Barça had not lost in the first round of the Champions League for 20 years. On Monday, for the first time in two decades, he will not be in the eighth drum of the highest continental competition but he will meet his rival in the sixteenth of the Europa League, competition that has never won. Beyond the sporting setback, being out of the Champions League will mean another economic stick for the club’s battered coffers.
The club had budgeted 20.2 million in prizes for reaching at least the quarter-finals of the competition: UEFA pays 9.6 million for reaching the round of 16 and 10.6 for those who advance to the next round. In the Europa League the rewards are much lower: 1.2 for those who play the round of 16, 1.8 for the quarterfinals, 2.8 for reaching the semi-finals, 4.6 for getting into the final and 4 for winning it. That is to say, in the best of cases it could earn 14.4 million to mitigate the impact of being left out of the European elite.
Barça, like Sevilla and the rest of the third-placed teams in their Champions League groups, will face off in the Europa League round of 32 in a tie against the second eight in the Europa League group. The matches will be played on February 17 and 24 and the Champions League playoffs will play outside the second leg. This Thursday the possible rivals of Barça will be known, since at the moment they only have a guaranteed place in the hype Glasgow Rangers and Betis. But, the Catalans will not be able to measure themselves with the Verdiblancos because in this phase duels between teams from the same federation are not allowed.
The year of Serra Ferrer
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The last time Barça fell out of the Champions League and had to play in the Europa League was in the 2000-2001 season. Under the mandate of Joan Gaspart and after the departure of Luis Figo, the team that led Lorenzo Serra Ferrer did not pass the group stage of the Champions League, after losing at home against Milan (0-2), drawing at San Siro (3-3), not passing the tables in the Leeds field (1-1) and suffer a tumble at the Besiktas stadium (3-0). The Balearic coach would be fired after suffering the second European elimination of the season against Liverpool: McAllister, by transforming a penalty at the hands of Kluivert at Anfield, decided the semi-final of the Europa League.
Barça has not played in this competition since the 2003-2004 season, Joan Laporta’s first as president, after the club failed to qualify for the Champions League in Gaspart’s last campaign. Frank Rijkaard’s team was eliminated by Celtic in the round of 16 of a competition that it has never won, neither under the name of the UEFA Cup nor under the name it has carried since 2009. It did win three Fairs Cups, the forerunner of This is the second continental competition although UEFA does not give official status because it did not organize it.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com