Do English clubs deserve entry to the Uefa Cup?

How important is the Uefa Cup? Teams seem to fight all season to get a place in the competition but then when it comes to it, they don’t seem to care. I’m talking about the English teams here and not necessarily any others.

The three English teams left in the competition prior to yesterday seemed to view the competition in different ways.

Prize

Tottenham made it into the Uefa Cup as a prize for winning the Carling Cup. Last night, in the second leg against Shakhtar Donetsk, they made eleven changes to their team and rested all but the goalkeeper of whom are likely to play in this season’s Carling Cup final on Sunday. This sent a strong message that the Carling Cup, regarded as unimportant by a majority of the Premier League teams, is more important to Tottenham than the Uefa Cup.

Ironically, of course, the prize for a win on Sunday will be entry into next season’s Uefa Cup, which is presumably regarded as a hinderance rather than a treat.

Crashed out

The next English team to take the field was Aston Villa who lost 2-0 at CSKA Moscow and, like Tottenham, also crashed out of the competition. For the trip to Moscow Martin O’Neill made eight changes to his side from last week’s Premier League game against Chelsea. The only reason it was eight rather than eleven is because Villa don’t have a big enough squad.

Martin O’Neill has made it very clear that fighting for a top four finish in the Premier League and therefore earning Champions League qualification, is his only priority this season. Of course, if they fail and finish fifth, their prize will be entry into this competition that they apparently care little about.

Progression

The third team representing England in the Uefa Cup was Manchester City. They actually qualified to the next round after beating FC Copenhagen 2-1 at the City of Manchester Stadium. They played their strongest team and after the game. Manager Mark Hughes said, “Further progression in a top European competition can only be good for us.”

Presumably Hughes means, ‘can only be good for us as we have nothing else to play for.’

Unless Mark Hughes has a very different football view to that of Harry Redknapp and Martin O’Neill, one assumes that Mark Hughes would not regard the Uefa Cup as a worthwile competition if City were still in the FA Cup, Carling Cup or challenging for the top four in the Premier League.

Raise the profile

If this is the case, and the argument looks fairly overwhelming, what can Uefa do to raise the profile of the competition?

It seems that the Premier League has become the be all and end all of football in England. Clubs in the lower leagues are struggling and going into administration and Premier League teams play their reserves and youth players in the Carling Cup and increasingly, in the FA Cup as well. There is no doubt that the Premier League is a great competition and a fine spectacle, but is it enough to all but eliminate the rest of the game in England?

Adventure

The problem with the Uefa Cup seems to echo what has happened to the Carling Cup in England. It seems to be an inconvenience to the English sides rather than an exciting adventure in Europe and a chance to win some top silverware.

Despite this, it seems that even the Carling Cup is more important to Tottenham than the Uefa Cup!

Cynic

I’m not a great expert in European football but looking at the teams being fielded by the other clubs in the Uefa Cup, this seems to be a peculiarly English problem. Manchester City are flying the flag for England but a cynic might suggest that has more to do with Mark Hughes thinking he needs some sort of success to keep his job than any real belief that the Uefa Cup is of real relevance or importance.

It isn’t just the clubs, it is the fans as well. Tottenham get a crowd of 36,000 for their Premier League games, 34,000 for the FA Cup and just 30,000 for last night’s game.

At Manchester City, over 40,000 watched their last Premier League home game against Middlesbrough, whilst just 26,000 turned up last night.

Respect

This is a worrying situation for Uefa. If the English clubs are not treating the competition with respect, then maybe they need to act. If our clubs don’t want to take part in the competition, maybe Uefa should consider whether they should.