What, another one? That was the reaction from most quarters when UEFA announced a new European tournament that will get underway in 2021. However, on closer examination, the proposed format – 32 teams from a wider variety of pools that are given the opportunity to play opposition from across Europe – might sound strangely familiar.

For 40 years, sports fans from across the continent enjoyed following the fortunes of their local teams in the Cup Winners Cup. Judging by the latest European football news, it certainly appears that UEL2 will appeal to a very similar demographic of football fans.

About UEL2

The new tournament will be seen as a third tier in European football, beneath the Europa League and the flagship Champions League. It will be contested by 32 teams in eight groups of four. Following the group stages, the second placed teams in the groups will play off against the third placed teams in the Europa League for the right to take on the eight group winners in a round of 16. Following that, the tournament will take a conventional knockout format, with the winner being granted automatic inclusion in the subsequent year’s Europa League.

The exact makeup of the teams and criteria for inclusion in UEL2 has yet to be confirmed, and UEFA says this will be left largely for the football associations to work out for themselves. Chances are that it will include the winners and top teams from a whole variety of leagues and tournaments.

Does this sound at all familiar?

If anyone is experiencing a certain sense of deja vu at this point, that is entirely understandable. Back in 1960, the European Cup Winners Cup was launched, for exactly the same reasons now being touted for UEL2. It provided those in smaller leagues with a chance to play some good quality opposition from across Europe. The Cup Winners Cup ran for almost 40 years.

During that time, there were plenty of memorable moments. Unlike UEL2, the Cup Winners Cup was a purely knockout event with 32 initial entrants. This presented the opportunity for some FA Cup-style giant killing. Intriguingly, this tournament also invented the notion of the away goals rule in the 1965-66 event, a rule that is once again under the microscope today.

Fiorentina won the first ever tournament in 1961, with an aggregate win of 4-1 over Rangers. That was the first and only year that the final was played using home and away legs. Subsequently, a neutral host was found, and the last Cup Winners Cup was held aloft by Lazio, who beat Real Mallorca 2-1 in front of 33,000 spectators at Villa Park.

Learning from the past

Fans across Europe mourned the loss of the Cup Winners Cup. However, the reason behind UEFA abolishing the tournament was a perceived lack of quality in the wake of widespread changes to European football in the 1990s. With more of the elite clubs qualifying for the Champions League, the Cup Winners Cup began to be seen as something of an irrelevance.

The introduction of UEL2 will certainly fill the void that has been hanging over European football for the past 20 years. However, UEFA will have to manage the three tournaments carefully to avoid the risk of history repeating itself, and the links with the Europa League should help to achieve that. As well as providing an opportunity for UEL2 winners to play in the Europa League, it also seems likely that those who drop out of the Europa League at the group stages will similarly get the chance to participate in UEL2.

Aleksander Ceferin, the President of UEFA, said the new tournament has been devised in order to meet the “widespread demand by all clubs to increase their chances of participating more regularly in European competition.” He said the watchwords for UEL2 would be inclusivity and quality. From this, the links to the old Cup Winners Cup are obvious.

It is worth noting that this new European tournament has no connection with the European Super League that has been under discussion. That, if it ever comes about, will feature only the elite teams, playing in their own private tournament, and will probably end their participation in both domestic leagues and the Champions League.