In the past 15 years, little has been safe from the rebranding zeal of soccer’s purported modernizers. Europe’s soccer governing body has now tabled a proposal to re-christen its UEFA Cup competition as the UEFA Europa League.
“The hope is that a refreshment of the name and brand can help achieve better results than we’ve seen in the UEFA Cup in the past,” said Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, acting chairman of the European Clubs Association, a new 103-club body that superseded the now disbanded G-14 group of clubs. “There has been a general impression that it has become a second-class competition and that we should get back to how it was ten or 15 years ago.”
Back in the days when only actual champions qualified for the Champions League (or the European Cup, as it was known before it was also reborn and rebranded), the UEFA Cup was indeed considered the tougher of the two competitions — it had one extra round, and more quality teams from the stronger nations. Can dressing it up as the Europa League alter the fact UEFA itself has irrevocably turned the once great competition into a second rate spectacle? A vote on the proposal will be taken by the wise men on UEFA’s executive committee in September.