Season 2011-12 Fan Articles

Qualifying for the Europa Cup?

I would love for the blues to qualify for Europe, and I believe we still have a decent chance of qualifying, either through league placing?s or more than likely through the FA Cup should we beat Liverpool in the Semi Final at Wembley.

My understanding of Uefa?s and the FA?s Europa Cup qualification goes something like this:

• 5th place finish guarantees entry to the group stage of the competition
• League cup winner?s place qualifies for the second round of the competition (Liverpool have automatically qualified for the competition next season)
• The FA Cup is an extra ticket in Europa.

If Everton can get to the final and face the team who finished 4th in the Premier League, then it would not matter if we won or lost, since the team who finished runner?s up in the competition would get that automatic 2nd Europa place.

If we were to face the team outside of the CL qualifying positions (1st to 4th) 5th, 6th or 7th then there would be no extra spot in the competition and we?d miss out.

The other thing to look out for is qualification via Fair Play and I am not entirely sure that any team in the Premier League can qualify via this route this season, so our best chance of qualification to Europe is via playing a team who have already qualified for the Champions League (CL) next season.

However, I have grave problems with our qualification should we make it: the problem is, this team is barely able to play half a season, and with the fact we keep loosing players by selling them to stave off the banks, it leaves us with an even weaker team than we are use to.

The chances are the loanees we have right now are unlikely to be signed up in the summer on new contracts since we don?t have a pot to piss in right now.

We simply have no strength in depth in the squad to cope with a European adventure next season. Hell, we don?t even have strength in depth to cope with the season.

I understand Moyes need?s experience in Europa Cup so we can win the tin pot cup, which only guarantees automatic group stage qualification the following season and not entry into the Champions League.

I think we?d more than likely embarrass ourselves if we went to Europe next season.

We know there won?t be enough new signings to cope with the extra added pressure.

17 matches for little reward is just disgraceful.

We get little in the way of money and if anything depending on the run, we would barely break even with the cash flow.

If Moyes is moaning now about too many matches, just imagine another 17 being added from the Europa cup!

The new season we need to consolidate and find new signings and start the season of positively for once, and really go for it, without the whinging on the manager or his dour face.

While this article is premature in that we?ll probably not get past the shower across the park for whatever reason, I just thought I?d bring this to people?s attention, because there is an outside chance we could qualify and I don?t think that would do us any favours at all considering the mess we are in right now.

Reader Comments (59)

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer

About these ads