TURIN, Italy (AP) - Rewards for winning the often-unloved Europa League are getting bigger, maybe even enough to ignite more interest in countries like England and Italy.
Sevilla’s penalty shootout victory over Benfica on Wednesday after a 0-0 draw was the last final before UEFA offers winners a place in the following season’s Champions League.
“By introducing this reward there is a feeling that teams will take it more seriously,” UEFA marketing director Guy-Laurent Epstein said.
An expected 20 percent increase in prize money from 2015 should also help, with clubs likely to share about $342 million.
The European Club Association says its 200-plus members are happy with the Europa League. However, it acknowledges a need to close a “big financial gap” between the globally successful Champions League and an event rebranded from the UEFA Cup only five years ago.
Today, that gulf is more than $1.4 billion each season.
“We have to be pragmatic - Europa League is not Champions League,” Epstein said ahead of the final. “It’s for teams that are more community (based) rather than international brands most of the time.”
Sevilla is one club where the Europa League has no image or identity issues.
“It’s a competition our fans really like,” said Sevilla coach Unai Emery, whose club won the former UEFA Cup in 2006 and ’07. “We thought we had the responsibility to win.”
Still, even those UEFA Cups were different to its 1970s and 1980s prime.
Then, there was a popular trinity of UEFA competitions: the European Cup for national champions; the UEFA Cup for runners-up and other high-placed teams; and the Cup Winners Cup.
After the European Cup became the Champions League in 1992 - giving more games to elite clubs - the other two declined until the cup winners’ event was abolished in 1999.
The Europa League was launched in 2009 to rebrand an event bloated with clubs, playing in unfamiliar Thursday slots and a complex format with Champions League losers coming over at different stages.
Some clubs judged the Europa League not worth the bother and effectively fielded reserve teams. That was despite FC Porto and Atletico Madrid using the second-tier title as a springboard.
Coached by Jose Mourinho, Porto won the UEFA Cup in 2003 and the next year’s Champions League. Atletico Madrid will play city rival Real Madrid for the biggest club prize next week after winning Europa League titles in 2010 and 2012.
Epstein said feedback from England had been “rather negative,” but he believes that will change, helped by Chelsea winning the title last year.
Italian clubs need good Europa League results to boost their rankings in a long process to regain a fourth Champions League entry for Serie A. Winning the Europa League is a faster road to that goal.
The cash prize from UEFA for winning the Europa League is typically about $19 million. Sevilla earned its share during a 19-match, nine-month labor.
Nice money in the Financial Fair Play era, yet only half of what a big-market club gets for a six-match trip through a Champions League group that ends in December.
Epstein expects Europa League earnings to rise for the 2015-18 seasons, possibly surpassing $400 million.
Other changes include more direct group-stage entries for high-ranked nations and domestic cup runners-up being denied places.
However, a coveted Saturday slot for the final is unavailable in the crowded May calendar.
Played Saturdays since 2010, Champions League finals get 170 million-plus television viewers. Epstein expected the Sevilla-Benfica match to draw 60 million to 70 million.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.