New UEFA trends should help eastern clubs improve

BELGRADE – A combination of recent UEFA decisions aimed at reinvigorating Europe’s soccer scene should help clubs from the continent’s East close the glaring gap on their stronger and wealthier rivals from the West.

The election at the end of January of Michel Platini as UEFA President largely rested on his promise to give clubs from Europe’s lower tiers a better chance of qualifying for the lucrative Champions league group stage. The ruling body’s decision in Cardiff last week to award the Euro 2012 finals to Poland and Ukraine ahead of favourites Italy should be a collateral benefit for the cause.But apart from sporadic ventures past the Champions League preliminary rounds, clubs from eastern Europe have consistently struggled to make a notable impact in Europe’s premier club competition.None of them have reached the last eight since Dynamo Kiev’s 4-3 aggregate defeat to Bayern Munich in the 1999 semi-finals and cash-rich CSKA Moscow are the only other club to have sparkled in Europe when they won the UEFA Cup in 2005.There still remains in the western half of the continent misunderstanding and misconceptions about soccer in the east.But times have changed.Teams from the east are no longer full of identikit players with unpronounceable names apparently rolled off some communist production line.Africans and South Americans, talented youngsters from Brazil, other parts of Europe and Asia are all now playing in the east.Just like grainy black-and-white TV coverage has been replaced by glitzy colour, so should the image of eastern European football be perceived in a different light too.It is colourful, vibrant and exciting – but poor, ramshackle and in need of a good overhaul.The overwhelming majority of eastern Europe’s best clubs lack the financial muscle not only to lure top quality players, but also to keep their best home-bred talents from going West.Platini’s vow to confine Europe’s strongest leagues to three automatic berths each in the Champions league should allow clubs from the East to progress past the preliminary stages more often and thus boost their slim budgets.The revenue would in turn make them more competitive and produce more regional powerhouses able to give Europe’s top clubs a good run for their money at least.However, building respectable squads is not the only priority as most eastern European clubs need to improve their dilapidated stadiums neglected during the communist era and 15 mainly difficult years since it came to a close.UEFA’s choice to give the Euro 2012 championship to Poland and Ukraine is a major step forward in that direction.It will prompt not only the two co-hosts to overhaul highways, hotels and soccer grounds, but also their neighbours to follow in their footsteps if they ever hope to stage an event of such magnitude.Awarding next year’s Champions League final to Moscow can be seen as another act of trust and good will in the eastern half of the continent’s ability to stage big events.It might not be the same thing as awarding the final to the Romanian or Bulgarian capital at the moment, but does underline UEFA’s attempt to make the continent more inclusive.Unclear ownership of big clubs though remains a burning issue and a stumbling block in countries that emerged from the former Yugoslavia, where the biggest soccer clubs are officially registered as “citizens’ associations.”In practice, that means little or nothing has changed in their communist-era structures which make them highly unattractive for any kind of private investment.Mounting maintenance costs and lack of any other revenue has forced Serbian champions and 1991 European Cup winners Red Star Belgrade to sell their top players one season after another in the past 15 years to scrape a living.Croatia’s big two Hajduk Split and Dinamo Zagreb are very much in the same boat with them although Dinamo have been able to sign a 10-year contract with their best player Eduardo da Silva and start overhauling their stadium.Only if eastern European clubs are unreservedly prepared to adopt the principles of a market economy will UEFA’s initiatives have any effect in their quest to escape from the doldrums.Nampa-ReutersThe ruling body’s decision in Cardiff last week to award the Euro 2012 finals to Poland and Ukraine ahead of favourites Italy should be a collateral benefit for the cause.But apart from sporadic ventures past the Champions League preliminary rounds, clubs from eastern Europe have consistently struggled to make a notable impact in Europe’s premier club competition.None of them have reached the last eight since Dynamo Kiev’s 4-3 aggregate defeat to Bayern Munich in the 1999 semi-finals and cash-rich CSKA Moscow are the only other club to have sparkled in Europe when they won the UEFA Cup in 2005.There still remains in the western half of the continent misunderstanding and misconceptions about soccer in the east.But times have changed.Teams from the east are no longer full of identikit players with unpronounceable names apparently rolled off some communist production line.Africans and South Americans, talented youngsters from Brazil, other parts of Europe and Asia are all now playing in the east.Just like grainy black-and-white TV coverage has been replaced by glitzy colour, so should the image of eastern European football be perceived in a different light too.It is colourful, vibrant and exciting – but poor, ramshackle and in need of a good overhaul.The overwhelming majority of eastern Europe’s best clubs lack the financial muscle not only to lure top quality players, but also to keep their best home-bred talents from going West.Platini’s vow to confine Europe’s strongest leagues to three automatic berths each in the Champions league should allow clubs from the East to progress past the preliminary stages more often and thus boost their slim budgets.The revenue would in turn make them more competitive and produce more regional powerhouses able to give Europe’s top clubs a good run for their money at least.However, building respectable squads is not the only priority as most eastern European clubs need to improve their dilapidated stadiums neglected during the communist era and 15 mainly difficult years since it came to a close.UEFA’s choice to give the Euro 2012 championship to Poland and Ukraine is a major step forward in that direction.It will prompt not only the two co-hosts to overhaul highways, hotels and soccer grounds, but also their neighbours to follow in their footsteps if they ever hope to stage an event of such magnitude.Awarding next year’s Champions League final to Moscow can be seen as another act of trust and good will in the eastern half of the continent’s ability to stage big events.It might not be the same thing as awarding the final to the Romanian or Bulgarian capital at the moment, but does underline UEFA’s attempt to make the continent more inclusive.Unclear ownership of big clubs though remains a burning issue and a stumbling block in countries that emerged from the former Yugoslavia, where the biggest soccer clubs are officially registered as “citizens’ associations.”In practice, that means little or nothing has changed in their communist-era structures which make them highly unattractive for any kind of private investment.Mounting maintenance costs and lack of any other revenue has forced Serbian champions and 1991 European Cup winners Red Star Belgrade to sell their top players one season after another in the past 15 years to scrape a living.Croatia’s big two Hajduk Split and Dinamo Zagreb are very much in the same boat with them although Dinamo have been able to sign a 10-year contract with their best player Eduardo da Silva and start overhauling their stadium.Only if eastern European clubs are unreservedly prepared to adopt the principles of a market economy will UEFA’s initiatives have any effect in their quest to escape from the doldrums.Nampa-Reuters