They have and as a fan I'd actually rather be in the ECL if I was them. However, as with many things these days, it comes back money - Parish et al are bothered because the prize money in is much higher...

The winner of the EL can earn up to 32.5m Euro whereas the ECL is 18.4m Euro

Even if they cannot go all the way you get an extra £200k per win in the EL and you get money for being group winner/runner up (which you'd fancy them to get through the group at least).

I saw something online that QF of the EL exceeds the winner of the ECL (even if the winner of the ECL won every game and earned maximum rewards)