I was sceptical with the conference league. However, I am a big fan of it now. There are so many midtable clubs with huge and passionate fanbases. Also, there are professional teams from smaller leagues like the Austrian league. The fans of those clubs would never get an opportunity to travel and celebrate with their team. And to be honest: the atmosphere created by Florentina and West Ham fans was probably the best out of the whole season
Exactly. There are a lot of smaller clubs out there who don’t ever get to experience European football, this competition is for them to enjoy, why hate on it.
I’ve been to numerous away matches following West Ham in Europe during the past two seasons and have great memories of all of them. The loveliest place to visit was Seville, whom we knocked out over two legs and Lyon was another. Prague and Bucharest this season have also been great away days.
While what you say is true Uefa underestimated just how big the gulf in quality is between 7th in England, Italy, France etc and winners of the Belarussian league. The final is always in some pisspot stadium with 10,000 attendance in Eastern Europe when all those teams are Eliminated in February.
What I remember about O'Neil when he managed Villa was doing his best to qualify for the Europa League and then putting out a second eleven and not taking the competition seriously.
Yes for the extra bit of money its good to land there rather than a position below and when you are in it you realise only the top 5 squads can handle Thursday Sunday games aswell as doing well in their own leagues alongside playing in europe against Mickey Mouse clubs.
As a Villa fan I absolutely can't wait to see us in Europe again. Especially when you consider I went to watch us against championship teams not too long ago
Exactly. When Juventus had a bad season once and had to play in the Intertoto cup they just got on with it and won it. The level of snobbery is incredible
@@rohithraman6488I totally agree. I call it ‘Trophy snobbery.’ I know that Simon Jordan sneers at the Conference, but show me any Palace fan and I bet that they’d love to take part in it.
As a West Ham fan, we are happy we won, Good Luck to Villa next season. Why should't mid-teams have something to play for if they don't qualify for the UCL
I'm an Aberdeen fan. For finishing third we get a play off chance at the Europa League, if we fail we drop to the Europa Conference, which guarentees us European football till Xmas. The money generated from this is pivotal for our club to move forward a little bit and sign some players of a higher standard. How is it third rate if it does that. Football is not all about the big boys. Other teams have to survive. Some brilliant match ups at that level too. In fact, the big boys are becoming extremely boring to watch.
honestly this whole narative is very disrespectful and ignores the fact some leagues in europe will almost never watch their team in european football because top leagues just have accses for some much more money if anything it helps spread money around instead of focusing it on single point
Back in Martin's day any well run club could make it to europe and then you were a few games from winning it. These days there is almost no chance if you arent an established top 6 club or taken over by a state. Its good for the rest of the clubs to have an achievable european trophy.
He's not wrong - I'd rather win the League Cup than the Conference tin; beating Premier league and championship clubs is far more impressive than [club nobody has heard of until yesterday] in [bumblefuck nowhere]. Nice for a day out, mind. I'd take Andorra or some shite over Hull any day.
6:50 - 7:30 is gold! I love Martin’s poised & gentlemanly way of dismantling Simon 😂😂😂. Simon said he would use the break to research and come back again.
Martin needs to realise that even before the conference league, for 20 years 7th place still got you Europe, you got a place in the Europa league qualifying rounds.
@@irieite9666 That was just this season cause west ham finished outside the top 7 and won the conference league, if they had finished 7th and won it, there would have been 7 places in Europe as usual
@@rohithraman6488 No. Using last seasons table but this upcoming season rules here's how it would be different..... Liverpool qualify for Champions league as the team outside top 4 with the highest coefficient from the top 2 leagues... This promotes each team below them one position for euro qualifying. Giving Villa Automatic qualification for Europa League and a UECL position to Tottenham. From now on England and Spain get 5 Champions league teams and 8 European qualifiers each season.
