Sevilla Handed Europa League Spot In Place of Malaga, For Now.

There was some interesting, and frustrating, news coming out of Spain today for fans of La Liga side Malaga.  The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland has dismissed their appeal to set aside their ban from European Football and play in the Europa League next season.  Their spot will now go to Sevilla, provisionally.

Last December UEFA banned Malaga from European competitions for two years after they were found to be in violation of financial fair play rules.  That ban was later reduced to one year.  Malaga spent much of the 2012-2013 campaign fighting for the fourth and final Champion's League spot, but faded toward the end of the season.  In addition, the court upheld the fine of 300,000 euros leveled by UEFA, which Malaga will now have to pay.

Eighth place side Rayo Vallecano had hopes of being granted the Europa League spot should Malaga's ban be upheld.  However, UEFA have not granted them a license for European competitions.  This being the case, the spot will go to ninth place Sevilla.  Rayo is still hopeful of a decision from the same court in the favor, which would grant them that spot in Europe.

Changes Coming to Champions League Qualification

There's a fascinating piece on ESPNFC today about some rule changes to the UEFA Champions League process that will likely take place in the coming years.  Most of it is coming about as UEFA seeks to strengthen the Europa League by offering a new incentive to win it.

According to ESPN's Dale Johnson, on Friday UEFA will announce that the winners of the Europa League will qualify for the next season's Champion's League.  This comes as a result of the fact that many of the bigger UEFA countries don't seem to lake the Europa League seriously.  Michael Platini has openly criticized France's attitude, and as Johnson points out, Italy hasn't placed a Europa League finalist since 1999.  So the reasoning is, give these clubs the carrot on a stick of Champion's League qualification and they'll push harder to win the tournament.  Will it work?  I guess we'll find out.

UEFA is also considering allowing 5 teams from the same FA into the Champions League instead of the current max of four, currently awarded to England, Spain, and Germany.  Italy used to get four, but lost their fourth slot to Germany a couple of years ago as Germany's success in European competitions has soared.  Obviously a lot of the minnows will be pretty unhappy about this, and if it happens, it remains to be seen if they will add more teams or just rework the current allocation.

This leaves a lot of permutations to discuss about league positioning, who finishes in the top four or five versus who won what competition and such.  I'll refer the interested reader to Johnson's article as he does a great job discussing scenarios and various loopholes in UCL history.

Personally I would welcome the addition of the Europa League winner to the Champions League.  I'm very glad that Chelsea took the competition seriously this year.  Sometimes the promise of more hardware isn't quite enough for a big club to play for when they're chasing the huge payday of a Champion's League spot in the league table.  This could offer more roads for the clubs that might feel stuck in the middle.

The Champions League rules and qualification procedures run in a three year cycle, which means the first Europa League winner that would qualify for the Champions League would be whoever wins the 2015 Final in Warsaw.

Tottenham Fans Attacked in Rome

Italian Police at the scene where Spurs fans were attacked in Rome. (EPA)

Tottenham and their fans will have heavy hearts during their Europa League match against Lazio today after five Spurs fans were injured during an attack by Lazio "ultras" overnight.  The trouble occurred at the "Drunken Ship Pub" In Rome's Campo De Fiori square at approximately 1 AM local time.

The proprietor described the pub as being full of about 30 Spurs fans at the time, most of them between the ages of 40 and 50 and were "quite well behaved."  Shortly after 1 about 50 assailants arrived at the pub, wielding knives, baseball bats, clubs, rocks, and knuckle dusters, among other things.  They beat and chased the Spurs fans into a local street where one fan, identified as Mr. Ashley Mills was "hit with a knife."  As of this morning Mills was still "seriously ill" in a Rome hospital.  The attackers dispersed before the police arrived.

Witnesses describe the attack as having antisemitic tones, as the attackers, dressed in scooter helmets and scarves, were shouting "Jews" at the Spurs fans.  According to the Daily Mail UK, Lazio fans are often right wing types who often use fascist slogans and salutes at their matches.  Spurs supporters are often called the "Yid Army" due to their large Jewish following in North London.

British authorities were said to be monitoring the investigation and confirmed that there will be additional security at the Europa League match between Spurs and Lazio.  The club put the number of injured at 9, and was working with British and Italian Police to investigate and assure their supporters' safety.  Spurs supporters were urged to take shuttle buses to and from the match.

