Congratulations to FC Shakhtar Donetsk of the Ukraine. They have just become the winners of the UEFA Cup 2009. This means that they are the last winners of the UEFA Cup in this form.
From next season, it becomes the UEFA Europa League, a kind of secondary division of European football, below the UEFA Champions League, but above the national leagues.
It means that the European competitions that I remember from my childhood, have either changed beyond recognition, or no longer exist. The European Cup is now the UEFA Champions League, and has been since 1992. The European Cup WInners Cup was merged with the UEFA Cup in 1999, and now, the UEFA Cup, gets merged with the UEFA Intertoto Cup and becomes the UEFA Europa League, when their new season begins officially in July 2009.
There will still be losers from the UEFA Champions League joining the competition at various stages, but once we hit the final 32, it’s back to a straight knockout competition.
I wonder if this will be as successful as the Champions League has been. I guess we will start finding out in July.
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