@@alfieb6711 No it's still true, even when that rule was about, 7 places in Europe for English clubs. The only way the losing FA Cup final team qualified for Europa league is if the FA Cup winning team qualified for the UCL. The last season with this rule in place was in 2013/14. Arsenal beat Hull 3-2 in the final. The reason why Hull got Europe is because Arsenal got champions league. If Arsenal finished 5th and beat Hull in the cup final, Hull wouldn't have qualified for Europe. Look at 2008. Portsmouth beat Cardiff in the final. But Portsmouth finished 8th so they got that Europa league place and Cardiff didn't get European football at all
@@StephenCarrIsBaldat least we’re not Newcastle. I saw us win the 2 cups in the 90s anyway so I don’t care. Btw winning stuff during the pay to win era isn’t exactly special. Just means you had a bigger daddy paying for things.
@@Murdocke89 what’s Newcastle got to do with anything? And if that’s the case the if you win anything then it isn’t special considering you spend hundreds of millions every year
It might be a third rate European tournament but that doesn’t mean it’s tinpot. The game has changed in 40 years. As an Ipswich fan, even though we’ve won the UEFA cup, I’d be more than happy to win it as the game has gotten faster paced
As a Villa fan I absolutely can't wait to see that 1st European match. It's been so long. That Ipswich team under Burley was absolutely cracking back in the day. Marcus Stewart up front was top drawer
When Ipswich won it, it was a very tough competition with great teams. Now it's second rate. Whereas 2nd and 3rd got UEFA cup, now those teams are in the CL.
@@rohithraman6488 consolation cup for them. Barsa are second rate (always have been). Juve finished 7th this year. Sevilla 12th. It's totally different from what it used to be - not just the format, but the fact that it isn't a priority for those clubs that aspire to go deep in the CL. Man U beat a Betis team who rested their best player for both games. Arsenal too didn't play at full strength. The examples are endless. It used to be a big deal.
A third European competition isn't a new concept. Back in the day, you had the Champions Cup, UEFA Cup, and the Cup winner's cup, which combined gave 5-6 European places to the top leagues. You now get 7 for the PL(4 for the CL, 1 Europa League place to the league, one Europa League place to the FA Cup winner, and one Conference League place for the Carabao Cup winner). Recently, the domestic cups have often gone to teams in the top 4-5, that's why you see teams low down in the PL qualifying for Europe. You can argue whether both cup winners deserve a place, but I'd say it's a good thing that the cups are valued.
He means that a competition like the Champions League is made to reward top 4 teams in the top leagues, which makes sense. But when you make a european tournament to reward teams finishing 7th in their respective leagues, that's just rewarding mediocrity. It's the equivolent of participation medals.
While the Europa Conderence League is unquestionably third-rate in comparison to the Champions' League and the Europa League, I'm surprised that nobody made the point that it gives teams and players very valuable experience of European competition in the same format as the other tournaments. That has often proved to be invaluable for teams which ultimately go on to become European Champions. Back in the days of the ECWC and the UEFA Cup/Fairs Cities Cup, I can think of several European Cup winners who had the benefit of having previously progressed to the later stages or even won the lesser tournaments - I wouldn't bet against future European champions winners who first cut their teeth in European competition in second or third-rate tournaments.
Too many competitions now it's hard to keep up with same with the nations league now, uefa and fifa aren't doing it to help clubs it's to make themselves more money
Oneill did talk about how it gives fringe players an opportunity to play who wouldn't be playing in their league team , you must have been taking the bin out when he was talking about it 😂😂
Aren't all competition made up at some point in time? I really don't get it.. it's a new competition so it will feel that way but after time the perception from fans will eventually change
I still can’t understand the trophy snobbery from various pundits and football fans. It’s great to be in European competition, at whichever level. We can’t all be a Man City, Bayern Munich or Real Madrid.
The cup winners cup was derided as third rate but you had to win your domestic cup to qualify for it. Winning a European trophy is better than finishing without winning a trophy or finishing in the top 4 and winning nothing.
Totally agree Martin. The UEFA cup used to be the Micky mouse cup, so what does that make the conference league? A cup for teams who’s finish 7/8th in Europe? Wow…Zzzzzz. It’s been diluted too much. It doesn’t mean anything.
They need to rename it to something else other than conference. After a few years it will then be looked at as a more serious competition for mid table clubs to compete in Europe for
In my humble opinion....Champions League should be for the champions of each European League. Top 4 was just a money grab and allowed teams like Utd to finish "2nd best" and accept mediocrity.
