Lower-tier teams in 2015/16 EL

Champions League, Europa League, Conference League
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Maxi Lozzo
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Lower-tier teams in 2015/16 EL

Post by Maxi Lozzo »

All of us know that in 2015/16 EL the National Cup losing finalists won't enter EL anymore, so it decreases a lot the chances of teams from in lower tiers to play in Europe.

Usually these teams are a "nightmare" for their country coefficient, but they are also quite cheered by the rest of the World, often being minnows and/or a giant killers.

We could see few of them in EL anyway: let's see the situation in National Cups.
Anyway a team playing in the first tier could be relegated and win the Cup or get a Fair Play spot, while, on the other hand, a team that wins the National Cup playing in the second tier, could be promoted to first tier as well and play EL.

CZECH REPUBLIC
Slovan Liberec (first tier) is in SF (Viktoria Plzen and Sparta Praha are out), and they are third last, 4 points above relegation area (finally they'll avoid it, I think).

DENMARK
FC Vestsjælland (First tier) is in SF relegation area, 6 points below the safety, a place currently held by Esbjerg (in SF as well), and won the First Leg 2-0 at home.

ENGLAND
Aston Villa (Premier League) will play FA Cup Final vs Arsenal, but they aren't far from relegation area.

ESTONIA
Infonet II (second tier), Tallinna Ulikool (fourth tier) and FC Flora II (second tier) are in QF.

FRANCE
Auxerre (Ligue 2), not really a minnow, is in the Final of Coupe de France, but they'll have to face PSG, so they haven't many chances, but anyway the Final is a single match, so who knows.

GERMANY
Arminia Bielefeld (3.liga) reached Semi-finals, but Bayern, Borussia Dortmund and Wolfsburg are still in, so I giva them no chance.

GIBRALTAR
Britannia XI (first tier) is currently on the bottom of the League and reached SF.

GREECE
Iraklis (second tier) is in SF, but they lost 0-1 at home to Skoda Xanthi in the First Leg, and anyway they'll probably face Olympiacos in the Final.
Moreover, they have good chances to be promoted to Superliga.

IRELAND
University College Dublin (second tier, relegated in 2014 Season) could qualify via fair play ranking as Ireland is first in January ranking, Let'see in May.

ISRAEL
Hapoel Afula (second tier) and Maccabi Nazareth (second tier) reached SF, where they will not meet eachothers), but Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Beer Sheva (currently first and second in top tier) are still in.

LIECHTENSTEIN
FC Triesenberg (Swiss seventh tier) will play the Final vs (FC Vaduz, Swiss first tier).
FC Triesenberg defeated FC Vaduz U23 a.e.t. in SF, otherwise the Final would have been FC Vaduz vs FC Vaduz U23.

LITHUANIA
FC Silas Kazlu Ruda (second tier ?) is in SF, but lost the First Leg 0-1 at home.

LUXEMBOURG
Jeunesse Canach (first tier) reached SF and is currently in the relegation area.

MACEDONIA
Teteks Tetovo (first tier) is currently on the bottom of the League and is also in the Cup Final (vs Rabotnicki, currently second).

MALTA
Qormi FC (first tier) reached SF and is in the relegation area, anyway the top 3 teams in the League are still in.

ROMANIA
Univiersitatea Cluj (first tier) will play the Final vs Steaua and they are just 1 point above relegation area (that consists of 6 teams this Season).

RUSSIA
Gazovik Orenburg (second tier) reached SF, but Kuban, Lokomotiv M. and CSKA are still in, so it'll be very hard for them.

SCOTLAND
Falkirk (Championship, second tier) will play the Final vs Inverness (third in Premiership, but quite far from first and second place).

I think the best hopes to have a low tier team in the next EL are on Scotland, Denmark and Israel.

EDIT: Ireland.
Last edited by Maxi Lozzo on Sat Apr 25, 2015 00:06, edited 1 time in total.
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Falco
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Post by Falco »

Villa aren't exactly a small team, they're a past European Cup winner
Maxi Lozzo
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Post by Maxi Lozzo »

Other teams aren't "small", such as Auxerre, as they won League 1 in 90s' and played CL GS few years ago, and other teams aren't relatively to their Countries (i.e. Slovan Liberec, Iraklis).

