2012/13 Europa League thread

[stokeriño]

I have a dislike for Shamrock Rovers extending entirely from my current FM game and their Winning of All Things. So...fuck 'em.

As I said, not including the CL dropouts is probably a good idea. It's just a shame that AVB couldn't go without contradicting himself seconds later.

[Colly]

Not desiring a Lazio or Benfica tie, then?

With a few exceptions (Lazio, Benfica) I'm delighted to be in Pot 2.

As for the CL thing, it sticks some biggish names into the EL, but there's no real logic as to why bar money, or when they do it. AVB's call to actually do it is a bit odd, but why should a team that goes out in the CL groups get a second bite at a trophy while a team that goes out in the first knockout round gets nothing? Why don't they just have the CL runner up play the EL 'winner' at the end for the actual EL trophy? Just stop doing it!

[stokeriño]

Missed that bit of your post.

The more you accept the lack of logic in the whole EL/CL UEFA setup, the more the temptation to push it to its limits...you know, pro wrestling style...

Last year Atletico beat Bilbao in the final (which took place a week before the Chelsea/Bayern CL final, of course), then all of a sudden "OH MY GOD IT'S REAL MADRID! The beaten CL semi-finalists are on the pitch, demanding a shot at the Europa trophy right now! Atletico will accept on one condition...that Real put their La Liga title on the line as well! IT'S TITLE VERSUS TITLE FOLKS! SOMEONE GET A REFEREE IN HERE!"

My brain may have gone a little bit silly over a dull lunch break.

[Colly]

Barca come down midmatch holding the Money in the...

No.

[stokeriño]

I now have a desire to see David Luiz attack someone with a steel chair.

[Colly]

Me too, but I'd imagine in your head its not John Terry.

[stokeriño]

I dunno, I could see a paint-by-numbers "I'm tired of living in your shadow, it's my time to be captain" feud coming of it.

[EddieG]

Luiz only got the chair when he ripped it out of Terry's hand, who tried to hit him first but it just bounced off his hair.

[lanky316]

I wish, I wish Graham Westley wasn't such a spoilsport so that I could use the planned Stevenage goal celebration for this discussion but he said "it was one joke too many"

[Adam]

When did they decide letting losers from the CL into the UEFA Cup was a good idea anyway?

[Baddar]

I guess it's because the bigger the team, the more people will tune in.

A possible Man Utd vs. Man City final is bigger than Djurgardens vs. Basel, for example.

But for the record, I'd prefer it if CL losers didn't get entered.

[TCO]

If you take out the CL losers, I'd assume you'd have to take out 16 of the teams from the group stages too. So there'd be 8 group winners and 8 runners-up teams progressing into a final 16. That's all well and good for English teams who don't really care about it but removing the CL losers would essentially cost 16 teams their place in the group stages and the revenue attached with playing a full set of group fixtures, like Shamrock Rovers as already mentioned.

Unless of course UEFA decided to add 4 more groups to make it 64, because the more the merrier!

[Adam]

Or do it like they used to and just have more teams in the groups?

[TCO]

Ugh, nothing worse than 8 group matches though although I believe in the earlier format you didn't play everyone home and away?

It's a mess either way so it doesn't really matter what happens

[DavidMarrio]

Personally I prefer the old UEFA Cup straight knockout format throughout the whole tournament, I kinda felt adding group stages made it the Champions League Lite edition. I didn't even know the group stages had been going on as long as they have, the last time it was a straight knockout was 2003-2004 when Valencia won it.

I'd rather they scrapped the 3rd place in the Champions League comes into the Europa League and just add an extra 4 groups. Allow teams from countries with lower coefficients these extra 16 spots (even though that would probably mean travelling to Latvia, Belarus etc) The logic behind "Oh you aren't good enough to go through to the next round of the Champions League...here you go have a go at the Europa League instead" is silly

[Baddar]

Again, I don't think UEFA care about that. They do everything possible to ensure the biggest matches.

[Adam]

Ugh, nothing worse than 8 group matches though although I believe in the earlier format you didn't play everyone home and away?

It's a mess either way so it doesn't really matter what happens

Aye they only played each team once. You're right though it is a total mess.

[Lineker]

Looking at the seeded and unseeded teams, you could argue that we have a better set of potential opponents by being unseeded.

[Lineker]

Zenit vs. Liverpool

[Colly]

Sure we've done this one, its miles better being unseeded. Liverpool v Zenit being a good example.