NYON, Switzerland, July 7 (Reuters) - European soccer's governing body UEFA is considering changing the name of its second tier UEFA Cup competition to the UEFA Europa League.
The planned rebranding was revealed by Karl-Heinz
Rummenigge, the acting chairman of the new European Clubs
Association, whose organisation was presented with the proposal
on Monday.
'The hope is that a refreshment of the name and brand can
help achieve better results than we've seen in the UEFA Cup in
the past,' Rummenigge later told a media conference at UEFA's
Swiss headquarters.
'There has been a general impression that it has become a
second-class competition and that we should get back to how it
was ten or 15 years ago.'
A senior UEFA source confirmed to Reuters that UEFA's
executive committee would vote on the name change when it meets
in Bordeaux in September.
He said the new name was meant to better reflect the new
group stage system being used in the competition from the
2009-10 season, in a direct copy of UEFA's much more successful
Champions League competition.
UEFA announced in December that it was revamping the UEFA
Cup's format, dropping the unpopular five-team groups in which
teams play each opponent just once either home or away in favour
of a simpler home and away system.
From 2009 UEFA will also be marketing the competition
centrally, in another lesson learned from the lucrative
Champions League, and hopes that the new name will help
distinguish it from the previous UEFA Cup format.
