The EUROPA LEAGUE is European football’s second-tier intercontinental club competition. While lacking the prestige and money of the Champions League, the EUROPA LEAGUE is still an excellent opportunity for the smaller clubs to make a name for themselves, and as a result provides a more competitive contest, with less tense and more entertaining football. A number of eventually great players have all made a name for themselves in this contest before breaking onto the bigger stage of the Champions League – Zinedine Zidane was a losing finalist with Bordeaux in 1995, Thierry Henry lost the final in his first with Arsenal in 2000, and Deco won it 2003. The EUROPA LEAGUE has involved from a purely knockout tournament into one that involves an initial qualifying and knockout stage, after which teams are then sorted into groups, with the top teams going on to the final.