Assessments by premiere season
Max Kruse found unusual words in March last year when his then club 1. FC Union Berlin qualified for the newly created UEFA Europa Conference League on the last day of the 2020/21 season. This season, 1. FC Köln is competing in Europe’s third-highest cup. Transfermarkt asked the participants Oliver Ruhnert from the “Eisernen” and Markus Schubert from Vitesse Arnheim as well as the community for their assessments of the premiere season.
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“I’d be up for it in the Europa League. I wouldn’t feel like it somehow in the Europa Conference League. I don’t even know what that is,” said Kruse, who with his goal in added time to the 2-1 winner against RB Leipzig had led the Berliners into international business in the first place. The first edition of the Conference League came to an end in May with the final between AS Roma and Feyenoord Rotterdam (1-0). In a survey of TM users, 57.7 percent of participants stated that they see the Conference League as an enrichment for European club football. On the other hand, 38.3 percent shared a different view and 4 percent had “no opinion” on it.
“I like the ECL a lot because it not only allows clubs that are weaker in international comparison to participate, but even gives them serious chances of late rounds,” wrote community member “steklo2”. The best example of this is Norway’s FK Bodø/Glimt, who made it into the quarter-finals and even beat eventual tournament winners AS Roma 2-1 in the first leg before the Italians won the second duel 4-0. User “Savarez03” commented: “It feels like a few more teams are now in focus that you haven’t seen before. That’s why I think that the small football nations will get another opportunity here to present themselves internationally.” In addition, clubs from the top leagues would also enter the competition “that don’t often travel internationally”. Before participating in the Conference League, Union Berlin was last seen on the European stage in the 2001/02 season in what was then the UEFA Cup due to a strong previous round in the DFB Cup.
Ruhnert: Conference League is an enrichment from the Union’s point of view
In an interview with Transfermarkt, sporting director Ruhnert summed up the Conference League: “We have been able to gain valuable experience at a good European level. The competition is sportingly challenging and is perceived internationally, which helps us in many ways.” In terms of sporting level, the Conference League was “close to the Europa League,” says Ruhnert. At least in terms of goals, there was a little more entertainment in the new competition. A total of 412 goals were scored in the Conference League at the start of the group phase, compared to 379 in the Europa League and 380 goals in the Champions League. When asked whether the Conference League was an asset to European club football, Ruhnert replied: “From our point of view it is, because we had very friendly encounters with the representatives of the other clubs, our players were able to prove themselves internationally and ours too Fans will surely remember the trips to our away games. The much-vaunted unifying power of football was often felt here.”
Goalkeeper Schubert, who switched from Schalke 04 to Vitesse Arnheim last summer and qualified for the group stage with the Dutch, sees the new competition in a similar way to Ruhnert: “Of course I also noticed that the Conference League was met with criticism. But I think it offers many teams an additional opportunity to show themselves at a high international level and the fans the chance to see great games. If you look at the participating teams and their players, there’s no two opinions that the quality is definitely very high here too.” As he reveals, the opportunity to play a European competition is “one of the reasons for mine Move to Arnhem”. Schubert featured in four games in the qualifying rounds and four games in the group stage, keeping two clean sheets.
Despite the positive assessment, sports director Ruhnert was not satisfied with everything. “Everyone knows that the financial resources of the Conference League can still be increased,” says Ruhnert. Around 15 million euros went to the winner AS Roma just for the sporting appearances – not including other bonuses. Eintracht Frankfurt, winners of the Europa League, secured a sum of 22.15 million euros. The difference becomes clearer when looking at the Champions League, where each club received 15.64 million as a starting bonus in the group phase. Nevertheless, Ruhnert sees an “interesting idea” in the Conference League. At least that was his opinion when the competition was announced. “The new UEFA club competition makes UEFA’s club competitions more inclusive than ever. There will be more games for more clubs, with more associations represented in the group stage,” said UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin in December 2018 during the presentation of the Conference League, which at the time still had the working title “UEL2”.
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Meanwhile, user “DoppelWobber”, who sees the Conference League critically, drew a comparison to the Europa League. “I don’t get anything out of the competition as it’s basically a Europa League with even weaker teams,” he wrote. “If you gave the competition a unique selling point, maybe only knockout games and direct penalties, it could definitely be an enrichment,” he provided an approach for changing the format. At least the procedure for determining the participants in the group phase is different than in the Europa League and the Champions League. Since no team is seeded straight away, all clubs still have to earn their starting rights in several qualifying rounds.
Having just been founded, there will be far-reaching changes to the format of the Conference League as well as the Europa League and Champions League from the 2024/25 season, as UEFA announced in May. The European Football Union introduces the so-called “Swiss system” in the three club competitions. No longer 32, but 36 teams will then play a league phase instead of a group phase and then fight for the title in the knockout rounds. “We believe we have struck the right balance with the format chosen to improve sporting balance and generate solid revenues that can be distributed to clubs, leagues and grassroots football across the continent. At the same time, the attractiveness and popularity of our competitions should increase,” said UEFA President Ceferin about the restructuring.
1. FC Köln are the only German representatives in the Conference League this season to start with the traditional format. On Thursday (8:30 p.m.) the Domstadt team will meet MOL Fehérvár FC from Hungary in the playoffs. “It was a great season that was rewarded with the Conference League. We’re really looking forward to that,” said Mark Uth after the final day of the Bundesliga season. “We want to get into the group stage because I think we can. I’m of the opinion that we are the favorites and we should accept this role and show it on the pitch,” emphasized coach Steffen Baumgart. While Cologne can be seen in the Conference League, Union is taking part in the Europa League. Kruse, who left Berlin for VfL Wolfsburg in the last winter transfer period and failed to qualify for international business with the “Wolves”, will not be there. At least the memories of the Conference League adventure with Union remain for Kruse. “It was fun,” he said after the end of the group phase.
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