#Uefa conference league winner benefits serial#

Harry Kane was naturally respectful about the competition when asked on the weekend, but qualifying for it is hardly likely to convince him to sign a new contract this summer. More importantly than taunts from opposition fans, which obviously don’t really matter, it’s not a competition that even if they won would really move the dial on the kinds of players Spurs could keep or bring in.

Don’t win it and they would get taunted for losing to Mickey-Mouse opposition in a nothing competition win it and they’d face accusations it was only a tinpot trophy anyway which hasn’t really ended that much-mentioned drought. There is some validity in this perspective, but in reality, Spurs would be on a hiding to nothing. Who, therefore, the argument goes, are Spurs to turn their noses up at a trophy given it’s 15 years since they won one?

Mourinho himself was overcome with emotion.

#Uefa conference league winner benefits serial#

Many of those in the first two iterations have loved it, and even a club the size of Roma managed by a serial winner in Jose Mourinho were delighted to win the inaugural version last year. It should be said that the Europa Conference League is a great competition for a lot of teams, including ones like Villa and Brighton, who have been starved of European football. That’s one of many reasons I believe it would benefit Spurs not to be in the competition next season. Without those spare midweeks, his view was that Tottenham’s small squad probably wouldn’t have had the legs to overhaul Arsenal and claim fourth place.

In fact, the main positive Spurs got from the competition was that early exit, which Antonio Conte later acknowledged helped them qualify for the Champions League at the end of the season. It’s fair to say Tottenham’s first foray into the Europa Conference League two years ago doesn’t conjure up especially happy memories. Perhaps it was when Spurs had to forfeit their match against Rennes because of a COVID-19 outbreak, thereby exiting the competition before the knockout stage. When did you fall in love with the Europa Conference League? Was it losing away at Pacos de Ferreira? Or when Harry Winks emotionally said “we’re meant to be a team” after the defeat at Vitesse? Maybe it was the humiliation at NS Mura? The case against the Conference League: Charlie Eccleshare So, The Athletic’s Tottenham writers have debated whether they think qualifying for the competition would benefit the club… The Europa Conference League is a curious competition, raising a number of issues from a Tottenham perspective, including glory versus pragmatism, Spurs’ current standing in European football, and what their ultimate aims are at the moment. This would have a direct influence on the Super Cup, as the European champions would vacate their spot in the fixture - and it would be filled by the Conference League winners, who as of 2024 would face off against whoever claims the Europa League title.The ideal outcome for Spurs from here would be to qualify for the Europa League by coming sixth, but as it stands they look marginally more likely than Brighton and Villa to finish seventh and collect the European consolation (or, depending on your perspective, booby) prize. Not for the moment, at least European soccer’s governing body reportedly has plans to change this.Īccording to French newspaper L’Équipe, UEFA is considering kicking off future campaigns with a four-team competition held before the start of the Champions League season, with the winners of Europe’s elite club trophy - but not the Europa League holders - taking part alongside “three top clubs”. As the continent’s third-tier tournament, the Conference League doesn’t get a berth. That’s because the European club season’s curtain-raiser is only open to the champions of UEFA’s top two men’s club competitions. José Mourinho’s team became the first team to lift the trophy last season, but that didn’t earn them a ticket to the Super Cup, which is to be contested by Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday. One question surrounding the Super Cup is the absence of Roma, the reigning UEFA Conference League champions. Why don’t the Conference League winners play in the Super Cup? In the fixture, the winners of the Champions League and Europa League face off to decide which team is better, and, incidentally, lift the first continental trophy of the new season. The UEFA Super Cup is one of the most traditional competitions on the European football scene.