Beginning with the season 2021/22, a third tournament will be held on a par with the Champions League and the Europa League, which currently has the working title Europa League - 2 (UEL2). Its creation was approved by the Executive Committee of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), held in Dublin.
32 teams will take part in the competition. In the 1/8 finals will fall eight leaders of the groups, as well as the winners of the additional round. Its participants will be teams that finished second in their UEL2 quartets, as well as third places at a similar stage of the Europa League.
Changes will undergo and qualifying stage of the second most important club tournament of the Old World. Only the third and fourth qualifying rounds preceding the main stage will remain in it.
In total, in 15 game days 141 matches will be played within UEL2. All of them will be held at the same intervals as the meetings of two other European cups. Moreover, his fights are scheduled to be held on Thursday - as well as meetings of the Europa League, in connection with which the games of the championship will not overlap with the Champions League. Finals will be held on Wednesdays.
As in the case of the Europa League, the winner of the competition will have the opportunity to play in the next season in a higher-ranking tournament, regardless of what place will take in his domestic championship.
The introduction of a new competition will increase the number of associations whose representatives participate in European competitions. If now their minimum number is 26, then in 2021 it will increase to at least 34. According to UEFA President Alexander Cheferin, this way the organization satisfied the request of less eminent teams who previously didn’t have enough practice in the international arena.
“UEL2 has grown out of an ongoing dialogue with clubs. This was made possible thanks to a strategic approach. The result corresponds to the tasks of UEFA to increase in parallel the level and accessibility of our club tournaments, ”the organization’s official website quotes the official.
It is reported that with the advent of the new format, the amount of prizes will increase in both the “senior” and “junior” leagues of Europe. At the moment, a fixed amount for participation in the group round is almost € 3 million, with the winner receiving € 8.5 million. Additional bonuses depend on the results of specific matches and the cost of television broadcasts.
At the same time, the number of teams participating in each of the three tournaments is 32, which will positively affect the commercial component of all European football. However, all financial issues, as well as problems related to the name, coefficient system and commercial strategy will be finally solved in 2019.
Thus, if we apply the standings of the Russian championship at the end of the 2017/18 season to the new format, the distribution of six teams between three tournaments would look like this. Directly in the group stage of the Champions League would be “Lokomotiv” and CSKA, who took the first and second places, respectively. The winner of the bronze medals "Spartak" would start his way there, but with the third qualifying round.
As for the Europa League, only Krasnodar could be in it. At the same time, he could immediately count on the group stage.
Directly in UEL2 from Russia there would be two teams. Zenit would have had the opportunity to enter the group stage from the third qualifying round, and Ufa from the second.
As for the countries of the first three of the UEFA rating, the Spanish “Sevilla”, the English “Burnley” and the Italian “Atalanta” could debut in the new tournament.
The idea of holding such a tournament has already been supported by the head of Juventus Turin and the chairman of the Association of European Clubs (ECA) Andrea Angielli.
"We believe that this innovation will contribute to an honest and balanced competition under the auspices of UEFA and will allow football to continue to be the number one sport that our organization is ready to contribute to," the Guardian quotes the businessman.
Thus, UEFA finally abandoned the idea of creating the Super League, in which, according to rumors, 16 European top clubs could take part. Previously, this information was refuted by Cheferin. He noted that the union does not seek to restrict access to international competitions to less strong and eminent teams.