I remember when the Europa Conference League was first announced - it was dismissed as just another UEFA cash grab.
However, with the tournament about to kick off its third campaign, those who turned their back on it couldn't have been more wrong.
It still has its naysayers, bless their pointy little hats, those who claim its lack of star power is to its detriment - but in there lies its beauty, by the end of the week European football will take to the streets of Guimarães, Nur-Sultan and Hîncești.
READ MORE: 'Qualifying for Europe has changed Reykjavik – everyone's high fiving everyone'
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You haven't heard of those places? Who cares.
This is the European football of old - the days when there was a single English club represented and every team had something of a mystic about them, an unknown quantity if you will.
Yes, Manchester City have to travel to Bratislava in Europe's top competition... but Chelsea have trips to Athens, Heidenheim and Nur-Sultan (a second mention for Kazakhstan's capital in this piece).
Even their home games are steeped in mystery, OK Shamrock Rovers, we've all heard of them, but how many people can say they've seen them play - the same goes for Gent. And then we come to Noah - Armenia's runners-up.
Noah were originally named FC Artsakh, a disputed region of Armenia and Azerbaijan - the same region Azerbaijani champions Qarabağ are from. Noah's is a story that would have remained untold otherwise.
There are thousands of stories like that.
Vikingur Reykjavik and Ki Klaksvik are blazing trails in the frozen north. While Laren are rewriting history in Northern Ireland.
So too are The New Saints, ready to give Welsh football its long overdue moment in the sun when they touch down in Tuscany and head to the home of the Renaissance to clash with Fiorentina.
There is no other competition on the planet that would pit a small sleepy English/Welsh town against one of the Seven Sisters of Italian football.
And yet here we are.
Nobody, and I mean nobody, can convince me there's a better tournament on the planet.
