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Only a lucrative pre-season friendly would have had AC Milan visiting Fratton Park, Portsmouth. These are two sides to the story of how Portsmouth have landed Milan, it is a measure of how hard the Rossoneri have fallen since winning their seventh European Cup 17 months ago and the other is the changing face of the UEFA Cup as represented by the like of Pompey.

The competition has been long derided as a non starter by the giants of the continent and the football authorities have stumbled from one grand design to another to pep it up. The latest UEFA proposal is the flamboyant titled Europe League.

The gist of the re-branding would sweep away the current format which quite strangely require clubs to play each opponent once either home or away, with each side playing four games in groups of five and winners, runners-up and third placed teams/clubs all qualifying to the round of 32 (teams).

In its place in season 2009/10 would be the Champions League format, where 48 clubs are placed in 12 groups of four, with the top two advancing to the knockout stage.

The only stale element in this re-jigged version is that eight third place clubs in the Champions League group stage will enter this phase to swell the number of 32 (teams).

Logic has arrived late at the UEFA and it is a relief to see that every participant is given the home and away advantage and the benefit of synergized marketing plans to help the UEFA Cup shed its consolation prize stigma.

A bit of perspective is needed here. The UEFA Cup is not as bad as the media and unfortunately the folks at the European Club Associations – the organization tasked with the job of revamping the UEFA Cup have portrayed it to be in the past decade.

The mauling that FC Zenit St Petersburg gave the old giants Bavaria of Bayern Munich five months ago, winning their semifinals on an aggregate of 5-1, was a reminder that the lesser known teams have embraced the UEFA Cup more warmly than the established names which have approached it with less reverence. In the past 10 seasons, the UEFA Cup has actually become a tougher assignment for these clubs and too erratic to call than the Champion League.

In the last five years, the UEFA Cup has also served as the launching pad for handful of the brightest young managers in Europe. Jose Mourinho won the trophy in 2003 and proceeds to win the Champions League a year later with FC Porto while Rafael Benitez took the silverware in 2004 to Valencia and the Big Ears in 2005 to Liverpool. The much maligned manager of Tottenham Hotspur which have probably be handed a respite with a relatively easy draw. Juande Ramos monopolized the UEFA Cup between 2005 and 2007 with Sevilla. None of these Iberians would say that the UEFA Cup did not pad up their curriculum vitae and moved them along to where they are right now.

There is a dispiriting attitude in England, however towards the UEFA Cup and the height of the Premier League’s scorn was reached last term when Bolton Wanderers chose domestic survival over glory in Europe and fielded their reserves for the return leg against Sporting Lisbon in the Round of 16.

Gary Megson’s team had humbled Atletico Madrid in the previous stage a remarkable achievement against Spain’s third most successful club and was correctly praised for this piece of gallantry. The Trotters undid all the glowing work by refusing to contemplate reaching the quarter finals, which Middlesbrough managed in season 2005/06 en route to the final.

The statistics represent this disdainful approach of the English teams. After Liverpool became the last English team to secure the UEFA Cup, there has not been a team from the Premiership providing evidence to justify its standing as the so called best league in the world. In those preceding seven years, the cup has been shared between the Dutch (Feyenoord in 2002), Russians (CSKA Moscow and Zenit St Petersburg in 2005 and 2008 respectively), Portuguese (FC Porto) and Spaniards (Sevilla and Valencia).

As Portsmouth chew over that plum tie against Milan, they would be conscious of this abysmal record that the Premier League outfits have in the UEFA Cup.

There is a larger possibility that the league’s flag bearers this time are more suited to the challenge of quashing this trend of underachievement as all four – Pompey, Aston Villa, Manchester City and Spurs have tested European action in recent seasons.

Unlike Bolton, they would also not be preoccupied with the spec of relegation and would treat the UEFA Cup as the only higher honour outside of talking a place in the Champions League.

Villa, Pompey, City are already out of the League Cup and have only the FA Cup to look forward to in the next few months.

That should make the UEFA Cup a priority prize for Martin O’Neill, Harry Redknapp and Mark Hughes.

None of the three have lifted anything of significance in the continent as managers while only Hughes has not a triumph to his managerial name in knock-out competitions. The pressure will be on the City supreme to affirm to the new Arab owners that he is the man to guide the club under their reign. City will not have it easy in a group that includes Paris St Germain and Schalke 04 while Villa would be wary of Champion League regulars Slavia Prague and the threat from the German outfit Hamburg SV.

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