The Ultras also trashed the pub before dispersing, leaving much of the equipment and furniture damaged beyond repair.  For their part, Lazio have denied that their supporters were responsible for the attack.  The Drunken Ship Pub is the same place where three Middlesbrough fans were stabbed during a visit to the city in 2006.

Europa League: Udinese Downs Liverpool at Anfield

Giovanni Pasquale celebrates his goal for Udinese (Sporting Life)

Do you remember all those good feelings around Liverpool after they thumped Norwich last weekend?  Well, after yesterday's Europa League loss, neither do they.  The Reds held their own in the first half against Italian side Udinese, but a dismal performance in the second half doomed them to a loss that not even Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard could rescue them from.

Now to be fair, Udinese are obviously a much better side than Norwich, but one would still fancy Liverpool to do better at Anfield.  While Udinese generally looked better at the opening, both sides traded chances from set pieces in the first 15 minutes.  In the 8th minute Sebastian Coates headed a corner low toward the bottom of the Udinese goal, but Zeljko Brkic made a great save for the Italians.  Then in minute 14 Mehdi Benatia got his head to a free kick for Udinese, but like his counterpart, Pepe Reina was up to the task, parrying the ball the around the post to keep the match level.

Liverpool got the first goal of the match on 23 minutes, slightly against the run of play.  Stewart Downing sent a cross into the area that Jonjo Shelvey connected with on a late run.  The midfield man headed a nice shot down past Brkic to make it 1-0 to Liverpool.

After conceding the first goal, Udinese went into a little bit of a funk.  The closest they got to an equalizer in the first half was from a shot by Antonio Di Natale, who curled the ball just wide of the top corner of Reina's goal in the 29th minute.  However, despite the increase in possession, the Reds could not up their lead and the half ended on the 1-0 score line.

Udinese made them pay for that right off in the second half.  They made an attacking substitution at the interval, inserting Andrea Lazzari.  He paid divedends immediately, centering a ball to Di Natale in the 46th minute.  The striker calmly and clinically slotted past Reina to tie the match at 1-1.

Things got a little scrappy for awhile after the equalizer, but kicked back to life in the 71st minute, much to Liverpool's dismay.  Udinese sent a free kick into the Liverpool six, but Coates rose and headed the ball into his own net to give Udinese the 1-2 advantage.  It got worse for Liverpool just a minute later when Giovanni Pasquale scorched a shot from outside of the box into the bottom of the goal to make it 1-3.

Brendan Rodgers has made some important subs of his own, inserting Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard into the lineup for Liverpool, and Suarez seemed to start the Reds on the comeback trail in the 75th minute.  The Uruguayan banged a free a kick over the Udinese wall and into the top of the net to make it 2-3 with 15 minutes left.

In the end it would be too little too late for Liverpool, though not for lack of effort.  In the 77th minute Suarez sent in a bullet header from close range that was well saved by Brkic.  Suarez must have thought he had scored.  However, in the last 10 minutes Udinese's defense really solidified, blocking most of Liverpool's attempts and forcing them to to shoot from at least mid range.  It was pretty impressive, but they are an Italian side after all.  They were able to hold their advantage and pull out the three points with the 2-3 win.

Puddle's Goal of the Midweek: Falcao in the Europa League Final

For this week's featured goal of the midweek we'll go to the Europa League final, sorry MLS.  Check out this amazing strike from Falcao as he leads Atletico Madrid to their second Europa League title in three years!

Congratulations to Atletico Madrid: 2012 Europa League Champions!

Atletico Madrid celebrate with the Europa League trophy (AP Images)

Congratulations to Atletico Madrid, who beat Athletic Bilbao to win the 2012 Europa League final in an all La Liga affair.  They won their second Europa league title in 3 seasons behind two goals from Radamel Falcao, who also scored for Porto in their win of the Europa League final last year.

Bilbao had a great run in the tournament, but saw it ended at the hands of their La Liga rivals, who won 12 matches in the competition.  As for Atletico, they've failed to hold on to strikers like Diego Forlan and Sergio Aguero the last couple of seasons, it will be interesting to see what interest Falcao attracts now after his performance.

They'll compete for the 2012 UEFA Super Cup against the winner of the Champions League final.

Congrats to Porto.

Porto beat Braga 1-0 on Wednesday to capture the 2010-2011 Europa League. This is their first major title in 7 years.