For all "big teams" hell even "small teams" its always been a competition looked down upon. Even in Round 1 a team from Championship for arguments sake Rotherham will field a 2nd string XI against league 2 opposition. It's always been about who can limp into the semi final with their reserves and then the competition truly begins.
Neil has a point .But all 3 European competitions were considered great competitions to win years ago. The cup winners cup was actually rated as the second most prestigious cup to win in Europe behind the European cup.
They'd be far better to have ONE European Competition. There must be enough room to allow the same number of qualifying teams for European Competition. To attain this there will have to be qualifying rounds for the group stages (for the lower placed teams in the national domestic leagues) with the high finishers (in domestic leagues) going straight to the group stages. To do this, the competition will have to have twice as many groups, but this will only add one extra round to the knock out stages later in the tournament. Having twice as many groups will only add one round to the knock-out stages, and therefore put the final back one week (or the dates could be amended slightly to start the groups a week earlier). There will then only be one supreme competition (with all the kudos that that entails for teams that play in it). You could then (if the failures must be compensated) have a second-rate competition, that only begins at the end of the group stages, for all the third placed teams in the groups.
UECL gives clubs that aren’t the traditional “big 6” a chance at European football and give those fanbases that experience of a european night that they may have few opportunities to experience. It actually puts a bit of pressure on the bigger clubs, Newcastle, WestHam, Brighton and Villa are all clubs you wouldn’t expect to be in Europe or finish in those spots in the table. 2 traditional big clubs in Chelsea and Spurs have missed out on Europe completely. Think the competition is a good opportunity for those teams that are building something to really kick on and start achieving and break that traditional big 6 tag.
It's important because the winner qualifies for the Europa league, which is a massive competition. The conference league trophy itself should not be celebrated by any rational person.
@@holykflooring4537 but being a Villa fan it's incredible to think we'll be playing European football next season, especially when you consider we were playing championship football not too long ago. 3rd rate European competition bar Juventus - yes. Would I take it - definitely
@@holykflooring4537dude plz y’all are ridiculous it’s very much ok for a fan to celebrate their club winning something. UECL is not a preseason tournament.
@@leazesndr5318we are bigger when in terms of finances and brand tbh and I’d say our fan base is quite big and strong around the world even tho Levy has led us to be trophyless for years on end.
The Conference League is a great competition. Why does no one ever criticize the so-called "Champions" League where 3rd, 4th and soon 5th place teams are given automatic spots, while champions from smaller leagues have to go through grueling qualifying rounds
Totally agree Martin. The UEFA cup used to be the Micky mouse cup, so what does that make the conference league? A cup for teams who’s finish 7/8th in Europe? Wow…Zzzzzz. It’s been diluted too much. It doesn’t mean anything.
Third rate ? His joking. You have to finish top 7 in the premier league to qualify for the conference league. And to finish top 7 is very tough to do in the premier league unless you are a regular top 6 side. Mid table and lower table teams will find it extremely difficult to finish top 7. So you basically need to be a very good team . Then you have to compete with teams from around the european countries, some decent european teams too . Remember this year some good european teams got knocked out like slavia prague , villareal, nice, andrelecht, forentina. Then play thursday sunday every week. Tough to do. So its a proper competition , not a bogus competition. Then to go and win it, thats a massive feat to achieve. Its a big deal. I can assure you a lot of the top teams will be winning it in the future. Its a very competitive tournament. And far better than winning the domestic caraboa cup. And apparently what i hear is the conference league winners are ranked by uefa as the 7th best team in europe. Champions league winners being 1st. So it is a BIG DEAL, and its a legitimate UEFA trophy. Not the bogus trophies like the FA community shield or the papa johns trophy or even the caraboa cup. I really hope an english team wins it next season. The important things to remember is that you need to finish top 7 in the premier league to qualify and its a proper COMPETITIVE tournament. Not forgetting if you win it, you qualify for europa league the next season. Trust me, the tournament is a BIG DEAL in european football. So these pundits thrashing it absolutely makes me sick, they should analyse it properly like i have done here, they should be doing thier jobs properly and looking at it objectively instead of giving us only thier opinions and prejudices and snobbery. this is not what they are paid to do. They should be sacked immediately.The lot of them. Why is snobbery being allowed on talksport ?? Snobbery will not be accepted in any other tv show, so why is it being allowed here ?? Viewers should complain. Talksport take note ! But if simon jordan owns talksport, then i guess not much chance of that happening.
