UEFA Conference League is “win, win, win”! | OneFootball

Unlike a number of other Newcastle United fans, my view is that the UEFA Conference League has a lot to offer us as a club and it’s a shame we didn’t manage to keep our place in it.

One advantage of a competition which is open to clubs in the lower echelons of European football is obvious – it would afford us the luxury of rotating, thus allowing fringe players to gain European experience while enjoying some very valuable competitive minutes.

Chelsea have taken this approach to the extreme so far this season, playing a “B team” in all of their group games to date.

Those Chelsea B teamers will no doubt still be frustrated that they’re not entrenched in the A team but what compensation to be pulling together as a competitive unit and homing in on a trophy!

There’s nothing like winning to foster team spirit and motivate reserves.

Perhaps a much more important consideration for the club though, is that the prize money is not to be sniffed at.

League Phase participation in the UEFA Conference League was awarded a base fee of €3,170,000. A win in the group pays €400,000 and a draw €133,000. Teams which placed in the top 8 of the League Phase earned €400,000 and progressed automatically to the Round of 16. Teams which placed between 9th and 24th qualified for the knockout round play-offs and earned €200,000.

Reaching the knockout stage triggered additional bonuses: €800,000 for the round of 16, €1,300,000 for the quarter-finals and €2,500,000 for the semi-finals. The losing finalists received €4,000,000 and the champions received €7,000,000.

I have to admit that maths was never my strongest subject at school but, if my calculations are correct, that means that a team going through and winning all of their games to become champions would receive €17,570,000 (approx £14.7m) in prize money. Gate receipts and other associated income could/would easily push the final cash total towards the £20m mark.

Also, being Champions of any kind must surely enhance their overseas profile with a knock-on impact on merchandise sales and commercial deals.

Not only would the club benefit financially, the UEFA Conference League Champions then qualify for the following season’s Europa League competition, regardless of where they finish in the League.

A big problem that we face as a club is a lack of UEFA coefficient ranking points. This “co-deficiency” bit us in the posterior with the draw when we qualified for the Champions League two seasons ago and found ourselves in the “leftovers” pot and dropped into the Group of Death.

So, how does this mysterious piece of UEFA smoke and mirrors work?

Coefficients are calculated both for individual clubs and also for their national Associations (for the purposes of determining how many teams qualify for the various UEFA competitions).

Basically, teams earn two points for each win in the competition proper and one for a draw (these are halved for the qualifying rounds). Bonus points are also added as shown in the table below and clubs ranked according to their last five years’ achievements.

The end product of these calculations for us is that we have the princely total of eight coefficient points as a result of our one season in Europe during the last five years. This places us in 87th place, just below Brighton, who have 16 points. Other teams above us, due to their regular participation in UEFA competitions, include Sherrif of Moldova (20 points), Glasgow Rangers (57 points) and West Ham (69 points). Manchester City are ranked top with 128 points. We simply must add to our total as a matter of urgency!

Whilst I can see the point that we suffered last season with injuries and a set of difficult Champions League ties took their toll of our lads’ flagging limbs, I can’t convince myself that we’re better off this season without a European adventure. The fans love it, the players love it and the sponsors love it – it’s “win, win, win” as far as I’m concerned.