Football: ANDY GRAY: Give this dull Cup the elbow

WHEN Chelsea crashed out of the UEFA Cup their fans were quite rightly upset and the embarrassment of losing to Norwegian minnows Viking FK has led to calls for the head of Ken Bates.

OK, Chelsea were disappointing but it makes you wonder if the competition is worth all the fuss. And I tell you - in its present form it isn't!

Nobody is interested in the UEFA Cup. The players don't care about it, the majority of fans couldn't give a stuff about it and television lost interest ages ago.

The brutal truth is that the UEFA Cup is a competition for losers. It's a cut-price ticket to Europe, an economy class journey for those who can't mix it with the big boys.

If you are in it it means you are not good enough to make the Champions League - or, even worse, you thought you were but got booted out in the early stages.

In its current form teams like Leeds cling to the hope of some tainted European glory and travel around Europe playing some teams hardly anyone has heard of.

Apart from the risk of being severely embarrassed like Chelsea, you have to ask what purpose the UEFA Cup really serves.

As far as I can work out the only people who really benefit from the early stages are the men in suits. It provides jobs for people who run the thing and spend their time sitting on their backsides organising a competition which is dull.

The Chelsea players got a lot of stick because they didn't seem interested in last week's game. Fans justifiably get upset when players don't try but big internationals like Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink are interested only in playing in the Champions League.

Whether you like it or not that is a fact. Having said that, I would agree that they still have a duty to the fans who fork out to travel to these far-flung corners of Europe.

Not caring about what you might consider to be a worthless tournament is one thing but when you are selected to play in it you should give it 100 per cent, no matter how many fans turn up to watch.

If they have paid good money to get there, supporters have every right to expect their heroes to perform to the highest possible level. But motivation for a competition that simply does not capture the imagination is hardly there in bucketloads.

UEFA have got to sit down and discuss where this tournament is going. If the feeling is that clubs want it to continue it should be revamped.

Perhaps they could look at a two-tier system which provides more glamorous matches.

The top teams could be left in their own group stages with the minnows in a group of their own. The winners of all the groups would then meet in a later knockout stage. It might take the yawn factor away.

If they can come up with an exciting revamp fair enough. If not, let's scrap it - and I bet no one will miss it.

Copyright 2002 MGN LTD
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.