I'm a liverpool fan and I respect all three of our domestic cups but if big clubs don't want to participate I the league cup then give them the choice so other teams can stil have the chance of winning it rather then getting rid of it as they will soon change their minds when they're out of every other competition
I agree with a lot of things Martin O'Neill says but I can't agree with him here, with the imbalance of power between the super rich clubs and the rest, the Europa and Conference leagues give others the opportunity to win a European trophy.
There are lots of tinpot competitions: Carabao cup, Community Shield, UEFA Nations League, And in my opinion even the boring Champions League which consists of over 80% of clubs who aren't domestic champions. They're just cash cows to fleece the gullible
As a Villa supporter, this is the same attitude O'Neil demonstrated with the Europa league when he was managing us. Playing crap squads so he could focus on CL qualification leaving us to get knocked out straight off the bat several years running. We never got CL, and the supporters were left gutted. Conference League matters to supporters, Europa League matters to supporters. If a manager or player doesn't respect that then it just displays arrogance.
His argument neglects the fact that the top six have now largely jettisoned everyone else thanks to astronomical amounts of money, largely from foreign sources. Ironically, the Conference League means much more to clubs like West Ham and Villa than the Champions League means to clubs like City for exactly the same reason
You need to update your mindset bro. Clubs like Villa, West Ham, Newcastle and Everton spend so much that it sometimes rivals the so called top 6. This just concluded season we had Newcastle and Brighton crashing into those top 4/top 6 positions.
O’neil always comes over as a bitter individual, how you decrediting Europe when you have to place extremely well in the league you’re in to get there - nothings changed
Nor would there have been any consideration of the carbon footprint of this competition when they made it. But I still enjoyed the conference league final.
At first I scoffed at the idea of this competition, however, it gives something for mid table teams to aim for, and whatever makes the league more competitive can only be good. Also it gives a chance at the Europa League, which is still a good competition, and who knows, maybe you win that and get Champions League
Always enjoy hearing from O'Neill, talks a lot of sense and even when I disagree I love pundits that have an honest and strong opinion and he never let's me down.
The thing Martin has overlooked is that European qualification has been 7 teams for EFL for a long time. the only thing that has changed recently is that the Europa league has been split into the Europa League and Conference League, same as it was in 1999, when there was the uefa cup and cup winners cup.
Dinosaur talks about how things back in the day were better... shock. Sure cup winners cup was made up at some point and scrapped for good reason. Not sure malmo were a top level team either
Don’t know why people are slagging it off. As the Oil Clubs take over the Champions League, the Europa League and Europa Conference will be filled with old historical clubs with huge fan bases who can’t financially compete with the sportswashing enterprises. I’m a Liverpool fan and I’m actually looking forward to facing some different teams this season, hopefully with some great away trips!
@@tevildo45yes but way back in the 60s or early 70s. I like Rangers more and I don’t think they even have a European title to them. If so it’s minor. But both clubs have incredible fans so seeing them in something like Conference where they have a higher chance at winning even tho their Europa level would still be cool.
O'Neill is absolutely spot on! When there was talk of a Super League, everyone was up in arms and the pitchforks came out. Yet UEFA has introduced the 'Nations League', which is a glorified friendly tournament - about as meaningful as the Audi Cup that Tottenham won a few years back. The 'Conference league' is essentially the 'C' level cup. It's a tinpot, watered-down cup. It's like School Sports Day going from individual winners to group events where everyone wins. It's an absolute nonsense.
Martin is absolutely right. Nobody really cares about the ECL. Set up simply to enhance further profits for UEFA with the allusion of giving smaller clubs a trophy. It’s no more valuable than pre-season tournaments.