I said that teams form lower tiers are often minnows, but there could be "fallen nobles" (I don't know how to say that in English) as well.
Anyway if certain teams had to be relegated, next season they could worsen their teams and become weaker.
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Post by fillow »

Belarus: Dinamo Brest (usually fighting for non-relegation) is in SF with 3 big clubs (BATE, Dinamo Minsk, Shakhter).
This time I'm actually happy that runners-up are not accepted. Dinamo Brest would be a guaranteed 2 defeats in EL.
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abzpablo
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Post by abzpablo »

I'm delighted they have got rid of the domestic cup runners-up qualifying - that was nonsense.

What I fail to understand though, is why cup-winners get higher priority in the Europa League than league placings.

For example, my team is currently 16 points clear in second place, but will go into QR1 (and either Inverness in 3rd place or Falkirk from a lower league) will enter QR2 for winning the cup.

In the days when we had two CL slots, it was first and second in the league that got in (not first in league and cup winners).
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Post by Falco »

Maxi Lozzo wrote:"fallen nobles" (I don't know how to say that in English) .
..Leeds United :rollfloor:
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Post by Falco »

abzpablo wrote:What I fail to understand though, is why cup-winners get higher priority in the Europa League than league placings.
.
Gives teams more of an incentive to win the cup. Call me old fashioned but I believe teams that win trophies should be rewarded.
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Post by abzpablo »

Falco wrote:
abzpablo wrote:What I fail to understand though, is why cup-winners get higher priority in the Europa League than league placings.
.
Gives teams more of an incentive to win the cup. Call me old fashioned but I believe teams that win trophies should be rewarded.

So why don't countries with more than one CL slot let the cup-winners in?
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Post by Maxi Lozzo »

abzpablo wrote:
Falco wrote:
abzpablo wrote:What I fail to understand though, is why cup-winners get higher priority in the Europa League than league placings.
.
Gives teams more of an incentive to win the cup. Call me old fashioned but I believe teams that win trophies should be rewarded.

So why don't countries with more than one CL slot let the cup-winners in?
Some people, probably myself included, think that it shold work this way.
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Post by Maxi Lozzo »

Falco wrote:
Maxi Lozzo wrote:"fallen nobles" (I don't know how to say that in English) .
..Leeds United :rollfloor:
Lol, exactly the team that I had in my mind !
Maxi Lozzo
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Post by Maxi Lozzo »

The qualification of domestic cup runners-up to EL was probably a "misprint" from the good old Cup Winners' Cup.

I don't know whether UEFA had kept that for several years for lazyness, to incentivate clubs to give importance to domestic cups or to give smaller teams/"fallen nobles", even from lower tiers, the chance to play in Europe (and incentivate "fairy tales").

Anyway winning a domestic Cup gives you a Title, while ending second or third in the League is nothing for the records, so winning the Title should be more relevant, even if often/sometimes the Cup winner is weaker than the second or third placed.
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Post by matt »

Maxi Lozzo wrote:All of us know that in 2015/16 EL the National Cup losing finalists won't enter EL anymore, so it decreases a lot the chances of teams from in lower tiers to play in Europe.

Usually these teams are a "nightmare" for their country coefficient, but they are also quite cheered by the rest of the World, often being minnows and/or a giant killers.

We could see few of them in EL anyway: let's see the situation in National Cups.
Anyway a team playing in the first tier could be relegated and win the Cup or get a Fair Play spot, while, on the other hand, a team that wins the National Cup playing in the second tier, could be promoted to first tier as well and play EL.

CZECH REPUBLIC
Slovan Liberec (first tier) is in SF (Viktoria Plzen and Sparta Praha are out), and they are third last, 4 points above relegation area (finally they'll avoid it, I think).

