Mourinho’s five-finger salute hailed Roma glory & Conference League joy

By extension, a significant proportion of people feel threatened by change. Their instinctive reaction to anything new, whether it’d be the rebranding of their favourite cereal or pedestrianising their high street, is scepticism and innate fear. Which, in a roundabout way, brings us to the Europa Conference League.

Set up by UEFA this season to grant more opportunities to clubs from less wealthy, less powerful footballing nations, the tournament was met with a litany of English eye rolls.

For supporters of the ‘Big Six’, who already treated the Europa League as if it were something soft and brown they’d trodden in, the prospect of more trips to the arse end of the continent seemed pointless. Nobody at famously trophy-laden Spurs seemed bothered by their first-round exit.

But the competition was never designed to suit the English. Teams from 24 countries, including Armenia, Estonia and Gibraltar for the first time, were represented in the tournament’s group stages, an antidote to the familiar fattened pigs of the Champions League.

Anything that offers inclusivity and opportunity for the other 95% of European clubs is a great thing.

It’s not all about money, it’s not only a success if you win, it’s about taking part. Proud clubs like Feyenoord, Marseille and PAOK, which have been pushed to the margins of European football, have enjoyed season-affirming runs to the latter stages.

Bodo/Glimt started in the second qualifying round of the Conference League and made it to the quarter-finals, beating Celtic along the way and alerting Europe to their existence.

Stories like this should be celebrated, not discouraged.

And good luck to anybody who’ll tell Jose Mourinho that the Conference League doesn’t matter this morning.

Seeming