The Champions League has become like South America's Copa Mercosur, a made-for-television tournament weighted to ensure the continent's elite teams advance to the business end of the competition. In the words of Keith Armstrong, English coach of Finnish side FC Haka; "It's a cold fact that the Champions League has been designed exclusively for big clubs."

Gone are the days when the European Cup, as it was logically known, paired teams at random to do battle at home and away, winner takes all. Now, in front of half-empty stadiums, six months of tedious group games means Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester United and one other (it can't be Valencia in 2002),will reach the semifinals. Nottingham Forest against Malmo? It may have happened 20 odd years ago, but can't be allowed now.

Champions League group games, especially in the first months, also have a grossly detrimental effect on European leagues.

Do we really want to watch Man Utd, as in last's weekend's match against Ipswich, with David May in action? You had to feel sorry for the Town players, getting hyped up for the visit to Old Trafford only to enter an eerily silent field. No Beckham, Giggs, Veron or van Nistelrooy? The paying crowd shuffled awkwardly in their seats. Ipswich's big game of the season suddenly wasn't so big any more, and their performance suffered.

I have a soft spot for the UEFA Cup, an old-fashioned tournament that still has the romantic prospect of an upset. The draw is made and clubs start scanning their maps of Europe. Makhachkala, where the hell's that? Birkikara? From Malta? Just how did they get through the qualifying round?

Competition between clubs from different countries should present challenges of coping with differing styles in difficult conditions, avoiding banana skins, and having to get it right on the night or face some appropriately ethnic music. It's an FA Cup, or US Open Cup, that crosses national frontiers. This is what Europe is about.

The UEFA Cup is mano a mano, a true tactical tussle, not a matter of eking out points and bolstering the bank balance.

Take Liverpool's cup-winning campaign last season. Even before their epic two-legged encounters with Olympiakos, Roma, Porto and Barcelona, they had quite a tour.

First they scraped past Romania's Rapid Bucharest - trips to Eastern Europe have always been a classic ingredient in European Cups - Liverpool was handed a match with Slovan Liberec. Even the Reds' two Czechs, Patrik Berger and Vladimir Smicer, had trouble in pinpointing them. The Czech Cup winners in 2000 are from a town without an airport and with average crowds around the 3,000. Slovan's main striker was Argentine - just how did he end up there? No wonder Liberec never saw a bigger football night. This type of match best embodies FIFA's slogan, "for the good of the game".

Only in the UEFA Cup can a team like Alaves, a credit to the Basque people, reach the final. 5-4? You could only get that score in a Champions League final on penalty kicks. Yet Liverpool manager Gerrard Houllier insisted, even while hoisting that UEFA Cup in Dortmund last May, that finishing third in the EPL was more important. That may have struck the right chord with his board, but tell that to the fans. Those great UEFA Cup nights have been replaced by the dull reality of draws with Boavista and Borussia Dortmund, then a paying crowd of just 33,000 as they beat Dynamo Kiev 1-0 in midweek.

Leeds boss David O'Leary saw his club pipped by Liverpool to the Champions League last season, so has instead started to whine about the UEFA Cup, a competition that built his reputation just two years ago, when he was moaning about, you guessed it, the Champions League.

As an aperitif to league play this weekend, Leeds has a classic UEFA Cup confrontation this Thursday, live on FOX Sports World. One-nil down from the 1st leg, Elland Road hosts a make-or-break 90 minutes, with the Whites having to win against Mari­timo to avoid a humiliating exit from Europe. Leeds' preening starlets against a team from the only flat part of the verdant Atlantic island of Madeira. You've got to love it, and it'll all be settled on the night. Contrast that with Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday. It's not as though the Spaniards had to win or anything.

England's three Champions League representatives, and two of its four UEFA Cup teams, are involved in Saturday and Sunday's featured EPL games.

First up, Tottenham may be, as usual, stuck in 11th place, but are showing definite signs of improvement. They now test themselves against Man Utd, with Teddy Sheringham back on the home side for a change. Spurs also can point to the history books and see three wins, all by 3-1, in their last four home games against the Red Devils. Spice that with Man Utd's impotence on the road - just one victory in their last 14 games outside Manchester - and White Hart Lane's the place to be.

Derby has just one win against Arsenal in their last 18 tries, so you would fancy the Gunners' chances at Pride Park. Of course, you would have expected Arsene Wenger's team to cruise past a Bolton team reduced to 10 men last Saturday. Arsenal is still neck-and-neck with their Mancunian nemesis in the standings, but can't afford to drop many more careless points. Panathinaikos? Forget about it - Derby is just as much of a challenge.

Despite their inability to win in London, Newcastle find themselves level with the big two thanks to a midweek victory over Leicester. Luckily for the Magpies, Michael Owen will not be on the visiting bus from Liverpool - Newcastle has never learned how to stop the boy wonder. Even without young Michael and his dodgy hamstrings though, 44 goals in the last 11 EPL matches between these two should mean goals galore.

Leeds aside, the other EPL travelers, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Ipswich, return on Sunday from assignments in Croatia, Bulgaria and Moscow. All but the Blues could be humbled by the experience, but for the good burghers of towns like Varazdin, Villa's midweek venue, it's their biggest game of the year. As for the Tractor Boys, they need to get motoring against league leaders Leeds. There are, in fact, just three teams yet to lose an EPL game this season: Leeds, Villa and Chelsea. Now who said the UEFA Cup wasn't good for you?

When not in his cups, Giles Elliott can be reached at gelliott@foxsportsworld.com.