Europa League: does the season start too early?

Football has become such a global game that it is inevitable, as the clamour for more of the riches in the game becomes more intense, that football will want to take as much as it can whilst the money is available.

One example of this is the Europa League. The League evolved out of the UEFA Cup. Instead of the forty teams which used to compete in the previous competition, now forty eight will take part. The format will be similar to the European Champions League. The competition starts in early July, a full month before the football season commences in earnest, and it has lead some commentators to complain that its launch has meant that the football season has been extended. In the 2008/09 season, the eventual winners of the Premiership played sixty six games, this despite the fact that each Premiership side only plays thirty eight games. Managers did sometimes complain about the level of commitment players had to put in, in order to play the number of games required. Excuses for defeats were sometimes blamed on the number of games a team had played.

There is no doubt that the squad approach has been important, and managers must have the ability to calculate when a player needs to be rested and when it is prudent to do so. Starting the Europa Cup early can be viewed from several viewpoints. Players may still not be completely match fit, as undoubtedly pre-season training will have to be interrupted to play a competitive game. However, it may well be also that this type of competition may give some teams the edge when the league season starts, as the competition may form a part of their pre season training. The long term effects may be that some people will feel the effects later in the season when competition is more intense, so the decisions a club makes at the start of the season may come back to haunt them later in the season.