Martin O'Neil you are Savage 😂😂😂😂 personally I enjoy the x3 European competitions. A small team could get promoted from the conference to europa league & finally the champions league in x3 seasons. It is interesting 🤔 ⚽️⚽️⚽️
League cup cannot be classed as 3rd rate because all the English league teams are in it, whereas the Europa Conference league doesn't have any of Europe's top teams in it
This is true but only because of how it has worked so far... Man United won it this year but if they finished where spurs or chelsea had in the league then they would be in the uecl.
Bang on with the league cup. Most teams will only take it seriously when hey get into the quarters and semis. And if they got rid of it, it would free up a days so we wouldn't have to hear the excuses of playing too many games. Although I am guessing that yo would still have managers complain that they are too successful and forget they have more than 11 players in a squad.
@dannybradley8391 not exactly. It has a history and is still really exlcusive to qualify for.... I would be happier seeing my team win a Europa League group match than to see them lift the Conference League trophy.
I love the fact it gives teams a chance to play European football for silverware. In the past it’s nearly been guaranteed same English teams in the champions league most years.
Not totally sure what Martin is on about. It's not like 7th in the Premier League has got given an extra place in Europe with the advent of this competition. 7th usually already got you into Europa qualifying for years before this, depending on FA/League Cup winners.
Martin talks about finishing 7th - that’s only because the FA and Carabao cup are won by top 6 sides, and because we have 4 UCL places down to the success of the EPL. At its basic level it’s still top 5/6 clubs that qualify for Europe. 7th place sides in La Liga or Serie A aren’t qualifying for it.
With League Cup vs Conference League an argument for League Cup is that includes all the best teams in the country whilst Conference League includes mid table teams only
Uefa should reward the winner with a place in the CL just like the Europa Cup plus allow both finalists of the Uefa Cup in too which would make the semi finals of the Europa Cup huge games.
I agree with martin its the have a sticker for turning up cup cause the main cups are now all bought and paid for and most teams now have no chance and id far rather win the league cup i still hold it in about the same regard as the fa cup
It's third rate because unlike years ago when you also had three comps, the rules for entry for old European Cup was for only winners of domestic titles. This meant more high profile teams were in both CWC and Uefa etc. Today, most Top teams enter CL and or europa so leaves the lesser profile clubs in conference.meaning its third rate.
Bro to think about it, UEFA cup used to compete with European cup for relevancy becuz sometimes we could have world class teams in UEFA cup becuz they were 2nd in their Domestic leagues..Teams like Barcelona, Madrid, AC Milan, Inter, Bayern, Liverpool, United..It was basically an European cup but for 2nd placed teams 😂
It is a second rate competition. I’d put it just below League cup. Having said that if you are in it you might as well try and win it but it look at the teams in it.
I like the Conference League. It is a major trophy. There used to be 3 European trophies. 1. European Cup (Now the Champions League) 2. Cup Winners Cup 3. UEFA Cup.
Winning the conference league is far more of an achievement than winning the pub league in Scotland where the worst O’Neil could of done was finish 2nd 😅
❤ cause you like being the best. Even if it's only because your league was given preferential treatment decades ago and has multiplied profit every year since. It wasn't earned but was handed to you. The winners of the pub league won the European cup before anyone from your league. And had 2 European finalists that year from the same city. Then had the first club in Britain to reach the European cup final twice. Your league is filled with teams with great attendances and has done for years. That's great for you. But what other countries have is what it is. Get of your high horse and let us know if you have any knowledge about the game that you can bring to the table rather than sitting like an old hag in the corner shouting insults. Xxx
The only thing I appreciate about this is that there are so many clubs and many great little mid table clubs that will never get the chance to do something like this might as well let him have thier own little tournament. I agree its no European cup and it's also a shameless attempt to make money. But still it is kinda cool.
So European competition 4:05 is just all about the rich and big clubs. What l like about the conference is that it gives ordinary everyday clubs chance to play each other and a little glory. Now West Ham has won this cup, the gauntlet has been layed for others. Good luck to Villa, enjoy the competition...from a West ham fan ⚒️
