August 30 – Chelsea, who clung on to an aggregate 2-1 win against Servette last night to qualify for UEFA’s third tier Conference League club competition, will face Belgium’s Gent and Ireland’s Shamrock Rovers in the newly formatted six-match league phase of the competition.
Chelsea are footballing royalty and in this competition they stick out like an entitled king who has stumbled into a pauper’s banquet.
They were seeded at the top of Pot 1 and were drawn trips to FC Noah in Armenia and Astana in Kazakhstan. They will also play Heidenheim in Germany and Panathinaikos in Greece.
It is a far cry for a club that has ambition to return to ties against the elite of Europe in Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Munich and Milan.
But actually this is what inclusivity and merit-based performance is all about and UEFA have captured it in their ‘new era’ club competition. It doesn’t matter how deep your pockets are, what you wear in your feet that really counts. For the football purists who love the game this is a little bit life-affirming. It is the old values being brought through in a modern, updated and meaningful format.
Who isn’t going to be supporting FC Noah – who have already played eight matches in the Conference League to qualify for the League phase – when they turn up at Stamford Bridge?
For the league phase draw of the Europa Conference League clubs, were split into six groups of seven, ranked by their UEFA co-efficient.
A look through the draw in itself is a lesson financial diversity.
The Conference League has opened up European club football to more nations than ever before and with the qualification of The New Saints (TNS) from Wales and Larne from Northern Ireland, there are now 51 member nations who have had clubs qualified for UEFA’s competitions.
The 108 clubs qualified for the new-look Champions League, Europa League and Conference League, come from 40 of UEFA’s 55 member associations. There were 27 nations represented in…
Source link : https://www.insideworldfootball.com/2024/08/30/conference-league-draw-highlights-diversity-inclusivity-life-challenge-chelsea/
Author : Paul Nicholson
Publish date : 2024-08-30 14:19:12
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