Does Europe not need the Conference League? How Chelsea showed the absurdity of this tournament

The Champions League is in full swing, the Europa League has begun, and this week the Conference League will start in a new format. There are the same 36 teams, but there are such names that it becomes scary for their rivals. And in some cases, there are questions about the adequacy of the distribution of teams. Sometimes even Ukraine should think about participating in the LC. OBOZ.UA wonders whether the most footballing continent should really have so many club tournaments.

UEFA does not put the tournament on a par with others

Not all changes have been introduced in the Conference League: there will be a format of unique rivals and a common table, but an experiment was made regarding the matches. Only 6 rivals to determine the position in the table. As a result, the density of points will be insane. Then the one who scores the most will make it to the next stage. When the issue of additional indicators arises, the strength of individual clubs in terms of the ability to defend better or foul less will have an even greater impact.

It's even difficult with sponsors: to sell these competitions, we had to continue the close connection between the Europa League and the Conference League. In addition to similar brand identities, commercial rights are offered to partners and broadcasters as part of the same package. It is clear that the CL is about top-class football and viewer interest, but for the 4th draw, UEFA failed to make the CL more interesting for money providers.

Inadequate cost of participants

This year, Chelsea made it to the main stage of the UCL, and its example shows the absurdity of the tournament very well. Transfermarkt gives them 948 million euros at the moment (counting only 29 players). All the teams in the tournament combined will not reach the cost of the aristocrats! The insane number of players and their high valuation by analysts help to achieve this. And now compare the cost of the participants at the time of the draw:

In six months, the prices have changed a bit, but the Londoners would still be the most expensive in the Europa League and would be in 4th place among all participants in the three tournaments, after Real Madrid, City and Arsenal with their billions. Remember how the Blues are playing this season - would such a sum guarantee an easy victory in the tournament?

Now it's time to take a look at the cheapest teams. As many as 12 teams did not even collect 10 million! Chelsea will play against three such teams - Noah, Astana and Shamrock. Of course, it's great that the Kazakhs got the opportunity to bring the legendary English club to their stadium, but where is the adequacy? Miracles do happen, but not in the case of such a difference in class and interchangeability of London players against players with a low level of training. The other 2 teams will play at Stamford Bridge.

Even if you look further down the cost table, there are no new names in the top: "Fiorentina, Betis, Panathinaikos, Copenhagen. There is not much time left before the start of the tournament, and there will be a reassessment, but the fourfold advantage of the Londoners over their closest pursuer in terms of cost is staggering.

The new format gives no chance to outsiders

And now all these financial mastodons are going to fight with clubs whose annual budget is equal to the salary of their coach for a month. Miracles in European competitions are becoming less and less common, and representatives of the second football world rarely reach the final stages. The Conference League is about non-top teams, but they are almost deprived of this path to the trophy.

This brings up an element that is not obvious, but very important for comparison: the average age of the players. Rich clubs in Europe are full of young people, while older players are forced to make a name for themselves in weaker structures. The lower the status of the team, the more this average age approaches the 27+ mark. Only Betis has that many, while all the high-profile players in the LC are closer to the 23 mark.

In the case of the LC, it will not be like the Champions League: while in the elite, even the giants need to allocate resources for the entire new stage, here you can give all your strength at the beginning and then play up to the situation. In fact, the real tournament will only begin in the spring playoffs. But even if one of the lowly teams makes it to the playoffs, they still have to win these two games.

Ukraine has its own scores to settle with LC

Our teams are not very good friends with the Conference League: over the 3 years of its existence, 7 representatives have been there. We started out well, Dnipro-1 even reached the playoffs. In more than two dozen games, we had victories, sometimes very beautiful ones. But then it seems that we had enough of so many opportunities in European competitions and stopped fighting for the result. Starting with last year's Dnipro shame to this year's failure of two (or three?) clubs at once; Kryvbas and Polissia were eliminated without points. Subsequently, this only hinders Ukraine's position in the coefficient table.

Starting next season, we will still have 2 teams to start in the LC and the question arises - if Europe does not need the tournament, does Ukraine need it? If even frankly weak opponents can take us out, and now we can also meet strong teams like Chelsea, Betis and Fiorentina.

The argument of complicated logistics no longer looks as solid as it did in 2022 or even 2023: Ukrainian participants in European competitions have budgets, hunt for the best available players, and can prepare even for grueling distances. For those who are particularly demanding, there is an additional option: you can ask for a UPL game to be moved to a convenient city or postponed altogether to prepare for an away game on the continent. Last season, this happened; this season, Dynamo has already activated the option during the Champions League and Salzburg. It is not yet known what will happen next, given the considerable distances between the cities and the density of the schedule.

The fourth year of the Conference League is starting. It is a very pragmatic tournament, each year with unique participants and one chance in a million to succeed. Will it be just an opportunity to play against the giants, or will teams unknown to Europe make their name in the international arena? And will it show the degradation of continental club tournaments?