I’m actually all for dumping the entire Europa League all together. As you say, it’s way too much of a strain on travel and the players who already have a ridiculous playing schedule.
I think it’s a good competition for the “lesser” leagues, to help develop their top teams to be more competitive, but for the top-flight leagues, the potential rewards generally aren’t worth the costs.
Of course, it was only a few years ago that Chelsea qualified for UEFA (knocking out Tottenham, who finished 4th) by winning Europa, so maybe that dream still lives on.
But that was a case of falling into Europa by failing to get out of a UEFA group stage, and going to Europa for the knock-out stages, wasn’t it? That’s probably a better route anyway.
Europa League is kind of like the NIT of European Soccer.
I’m happy if a Seville, a Fulham, etc. can have a chance at silverware myself meaning the Europa.
Barcelona, Real Madrid, onto AC Milan and other teams, too many trophies, has not Real won the CL 10 times.