How to Revive the Europa League in Light of Changes to the Champions League

There can be no missing of the start of the new Champions League season. All the teasers and trailers, all the buildup, all the excited chatter: European football’s premier club competition receives a preamble to place any other sporting spectacle in the shade. That shade darkens the Europa League.

While the continental game works itself into a frenzy over the start of the 2016/17 Champions League campaign, the start of UEFA’s second-tier competition has been somewhat overlooked. It gets underway in earnest on Thursday, yet there has been no excited buildup and certainly no ticker tape about the competition’s big kick-off. 

This does a disservice to the unique charm of the Europa League. It deserves better. It might not be an elite competition in the same way the Champions League is, but there is an allure to the opportunity it presents clubs just below the top tier. Even before the winners were handed a Champions League place, the tournament had an unappreciated appeal.

So how could UEFA fix things so the Europa League is afforded the reverence—at the very least, respect—it warrants? Reform has just been pushed through to make changes to the Champions League, with Europe’s top four leagues guaranteed four spots each as of 2018, so this would seem to be the perfect time to make alterations to the Europa League as well. 

At the forefront of any changes should be scheduling. Playing games on Thursdays makes the Europa League seem like an afterthought—as if UEFA forgot to schedule the competition and shoehorned it into the latter part of the week because that was the only space left for it. If the competition is to change the tone that drags it down, European football’s governing body must end Thursday games.

Instead, they should be played on Tuesday nights. UEFA should move Champions League fixtures to Wednesday and Thursday nights, with the Europa League positioned as a buildup of sorts to the main event. That way, the fatigue that presently hits enthusiasm over the competition by the time it arrives would be eliminated.

Then there’s the issue of …

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