UEFA Cup

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.

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.

Related Topics:
UEFA coefficients - England - France

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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:

Related Topics:
Premiership - FA Cup - League Cup

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• 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.

Related Topics:
2004-05 - Chelsea - Arsenal - Man United

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

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• 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).

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