions League next season.

This isn't the way it is for other competitions as both the finalists are almost always getting qualified towards the higher-level competition. For all of the teams within the tier 1 European soccer nations, they don't view it to be a great thing being in the Europa League as it's just not worth it comparing to the other competitions. However, teams from Spain may be the only exception within the tier 1 soccer coutries as Real Madrid and Barcelona very often conquer their home competitions. 

Champions League remains to be the sole competition really worth going after for big clubs in Europe and this trend will remain for quite some time. Present day European leagues setup lets the top teams to be rewarded much more than the small teams, as we see their gap increases day-to-day. The value of Europa League is frequently questioned and many have preferred to discontinue the competition entirely.

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