Platini - Man of Change?
Friday, 03 October 08, 06:51 AM · Comments(0)
by Joe Walton
Campaigning for the UEFA Presidency almost two years ago, Michel Platini campaigned on the grounds of change, a common tactic for anti-incumbents. The major specific change that Platini wanted was the promotion of smaller, less fancied teams in the Europe competitions. A week after the announcement concerning the future of the UEFA Cup, it is a good time to analyse to what extent Platini’s has enacted change to promote Europe’s smaller clubs.
Last Friday UEFA announced that the UEFA Cup will undergo a major rebranding to follow up last years decision to introduce Champions League-esque groups stages. The statement on the UEFA website was full of marketing initiatives like “centralised broadcasting contracts”, “an official matchball” and “centralised sponsorship contracts”, however it is unclear how this chimes with Platini’s smaller club crusade.
Yes there is more television and sponsorship money, but the millions spent on rebranding will ultimately be pointless unless the football (or the product in marketing speech) improves. The reason the UEFA Cup has seen its popularity plummet, is not because of its logo, or decentralised sponsorship, but because the football is all too often poor.
The Europa League will never compare favourably with the Champions League because it is a second rate competition, so for UEFA to make it increasingly similar runs counter to Platini’s pledge. If he truly wanted to reinvigorate the competition whilst promoting smaller clubs he should have pushed to make the set-up a straight knock-out. This would make it stand out as its own competition and lessen unfavourable comparisons, whilst allowing smaller clubs more of a chance to progress. When the Champions League scrapped the second group stage, the chances of less established teams winning increased, the same should be applied to the Europa League.
UEFA will never truly implement this type of change because the bigger teams wouldn’t stand for it. One double-headed qualifying game followed by a lucrative group stage is far more appealing to clubs who have failed to make it to the Champions League, especially with more sponsorship. Platini doesn’t care about the smaller clubs, instead he is another suit more concerned with marketing the game than improving it.
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