The early rounds of qualifying for a European club competition should be a cause for celebration. Tiny clubs such as Gibraltar’s College Europa, Juvenes Dogana of San Marino and Lithuanian side Kruoja Pakruojis are given the opportunity to play comparative giants such as Rosenborg, West Ham United and Red Star Belgrade as they take the first steps on a marathon journey to the 2016 Europa League Final in Basel.
However, in truth, Monday’s draw in Nyon led to plenty of clubs worrying about travel arrangements and the potential costs of their success; with some immense distances involved, clubs have found themselves looking at their finances and logistics with a concerned glance.
Two examples of this come from Scotland.
Firstly, Aberdeen’s second-placed finish in the 2014/15 SPL led to a place in the Europa League’s First Qualifying Round this year, but fans were understandably disappointed with the draw.
Whilst a two-legged affair with Macedonian runners-up FK Shkëndija should be easy enough for the Scottish club to negotiate, the travelling involved has put off many fans.
Tetovo, the town in which FK Shkëndija are based, is a 45-minute drive from Macedonia’s capital city, Skopje, and does not have an airport. Its 15,000-seater stadium is not blessed with fantastic facilities, and it seems unlikely that many Aberdeen fans would be willing to shell out somewhere between £600 and £1,100 on the airfare, which would involve between seven and fifteen hours of journey time depending on routes.
Thank God for that regionalised draw pic.twitter.com/5yJzGFJrRf
— Stuart Bews (@StooBews) June 22, 2015
However, Aberdeen supporters have been spared the daunting trip thanks to UEFA’s decision to move the tie to Skopje.
The Dons have been drawn away in the first leg on Thursday, July 2, but Uefa have confirmed the tie has been moved from the 15,000-capacity Gradski Stadium in Tetovo to the 34,000 Philip II Arena in Skopje.
Despite its 50,000 population, Tetovo has the second-highest crime rate of any city in Macedonia, and thus Aberdeen’s fans have been spared at least some of their worries about potential violence, if not the vast cost of an away day overseas.
The Dons’ manager, Derek McInnes, feels more should be done to ensure the first few rounds of the Europa League are regionalised. After the draw, he told The Press And Journal: “It would make sense. The competition is saturated with teams now and it can be difficult. We looked at the teams in the group that we could have got and we’ve probably got the most challenging one geographically and in terms of ability.”
Another example comes in the form of St. Johnstone.
After securing a European spot thanks to a late Chris Kane winner against Aberdeen on the final day of the 2014/15 season, the Perth-based side were given a gargantuan 6,000-mile round trip to Armenia to face Alashkert FC, the second-lowest ranked side in the competition.
Based on the Armenian border with Iran in the capital city of Yerevan, Alashkert play in a ground with a capacity of just 6,850, and any St. Johnstone fans wishing to see their team’s European adventure begin on 2nd July are faced with the prospect of shelling out at least £494 on flights, which would take a total of 34 hours for the round trip.
If that is not bad enough, their reward for a victory over two legs would be a game against either Red Star Belgrade – one of the best sides in the second qualifying round draw – or Kazakh outfit Kairat Almaty. The former would present an extremely tough footballing challenge, and the latter are based 4,300 miles from the Scots; the 8,600-mile round trip would take a hefty chunk out of the club’s budget.
Understandably, the Saints’ manager Tommy Wright supported the case for regionalisation in the draw, saying “The draw is what it is, we’ve got to deal with it and we will deal with it; we were hoping it was going to regionalised, but it’s not, so we will be making the 6,000-mile round trip to play them.”
“We feel it would be common sense for it to be regionalised,” he added.
It seems necessary that regionalisation of some sort occurs in coming years. To save on travelling time, the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in England, for League 1 and 2 clubs, is split into a Northern and Southern section right up until the final, despite the fact that some clubs that feature have larger budgets that many smaller Europa League sides. Wigan Athletic and Sheffield United, for example, are both well-backed clubs that will feature in this year’s JPT. As a result, it is obvious that regionalisation is not difficult, and should be strongly considered by UEFA.
Splitting the draw into a West and East section would not make the qualifying rounds particularly unfair – the seeding system would still mean easier draws for better teams – and could be implemented for the first three qualifying rounds only. A simple step like this could save small clubs a huge amount of time and money, and should really have been put into place already by UEFA.
