Crystal Palace’s journey to the Conference League Final in Leipzig has sparked a broader conversation about whether European football has simply become too much.
The so-called Swiss system, introduced across the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League last season, was designed to create more meaningful early-stage matches between major clubs.
Instead, Uefa has managed to confuse supporters while stripping away the charm of reverse fixtures, which once allowed fans to properly acquaint themselves with unfamiliar opponents.
In leagues of 36 teams, each side plays eight opponents in the top two competitions and six in the Conference League, with the top 24 advancing to the knockout rounds.
Palace’s campaign only genuinely caught fire when the knockout stages began in late February, with the league phase feeling more like a series of fleeting encounters than a proper European odyssey.
Away tickets sold quickly on the novelty of a first European campaign, but Selhurst Park proved hard to fill even at knockdown prices during the group stage.
The format demonstrably favoured clubs from wealthier nations, with the only financial outlier in the semi-finals being Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk, whose pedigree and pipeline of Brazilian talent helped them overcome the obstacles posed by war.
Palace left back Tyrick Mitchell featured in all 60 matchday squads this season, serving as an unused substitute on only five occasions, illustrating the physical burden placed on players.
Genuine supporters would surely prefer giant killings and close escapes to the current slog, regardless of what the expanded format means for broadcast revenues.
Elsewhere in English football, the National League is pressing ahead with its 3UP campaign, urging the EFL to offer three automatic promotion spots into League Two rather than the current two.
The campaign gained moral weight this season when Rochdale came back from 2-0 down in the seventh minute of injury time to draw with Boreham Wood, then won a penalty shootout to secure promotion.
Rochdale had finished second in their league, 11 points clear of third-placed Carlisle, making the precariousness of their situation a stark illustration of the campaign’s argument.
Counter arguments exist around unequal financial regulations and academy systems between the EFL and National League, but critics argue self-interest is never a good look.
The EFL has simultaneously announced an expanded play-off system for the Championship next season, introducing an extra eliminator round involving the fifth to eighth placed finishers.
Meanwhile, England manager Thomas Tuchel found an unlikely advocate following Harry Maguire’s omission from the national squad ahead of the World Cup.
Maguire’s mother Zoe publicly expressed her feelings before the squad was even officially announced, with her son responding simply: “Shocked and gutted.”
“Absolutely disgusted,” his mother Zoe added, a reaction that, in at least one observer’s view, only strengthened the case for Tuchel’s judgment.