UEFA Cup

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Image:UEFA Cup.png The UEFA Cup is a football competition for European club teams. It was founded on April 18, 1955 as the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. It is the second most important competition for European club teams, the first being the UEFA Champions League.

History

The first Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, which lasted from 1955 to 1958, was a tournament open to cities that had hosted trade fairs, and not necessarily clubs - cities with more than one club sent representative teams (e.g. London). A second tournament took place between 1958 and 1960, all tournaments since have been held on a yearly basis.

As time progressed, the competition saw more clubs and fewer representative sides enter, so that by the mid-1960s, it was exclusively for clubs, who usually qualified by being a runner-up in their domestic league. However, a rule that only one club per city could enter was applied.

The competition completely dropped its link with the trade fairs and was renamed the UEFA Cup in 1971. Tottenham Hotspur F.C being the first winner of the UEFA Cup. However, the 'one club per city' rule was only rescinded in 1975; Everton had finished fourth in the English league and could thus qualify, but were barred from entry because Liverpool had also qualified by coming second. Everton appealed, saying the rule was an unfair anachronism, and UEFA agreed to overturn it.

The competition was traditionally open to the runners-up of domestic leagues, but in 1999, the competition was merged with the Cup Winners' Cup. Since then the winners of domestic cup competitions have also entered the UEFA Cup.

Qualification

Qualification for the competition is based on UEFA coefficients, with more places being offered to the more successful nations. Usually places are awarded to teams who finish in various runners-up places in the top-flight leagues of Europe, and the winners of the main cup competitions. A few countries have secondary cup competitions, but the only countries which send their secondary cup winners to the UEFA Cup are England and France.

Qualification can be quite complicated if one team qualifies through two different ways at once. For example in England, the team finishing 5th in the Premiership and the winners of the FA Cup and League Cup qualify. If the FA Cup winner has qualified for the Champions League by its league position, the runner-up goes to the UEFA Cup; however, the League Cup runner-up does not receive this privilege. It is possible for the teams in 6th and even 7th place in the Premiership to enter the UEFA Cup under the following circumstances:

• The League Cup winners have qualified for European play, either by league position or through the FA Cup.
• Both FA Cup finalists have qualified for the Champions League tournament, whether in the group stage or qualifying rounds, via their league position.

If only one of the above occurs, the 6th-place team in the Premiership gets a UEFA Cup entry, but not the 7th-place team. If both occur, the 6th- and 7th-place teams both earn UEFA Cup berths. Both occurred in 2004-05, as champions Chelsea won the League Cup, and second-place Arsenal defeated third-place Man United in the FA Cup Final.

Qualification for the UEFA Cup can also be attained in two other ways:

• The eleven winners in the third round of the UEFA Intertoto Cup enter the UEFA Cup at the second qualifying round stage from the 2006-07 season.
• Three more berths are given to federations that finish above a certain level in UEFA's Fair Play table. The top-placed federation automatically receives a Fair Play entry, and two other federations gain berths via a draw among all other federations that meet qualifying criteria. In all cases, the recipient of a country's Fair Play entry is the highest-placed team in the Fair Play table of that country's top league that has not already qualified for Europe.

More recently, clubs that are knocked out of the qualifying round and the group stage of the Champions League can also join the UEFA Cup, at different stages (see below).

Competition format

The competition was traditionally a pure knockout tournament. All ties were two-legged, including the final. Starting with the 1998 event, the final became a one-off match, but all other ties remained two-legged.

Before the 2004-05 season, the tournament consisted of one qualifying round, followed by a series of knockout rounds. The 16 losers in the third qualifying round of the Champions League entered at the first round proper; later in the tournament, the survivors would be joined by third-place finishers in the group phase of the Champions League.

The current competition format was introduced in 2004-05. Two qualifying rounds were introduced instead of one, and losers in the third qualifying round of the Champions League are still placed in the first round proper of the tournament. After the first round proper, the 40 survivors enter a group phase, with the clubs being drawn into eight groups of five each. Unlike the Champions League group phase, the UEFA Cup group phase is played in a single round-robin format, with each club playing two home and two away games. The top three teams in each group advance, where they are joined by the eight third-place teams in the Champions League group phase. From this point, knockout play resumes, with two-legged ties leading to the one-off final.

Trivia

• Only 4 teams have achieved the treble of winning the UEFA Cup, their domestic league and domestic cup in the same season, they are:
  • IFK Göteborg (1982)
  • Galatasaray (2000)
  • FC Porto (2003)
  • CSKA Moscow (2005)
    • In 2001 Liverpool achieved a 'lesser' treble by winning the UEFA Cup, FA Cup and League Cup

• 12 teams have won the UEFA Cup and their domestic league in the same season, they are:
  • Liverpool (1973, 1976)
  • IFK Göteborg (1982, 1987)
  • Barcelona (1960)
  • Feyenoord (1974)
  • Borussia Mönchengladbach (1975)
  • Juventus (1977)
  • PSV Eindhoven (1978)
  • Real Madrid (1986)
  • Galatasaray (2000)
  • FC Porto (2003)
  • Valencia (2004)
  • CSKA Moscow (2005)

• The UEFA Cup traditionally was the only one among the three European trophies which gave most countries multiple entries. This has led to several national finals:

