UEFA Cup
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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.
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History
The first Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, held between 1955 and 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). 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.
A second tournament took place between 1958 and 1960, all tournaments since have been held on a yearly basis. The competition completely dropped its link with the trade fairs and was renamed the UEFA Cup in 1971. However, the 'one club per city' rule was only rescinded in 1975; Everton had finished fourth in the English league and could thus qualify, but were barred from entry because Liverpool had also qualified by coming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 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:
- Three UEFA Cup berths each year are set aside for the three winners of the final matches in the UEFA Intertoto Cup.
- 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 two qualifying rounds, 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.
For the 2004-05 event, a new format has been introduced. The two qualifying rounds remain intact, 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.
UEFA Cup Finals
Single match finals
| Season | Winner | Score | Runner-up | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006/07 | Hampden Park, Glasgow 
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| 2005/06 | Philips Stadion, Eindhoven 
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| 2004/05 | CSKA Moscow Missing image CSKA_logo.gif | 3 - 1 | Sporting Lisbon
| José Alvalade Stadium, Lisbon Missing image Portugal_flag_large.png |
| 2003/04 | Valencia Missing image Valencia_cf.gif | 2 - 0 | Marseille Missing image Marseille3.gif | Nya Ullevi, Göteborg 
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| 2002/03 | FC Porto
| 3 - 2 aet | Celtic Missing image Celtic_FC_logo.png | Olimpico Sevilla, Seville 
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| Match decided by silver goal | ||||
| 2001/02 | Feyenoord Missing image Feyenoord.gif | 3 - 2 | Borussia Dortmund Missing image Bvbcrest.JPG | De Kuip, Rotterdam
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| 2000/01 | Liverpool Missing image Liverpool_FC_logo.png | 5 - 4 aet | Alavés Missing image Deportivo_alaves.gif | Westfalenstadion, Dortmund 
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| Match decided by golden goal | ||||
| 1999/00 | Galatasaray Missing image Gs05.PNG | 0 - 0 aet | Arsenal Missing image Arsenal_crest.png | Parken, Copenhagen 
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| 4-1 in penalty shootout | ||||
| 1998/99 | Parma Missing image Parma_ac.gif | 3 - 0 | Marseille Missing image Marseille3.gif | Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow 
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| 1997/98 | Inter Milan Missing image FC_Internazionale_logo.png | 3 - 0 | Lazio Missing image Ss_lazio.gif | Parc des Princes, Paris 
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Two-legged finals
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup finals
aet - after extra time
Performance by nation
</table>
| Nation | Winners | Losing finalists | Winning clubs |
|---|---|---|---|
England  |
10 | 6 | Liverpool (3), Leeds United (2), Tottenham Hotspur (2), Arsenal (1), Ipswich Town (1), Newcastle United (1) |
| Italy Missing image Flag_of_Italy.png Italy |
10 | 6 | Inter Milan (3), Juventus (3), Parma (2), Napoli (1), Roma (1) |
| Spain |
9 | 8 | Barcelona (3), Valencia (3), Real Madrid (2), Real Zaragoza (1) |
| Germany |
6 | 8 | Borussia Mönchengladbach (2), Bayer Leverkusen (1), Bayern Munich (1), Eintracht Frankfurt (1), Schalke (1) |
| Netherlands |
4 | 2 | Feyenoord (2), Ajax (1), PSV Eindhoven (1) |
| Sweden |
2 | 0 | IFK Göteborg (2) |
Belgium  |
1 | 3 | Anderlecht (1) |
Hungary  |
1 | 3 | Ferencvaros (1) |
| Portugal Missing image Portugal_flag_large.png Portugal |
1 | 2 | Porto (1) |
| Yugoslavia Missing image Flag_of_SFR_Yugoslavia.png Yugoslavia |
1 | 2 | Dinamo Zagreb (1) |
| Russia |
1 | 0 | CSKA Moscow (1) |
Turkey  |
1 | 0 | Galatasaray (1) |
| France |
0 | 4 | - |
| Scotland
| 0 | 2 | - |
Austria  |
0 | 1 | - |
See also
External link
- Official UEFA Cup website (http://www.uefa.com/competitions/uefacup/CompetitionInfo/index.html)de:UEFA-Pokal
es:Copa de la UEFA fr:Coupe UEFA it:Coppa Uefa nl:UEFA Cup ja:UEFAカップ pl:Puchar UEFA w piłce nożnej sv:UEFA-cupen zh:欧洲联盟杯