West Ham face Andorran part-timers

placeholder graphic

Manny Sarpong previews West Ham’s European clash…

West Ham have been drawn against Andorran minnows FC Lusitanos in the first qualifying round of the Europa League. The Hammers were top seeds amongst 102 teams despite only qualifying for the competition through fair play rules having finished 12th in the Premier League – five spots behind the automatic Europa League places.

New West Ham manager Slaven Bilic’s first competitive game will be at Upton Park on 2 July, with the second leg a week later at Estadi Comunal, Andorra la Vella on 9 July.

Nicknamed Lusitans, the team was founded in 1999, three years after their national football governing body became a Uefa and Fifa affiliate. The team currently competes in the Andorran Primera Division, which only consists of eight teams. They finished second last season, having won the championship in 2012.

Lusitanos have twice appeared in the competition and have failed on both occasions to progress beyond the first qualifying round. In their first appearance in the 2010/11 season they lost heavily to Rabotnicki, failing to score a single goal, losing 5-0 away and 6-0 at home. Their second appearance in 2011/12 also saw them bow out to Croatian side Varazdin after they lost lost 5-1 away and 1-0 at home.

West Ham’s highest-paid player Andy Carroll earns over £100k a week, which dwarfs anything that the average player could earn in the semi-professional Andorran top league, where all the club stadia are owned by the Andorran federation rather than the clubs individually.

According to the Uefa 2015 coefficient list, the two teams are over 250 spots apart on the club rankings as the Lusitans are ranked 411th with West Ham ranked 126th out of the 926 possible spots available.

No posts to display