The second most powerful European tournament - the Europa League, has not attracted as much interest since its inception as UEFA hoped to reform it. Hopes to change this established situation emerged this season, although the reason for it would not be UEFA's efforts over the years to raise the prestige of this tournament, but the unsuccessful performances of famous teams in the Champions League, where you can expect attention-grabbing clashes in the knockout rounds. However, this requires the maximum motivation of disappointed teams at the start of the season and successful draws, and another season without intrigue can ultimately kill any attempts to make the Europa League interesting to a wide audience.
The increase in the prestige and interest of the Europa League in recent years has been one of UEFA's most important goals. If another tournament organized by it - the Champions League attracts huge interest and brings in substantial profits, the Europa League rarely received as much attention from the media and ordinary viewers. In order to change this, in recent years UEFA has made several decisions aimed at revitalizing the prestige of this league.
Comparing the Champions League to the Europa League, one cannot fail to notice the huge differences in prize money. Although in recent years UEFA has tried to reduce it and has increased payouts to teams playing in the Europa League, even now they cannot come close to the sums that teams participating in the Champions League receive. The maximum amount that teams can earn in the Europa League is 15.71 million euros, excluding the money distributed to countries. Meanwhile, just reaching the group stage in the Champions League guarantees a payout of 12.7 million euros, which increases significantly later if the teams perform well in the tournament.
Although increased payouts have been a solid boost for teams from smaller countries, it is clear that such amounts are not a motivating factor for the strongest clubs in the European championships to put all their efforts into the Europa League tournament. For this reason, it was not uncommon for even in recent years the Top 5 European leagues clubs to often send their secondary squads to this tournament, focusing on the domestic championship.
UEFA also tried to raise the importance and prestige of the tournament by granting the winners a ticket to the next year's Champions League. This decision proved to be a success, but once again did not have the desired effect that UEFA expected: in recent years we saw Premier League teams trying to fight for a Champions League ticket in the Europa League - in the 2015-2016 season, Liverpool, and last year Manchester United. If the latter won their ticket to the Champions League last year by winning the tournament, Liverpool's journey in the Europa League ended with a loss in the final to the Sevilla team. Although the Champions League ticket indeed increased the motivation of these clubs in the tournament, the appropriate situation is necessary, which does not happen often - the most famous clubs usually secure their places in the Champions League through their domestic championship, making this incentive completely insignificant to them.
In November, Atletico captain Gabi called the Europa League "s**t piece", claiming that their club would easily win this competition. The disappointment of a player from the Madrid team that had been in the Champions League semifinals for four years in a row was understandable - not a single team competing in the Europa League at that time had achievements similar to theirs, and the level of the league was best reflected by the opponents they had to overcome last season.
The Manchester United team, winner of the league last season, had to eliminate the Saint-Etienne, Rostov, Anderlecht, Celta Vigo, and Ajax teams in the knockout rounds in the battle for the title. None of these teams had played in the Champions League knockout rounds in recent years, and some of these clubs are rare guests at European tournaments. It is not surprising that looking at such a list of potential opponents, for the club fighting for the Champions League gold in the final for the second time in the last four years, it did not seem like a very serious and attention-worthy challenge.
It seems that UEFA itself began to doubt the possibilities of increasing interest in the league, as the number of the strongest European league clubs in the Champions League increased even more in its new system. Just as it seemed that the interest in this league was doomed to be perpetually hidden in the vast auditorium of the Champions League, this year the situation can finally be changed by the clubs that performed poorly in the group stage of the Champions League. Atletico, Borussia, Napoli, and RB Leipzig - all these clubs were considered contenders to enter the Champions League battles, but for various reasons, they all ended their campaign in this tournament and moved to the Europa League battles. Suddenly, in this tournament, until then featuring the most famous names and title contenders, Milan and Arsenal clubs faced serious competition, and the interest in the Europa League visibly increased.
However, no one is safe from the fact that clubs dropped from the Champions League may prioritize protecting their main players in this tournament and allow less heard-of footballers to shine. The gold teams of the Europa League would have to play nine additional matches, and for teams with a smaller selection of high-level players, such as Napoli, increasing the workload of the main players for the sake of performance in the Europa League can be an excessive luxury, especially, if this club will still be fighting for the Serie A trophy in February.
The draws for the knockout rounds of this league will take place on Monday, and now you can already anticipate some famous teams facing each other. We saw many famous clubs in the 2015-2016 Europa League knockout rounds, but then the draws determined that the three most interesting matches: Borussia - Tottenham, Liverpool - Manchester United, and Borussia - Liverpool, took place even before the semifinal stage, when there was still a considerable way to go for the title, and the temporary interest did not last long, especially after the disappointing dynamics of last season's knockout rounds.
Considering the upcoming changes in the Champions League and the popularity of previous tournaments, this season could be crucial for the Europa League. If the disappointed teams at the start of the season show their ambitions to fight for the Europa League trophy and fans will see not only smaller league teams wanting to demonstrate their abilities but also breathtaking clashes of famous clubs - this project will once again inspire hope to attract viewers who have been fascinated by the beauty of Champions League matches. However, if the most famous clubs once again disdain this tournament, the UEFA Europa League may be forever doomed to be a tournament of smaller countries' teams, attracting more attention only when their supported club plays in it.
