Success in the 3rd League

Everyone likes to be happy. Of course. Especially football fans. Especially in Poland, where it is hard to find the success of an adult ball for years, whether typical or club football.

In 2016, erstwhile we were promoted to the quarter-finals of the European Championships in France, we could feel this long-standing hunger. But besides the lowered bar of our expectations. In 2024 it was even more visible.

It is truly hard to explain the speech of admiration over performances of the Legion of Warsaw and the Jagiellonian Białystok in the Conference League. This is the title of the “third league” of European games, where as many teams from as many countries have truly been stuffed as UEFA's common sense was able to accommodate. due to the fact that the football office did not hide that the goal of the improvement – about which a small bit more – is to scope the viewer in the most football-inaccessible parts of Europe. Let Malta, Kosovo and Armenia have individual to watch too. And whatever we think about it makes sense, but the solution is not (should not?) dedicated to a nearly 40 million-dollar country where the position of a young boy in the backyard depends on football skills.

Meanwhile, we already have almost an atmosphere from the mundialu’ 74, due to the fact that Polish teams have defeated rivals whose names have the right to know only what the more persistent amateurs of Football Manager. And it's not like I'm trying to despise them somehow, or instill it in you, not – if football is for any reason a beautiful athletics and different than the others, it's due to the fact that clashes of this kind have (yet?) a place. That no of this makes closed exclusive games like basketball or American football. Only that for a country of this size, which is Poland, and given the presence of a digging ball in the hierarchy of importance of invalid cases: The Conference League should be the highest punishment for consolation.

How did we even happen to be watching Polish teams there? The Legion of Warsaw had to defeat respective cucumber opponents along the way, and the Jagiellonia Białystok “fall” first from the Champions League and then from the League of Europe. Meanwhile, in this Champions League there is even Slovan Bratislava. In Slovak or even Central European terms, the squad is at most "solid", but in any case not a tycoon. No peculiar earnings, and besides in a country where ice hockey is simply a dangerous competition for fans. It truly doesn't take a mile of analysis and comparison to feel dissonance. And we can explain to ourselves – to any degree according to the fact – that the Polish league is simply more equal and there are fewer leading teams rotating in the European cups, but there is inactive nothing to brag about.

One more word about these games. due to the fact that they've been enlarged again. 96 teams participated in the group phase before the reform. presently it is 108 clubs. And we are glad that our 2 are present in these last 36, and anyway thanks to the peculiar plan that the country's champion would have already had to make autosabotage on the field so that he would not qualify for the Conference League.

UEFA has chosen this improvement to defend itself from the creation of a Superliga, but it besides does not hide that the strategy allocated to rivals according to any sloping ladder is to firstly increase the number of meetings, and secondly limit the large duels with those who "burnt" while our teams are incapable to even enter this level. Notabene, mentioned by Slovan Bratislava, despite an increase in the number of matches in this phase by 25% of their current number, only Manchester City and AC Milan take from recognized companies, so it already shows how the aforementioned "people" aspect of football suffers. However, this does not concern us. We are waiting for the clashes of the Legion and Jagiellonia with: NK Ceyle and Mlada Boleslav. Ladybug Cup right here!

Tomasz Jankowski

photo of wikipedia

Think Poland, No. 45-46 (3-10.2024)