Wenger criticizes UEFA over unfair Europa League policy

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has criticised UEFA for rewarding ‘failure’ after two Champions League exiles contested in this season’s Europa League final.

Chelsea and Benfica who were both knocked out of the Champions league this season, only to be handed a lifeline in the Europa league, contested in the final of Europe’s second tier competition at Amsterdam which Chelsea eventually won 2-1.

“You have two teams in the final who were in the Champions League, their target at the start of the season was the Champions League, not to win the Europa League,” said Wenger.

“We raised that question many times at UEFA: is it right to reward teams basically for failure?

“Every year now, in the Europa League, you have two teams who have been not failures, but who have been (first) in the Champions League.

“The teams who go through in the Champions League to the last 16 don’t have a chance after.

“If you go out in the last 16 (of the Champions League), you don’t drop into the Europa League.

“If you don’t qualify (from the group stage), you have a chance of winning the Europa League.

“If I had won the Europa League like Chelsea I would have been happy as well.

“It is a trophy, but, overall, it raises the question.”

“You can say that many teams who start the Europa League fight together, then, in the middle of the competition, some come in and suddenly they are all potential winners, but they didn’t start the competition, they were in another competition,” the Gunners boss said.

And despite acknowledging Chelsea’s success, the Frenchman believed the Blues were given a helping hand in claiming the title.

“Congratulations to Chelsea,” he said. “It looks even more fantastic because they have won the Champions League and the Europa League in two seasons, but usually that cannot happen.”

Source: ESPN