Uefa Cup 'set for new name'

Football bosses set to overhaul 'second class competition'

Last updated: 8th July 2008

Uefa Cup 'set for new name'

Rummenigge: Revealed name change

Also see

The Uefa Cup could be on the verge of being re-branded.

It could soon be called the Uefa Europa League as football's bosses seek to give the competition fresh appeal.

European soccer's governing body Uefa is considering the name change as it seeks to reverse a feeling it has become 'a second class competition'.

The proposed name change was revealed by Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the acting chairman of the new European Clubs Association, whose organisation was presented with the proposal on Monday.

Refreshment

Rummenigge said: "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.

"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."

Uefa's executive committee is set to vote on the name change when it meets in Bordeaux in September.

Confirming the vote, a senior Uefa source added the new name was meant to better reflect the new group stage system being used in the competition from the 2009-10 season.

Copy

This new system is a direct copy of UEFA's more successful Champions League competition and will see the dropping of 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.

In another lesson learned from the lucrative Champions League, UEFA will also be marketing the competition centrally from 2009.