As such both competitions are becoming more and more devalued year on year, both by the big guns who know that Champions League qualification means everything, and those who realize that staying in the EPL is the only thing that matters because it’s the Holy Grail — both in terms of finance and prestige.
Winning the SPL means qualification for the Champions League (at least for the moment) and, with the poor financial state of our domestic league, it’s now absolutely imperative that Rangers again qualify for this premier competition. Given the quality of sides who could lie in wait in a qualifying game (as Celtic will testify), coming first in the SPL is really all that matters this season.
Lets face facts — the Europa League means nothing in comparison to the Champions League.
First as the UEFA Cup and now in its new incarnation, It’s suffered year-on-year because of the growth of the beast that is the Champions League; it’s now Europe’s equivalent of the Co-Op Cup and just taking a look at the line-ups teams from England, Germany, Italy and Spain put out in this week’s games will pay testament to that. Only our Glasgow neighbours appear to think anyone actually cares about this tournament at this stage, prior to the third-placed drop-outs from the CL giving it a much-needed injection of quality.
I’ve lost count of how much newsprint has been filled up recently to stoke up this “grudge game” with Rapid Vienna in an attempt to get bums on seats for a game no-one would otherwise give two hoots about. The fact thegame is sandwiched on Channel Five between a magazine show hosted by Ian Wright and Melinda Messenger and a Jean-Claude Van Damme action film should leave no-one in any doubt as to its importance and the Europa League’s standing (despite its flashy new branding) in comparison to the CL.
Rightly or wrongly, the Champions League is now the only show in town and making sure Rangers are in the group stages year-on-year is the difficult challenge facing the managerial regime.
That’s why I was so surprised to see our first team played at Queen of the South.
With the limited resources currently at Walter Smith’s disposal, saving our players’ energies for the league games and the Champions League fixtures must take precedence. If we don’t keep these guys fresh for what’s important we risk burn-out from an already threadbare squad. That could mean losing out on not just the SPL title but the chance to dine at European football’s top table with the Barcelonas, Real Madrids, Manchester Uniteds and Chelseas of this world.
So, while games against Hamilton, Falkirk or Kilmarnock might not get everyone’s excitement levels up in comparison to a Champions League game, they must be looked on as being every bit — if not more so — as important. Here’s hoping that after three back-to-back 0-0 draws in the SPL the players begin to realize that!
If they don’t, we’ll have to look forward to Thursday games and trying to get a good reception from Channel Five.