It happened around the time the European Cup changed to the Champions League the money started flowing into the coffers and the successful clubs of the day (Manure for one ) wanted a clear distinction between the top Competition and the lesser two so started the labelling of the other two as 2nd rate !
The main reason I believe the Europa League/UEFA Cup lost a bit of it's luster was when the Champions League came into place, not because of the money but they expanded the amount of teams which can compete which took them away from the UEFA Cup. I remember a interview with Emlyn Hughes who said back in the 70's when we won a couple of times said it was harder to win than the European Cup because there were 2 or 3 very good teams from nations rather than having champions from weaker nations.
You look if it was still under the same format based on last year result, some clubs (we wouldn't make it sad enough) would make it would be.
- Manure, Arsenal, Spurs, Citeh
- Real Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla
- Roma, AC Milan, Sampdoria, Palermo
- Werder Bremen, Bayer Leverkusen, Schakle 04
- Lyon, Auxerre, Lille
- Sporting Lisbon, Porto, Braga
- Celtic, Zenit, Spartak Moscow, Ajax, PSV, Dynamo Kyiv
Look at the quality of those clubs playing in this competition it would be taken more serious and more prestigious like it was years ago. Just that there is so many clubs in the Champions League it just waters down the competition.
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