• Never was a single country more dominant than in 1979/80: West Germany had five entrants that year (4 by right, and Borussia Mönchengladbach as the holders - they hadn't qualified for Europe in the Bundesliga), and all five reached the quarterfinals. This necessarily led to (at least) one inter-German tie, and 1.FC Kaiserslautern were eliminated by Bayern München 4-2 on aggregate. But all other German clubs made it past the quarterfinals, giving an all-German semifinal lineup:
  • VfB Stuttgart v Borussia Mönchengladbach (2-3 on aggregate)
  • Bayern München v Eintracht Frankfurt (3-5 on aggregate)
• The West Germany v Rest of Europe balance that UEFA Cup makes convincing reading: from 36 matches, the West German teams won 23, drew 7 and lost 6, scoring 74 goals and conceding 29. Typically, the team with the worst record (Eintracht, 8 4 1 3 14-8), who finished lowest of the 5 in the Bundesliga as well, went on to win the trophy. No German team was eliminated by a non-German team in the UEFA Cup that year!

• Only one club has ever retained the UEFA Cup: Real Madrid won it in both 1984/85 and 1985/86.

• The only country to keep it 3 consecutive seasons is Italy, and they did so on two occasions: between 1988/89 and 1990/91 (Napoli, Juventus, and Internazionale the winners) and between 1992/93 and 1994/95 (Juventus, Internazionale, and Parma).

• If one combines the records of the Fairs' Cup and the UEFA Cup, English clubs won 6 times between 1967/68 and 1972/73.

• The record number of consecutive participations in the UEFA Cup is 10; all teams to play at least 6 consecutive seasons (including eliminations in the qualifying rounds of the tournament proper):

• • Apart from FC Köln, Vitória FC (Setúbal) also has a series of 7 seasons if we take the Fairs' Cup into account: 1968/69 -1974/75 (3 seasons in the Fairs and 4 in the UEFA Cup).

• Entering both the Champions League and/or its qualifying rounds and the UEFA Cup in the same season has now become so common that a separate statistic of all clubs having done so in three or more consecutive seasons may be of interest (between square brackets the means of entering the UEFA Cup is indicated in chronological order, G denoting group stage, q denoting qualifying round):

• • Benfica and Panathinaikos had a chance to join this group 2005/06 if they finished third in the Champions League group stage (series started 2003/04), but neither did so. Panathinaikos finished fourth in their group, knocking them out of European competition entirely. Benfica avoided the UEFA Cup completely, finishing second in their group and thereby advancing to the Champions League round of 16.

• Several times, winning the UEFA Cup was a club's only chance to qualify for European competition in the next season. A win by such a mediocre, mid-table (and non-domestic-cup-winning) club then led to an extra place in the UEFA Cup for the country in question. The following clubs managed to save their season by winning the UEFA Cup:

• • Spurs did it twice; the Germans four times and Internazionale's 1993/94 finish is the worst by any winner of a European club title.

UEFA Cup Records

• Highest win in one leg, most goals in game:
  • 1984/85, 1st round:
    • Ajax 14-0 Red Boys Differdange

• Highest aggregate win, most goals in tie:
  • 1972/73, 1st round:
    • Feyenoord 9-0 US Rumelange
    • US Rumelange 0-12 Feyenoord
    • Feyenoord win 21-0 on aggregate

(tie for record for all European Cups)

• Best come-backs:
  • 1955/58, Group Stage
    • Leipzig XI 6–3 Lausanne Sports
    • Lausanne Sports 7–3 Leipzig XI
    • Lausanne Sports win 10-9 on aggregate
  • 1984/85, 2nd round:
    • Queens Park Rangers 6-2 Partizan Belgrade
    • Partizan Belgrade 4-0 Queens Park Rangers
    • 6-6 on aggregate, Partizan Belgrade win on away goals
  • 1985/86, 3rd round:
    • Borussia Mönchengladbach 5-1 Real Madrid
    • Real Madrid 4-0 Borussia Mönchengladbach
    • 5-5 on aggregate, Real Madrid win on away goal
  • 1987/88, 3rd round:
    • Honvéd 5-2 Panathinaikos [after 5-0]
    • Panathinaikos 5-1 Honvéd
    • Panathinaikos win 7-6 on aggregate
  • 1996/97, 3rd round:
    • Brøndby IF 1-3 Karlsruher SC [after 0-3 at 81']
    • Karlsruher SC 0-5 Brøndby IF
    • Brøndby IF win 6-3 on aggregate
  • 2005/06, Quarter Final:
    • FC Basel 1893 2-0 Middlesbrough FC
    • Middlesbrough FC 4-1 FC Basel 1893 [after 0-1 at 23']
    • Middlesbrough FC win 4-3 on aggregate

• Final come-back:
  • 1987/88, final:
    • Espanyol 3-0 Bayer Leverkusen
    • Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 Espanyol [aet] [after 0-0 at 56']
    • 3-3 on aggregate, Bayer Leverkusen won 3-2 on penalties

UEFA Cup Finals

Main article: UEFA Cup Finals

Performance by nation

See also

• UEFA Champions League
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
• UEFA Club Football Awards
• List of sporting events

External link

• Official UEFA Cup website

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