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Not one month into their tenure as Europa League Champions, FC Porto find their title in the cross hairs of over one-hundred ninety European sides from fifty-three leagues, each of which is ready and eager to succeed them as Champions.&nbsp; At the end of this month, June 30, fifty teams will take the field in twenty-five first-leg games for the First Qualifying Round of the Europa League 2011-12 tournament.&nbsp; FC Porto who, by virtue of winning Portugal’s domestic title, will be unable to defend their title as they have been granted entry into the UEFA Champions League.&nbsp; Only a third-place group finish will allow them reentry into the Europa League to defend their title.
That means a new champion is all but guaranteed.&nbsp; Championship glory and visions of hoisting the UEFA Cup, of stretching the back of the net, headers from set-pieces, wingers skipping past defenders, of fingertip stops, and game-saving challenges are now rattling imaginations throughout Europe.
Dreams like this are knocking about the heads and hearts of the players from seeded teams like Fulham, 8th place Premier League finishers this season, but who two years ago had one of the storybook seasons of the Europa tournament that took them all the way to final; NK Široki Brijeg, this year’s 2nd place finishers in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Premier League; and the ten- year-old FK Renova, last year’s Macedonian Champions, who have qualified for either Europa or Champions League tournaments the last three years.
These dreams knock about in equal measure around the heads of players from the unseeded teams, teams like the six year old FC Milsami who have clawed their way up from the third division to the top flight in Moldovia; FK Zeta, formed in the 50s and whose greatest achievement thus far is their recent promotion to the twelve team Montenegro First League; there is Ulisses FC from the Armenian Premier League, who first qualified for the Europa League last year where they were ousted by the Israeli side Bnei Yehuda in the first qualifying round, one-nil over the two legs.
Now these six teams—along with forty-four others—find themselves in the same tournament, in the same round, and may find themselves rivals when the seeded and unseeded are pitted against one another.

The first qualifying round consists of fifty teams (twenty-five ranked, twenty-five unranked) who will be paired to play a two-leg elimination.
Winners advance to the second qualification round where, in addition to the twenty-five winning sides from the first round, fifty-five teams are added to the plot for a total of 80 teams.&nbsp; Eighty.&nbsp; That is the equivalent of four leagues.
Forty more there and backs and forty more winners now advanced to the third qualification round where thirty new teams are added.&nbsp; At this point, the tournament has seen sixty-five teams dispatched, and one hundred and thirty games have been played.
These are just the qualification rounds, mind you.&nbsp; We haven’t even reached the tournament proper…the sheer breadth of the drama, at this point, is almost unbearable.&nbsp; Can you imagine the hope you might feel as a little Moldovian side if you’ve made it this far?&nbsp; Can you imagine how validating it might feel to be an Armenian team taking the pitch against a team from the EPL?&nbsp; That, from the ruins of sixty-five teams, you have survived?&nbsp; Even the smallest teams adopt the air of champions in hopes of becoming champions.
Does the Europa League have less prestige?&nbsp; Perhaps.&nbsp; Is the Europa League less glamorous?&nbsp; Certainly.&nbsp; The countries are smaller, the teams and their budgets are smaller; hell, the players and the stadiums are smaller.&nbsp; Many of the pitches on the first qualifying unseeded side seat fewer than 3,000 fans, and one side, JK Nõmme Kalju from the Meistriliiga in Estonia, play in Hiiu Stadium with a seating capacity that ranges from 500 – 1000, and whose wikipedia page boasts of the stadiums wifi availability (whether or not this stadium will be used for Europa League play, I have been unable to determine).
But football is football, no matter the country, no matter the stadium.&nbsp; When there is hope, there is as much passion in these thousand-seaters as there is in the Nou Camp or White Hart Lane.
Alas, championships are fleeting.&nbsp; There are one hundred ninety four teams across Europe right now that are clinging to this knowledge, will perhaps allow the glimmer of hope to motivate their legs another meter past the threshold of pain, to squeeze out one more breath from exhausted lungs, their bellies full of the potential not yet realized but not yet dashed, ninety minutes away from the second step on their journey toward a destination many of them dare not even name.
The draw for the first qualifying round will be held on June 20th.&nbsp; Matchplay begins June 30th.

2011-12 Europa League Preview

2011-12 Europa League Preview - World Soccer Talk

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2011-12 Europa League Preview