The Inescapable Gap
Much awaited as any other major football tournament, the UEFA Euro 2024 brought along controversies regarding the competition format. Critics (or nostalgic fans) argued over the expansion of the tournament to 24 teams, considering that the old system, with 16 teams divided into groups of 4, would have been simpler and better. Better, meaning, more competitive (?). The current format sees the top two teams from each of the six groups (of four) qualify for the round of 16, joined by the best four third ranked teams of each group.
It has been asserted that the new format diluted the competitive intensity, allowing weaker teams to progress further. Yet, such teams, as could be observed, were only “weaker” once they reached the higher stages of the tournament. In the group phase, there were some brilliant ball displays from Romania, Albania, Slovakia, or Georgia, yet this wasn’t enough. Once the sieve sifted and left only the best teams in the competition, the air for Central and Eastern European teams has thinned. Ironically, many are wondering which Romania’s performance was greater: Euro 2000 or Euro 2024? In both cases, Romania made it past the group stage, but, because of the competition system, in 2000 they played “directly” in the quarterfinals, while in 2024 they had to play the round of 16.
To many supporters, the tournament probably only properly started in the quarter-finals. At the same time, though, the group stage was… a stage for nice surprise stories and patriotic pride for teams such as Georgia, Slovakia or Slovenia. In terms of geopolitical power in football, it might be noted that Romania was the only Central and Eastern European country to finish the group stage in one of the first two positions, which were largely (save for Turkey) occupied by Western European football powers. On the contrary, with a couple of exceptions (Scotland and Netherlands), the last two positions in each group were occupied by CEE countries (Hungary, Croatia, Albania, Slovenia, Serbia, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Georgia, Czech Republic).
The final classifications in the group stages reflect broader socio-economic and geopolitical dynamics on the continent, being an indication of how the footballing power continues to be distributed in Europe, even with the Nations League in place giving more chances to CEE countries: see Croatia with all the four seasons so far in League A, or Bosnia and Herzegovina or Hungary, both with two seasons in League A. Yet, overall, the footballing infrastructures and investments, the economic disparities between the countries or the wider historical football context remain in favour of Western Europe. Not to mention the domestic league competitiveness of the Big5. Add to this that the UEFA Champions League has mostly become a “Western affair” (no CEE team made it past the group stages and to the round of 16 since Shakhtar Donetsk in 2017/2018), which contributes to the increased competitiveness and budgets of the top Western European leagues (Premier League, Primera Division, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1).
It seems that football becomes more and more tiered (and tired?) in Europe. The top competitions such as the Euro and the Champions League towards Western Europe, while lower ranked tournaments such as the more recently established Nations League or Conference League (not only towards Western Europe, but also) towards CEE.
Now, give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s: Olympiacos just won the 2024 Conference League, but this is actually the third ranked club competition in Europe (its previous two editions were still won by Italian side AS Roma and English side West Ham United). The most recent CEE-cup-lifting in the Europa League goes back to Shakhtar (again Shakhtar) in 2008-2009 (when the competition was still the UEFA Cup), while in the Champions League to the 1991 Red Star Belgrade (when, again, it was the European Cup).
The questions is whether the likes of the 2024 Olympiacos will be able to break through higher levels of silverware? Most probably, not (yet). Remember that Russia and Ukraine gave us three winners of the UEFA Cup between 2005 and 2009 (CSKA Moscow, Zenit Saint Petersburg and, you guessed it, Shakhtar Donetsk), but even such successes didn’t enable them to install long-term soft-power over the continent. What about then if the European Super League project becomes reality? Will this mean even higher talent concentration and financial disparities, which might eventually result in greater competitive imbalances?
More recent performances of CEE countries shouldn’t be overlooked (see the recent rise of Croatian or Hungarian soccer), but what seems to look like an inescapable gap is still to be observed in European football. At least at the (very) highest levels of it. Or, in the knock-out stages…
Photo source: PxHere.