DENMARK
FC Vestsjælland (First tier) is in SF relegation area, 6 points below the safety, a place currently held by Esbjerg (in SF as well), and won the First Leg 2-0 at home.

ENGLAND
Aston Villa (Premier League) will play FA Cup Final vs Arsenal, but they aren't far from relegation area.

ESTONIA
Infonet II (second tier), Tallinna Ulikool (fourth tier) and FC Flora II (second tier) are in QF.

FRANCE
Auxerre (Ligue 2), not really a minnow, is in the Final of Coupe de France, but they'll have to face PSG, so they haven't many chances, but anyway the Final is a single match, so who knows.

GERMANY
Arminia Bielefeld (3.liga) reached Semi-finals, but Bayern, Borussia Dortmund and Wolfsburg are still in, so I giva them no chance.

GIBRALTAR
Britannia XI (first tier) is currently on the bottom of the League and reached SF.

GREECE
Iraklis (second tier) is in SF, but they lost 0-1 at home to Skoda Xanthi in the First Leg, and anyway they'll probably face Olympiacos in the Final.
Moreover, they have good chances to be promoted to Superliga.

ISRAEL
Hapoel Afula (second tier) and Maccabi Nazareth (second tier) reached SF, where they will not meet eachothers), but Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Beer Sheva (currently first and second in top tier) are still in.

LIECHTENSTEIN
FC Triesenberg (Swiss seventh tier) will play the Final vs (FC Vaduz, Swiss first tier).
FC Triesenberg defeated FC Vaduz U23 a.e.t. in SF, otherwise the Final would have been FC Vaduz vs FC Vaduz U23.

LITHUANIA
FC Silas Kazlu Ruda (second tier ?) is in SF, but lost the First Leg 0-1 at home.

LUXEMBOURG
Jeunesse Canach (first tier) reached SF and is currently in the relegation area.

MACEDONIA
Teteks Tetovo (first tier) is currently on the bottom of the League and is also in the Cup Final (vs Rabotnicki, currently second).

MALTA
Qormi FC (first tier) reached SF and is in the relegation area, anyway the top 3 teams in the League are still in.

ROMANIA
Univiersitatea Cluj (first tier) will play the Final vs Steaua and they are just 1 point above relegation area (that consists of 6 teams this Season).

RUSSIA
Gazovik Orenburg (second tier) reached SF, but Kuban, Lokomotiv M. and CSKA are still in, so it'll be very hard for them.

SCOTLAND
Falkirk (Championship, second tier) will play the Final vs Inverness (third in Premiership, but quite far from first and second place).

I think the best hopes to have a low tier team in the next EL are on Scotland, Denmark and Israel.

IRELAND
UCD(University College Dublin) should qualify via fair play ranking.Ireland is first in January ranking,let'see in May.
International break hater
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Falco
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Post by Falco »

Maxi Lozzo wrote:The qualification of domestic cup runners-up to EL was probably a "misprint" from the good old Cup Winners' Cup.
That was why they scrapped the ECWC. It was traditional to let the runners up enter on those occasions that the cup winners did the double. But once they let multiple clubs from each country into the CL there were occasions were they had to pick a cup semi-finalist to go into the cup winners cup
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Post by Kroezero »

abzpablo wrote:What I fail to understand though, is why cup-winners get higher priority in the Europa League than league placings.
I think it is, because Mr. Platini is a big fan of cuptournaments. I think it's totally ridiculous and places should be distributed over the league-ranking. Here in the Netherlands the number 9 of the league might qualify for de EL-GS, while the number 3 has to start in the qualifiers.
It makes no sense, because of the GS being some kind of league. So you reward KO-success with some kind of league and you 'reward' league-success with KO-matches.
It's nice for a minor team to win the cup, but playing in Europe should be enough bonus.
What I don't understand from England, is that they still let the League cup winner have a place in Europe. That's really stupid, because of the big teams totally ignoring this cup untill they, by accident, reach the semi-final.
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Falco
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Post by Falco »

The league cup winner in England has also won the league the last two years... I'm presuming Chelsea won't be caught at this stage
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