UEFA Cup Information

The UEFA Cup is a football competition for European club teams, organized by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). It began in 1971 and replaced the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, and it also replaced the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1999. It is the second most important European competition for club teams, after the UEFA Champions League. Football clubs qualify for the UEFA Cup based on their performance in national leagues and national cup competitions.

The competition was traditionally open to the runners-up of domestic leagues, but in 1999, the competition was merged with UEFA's third European competition, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. Since then, the winners of domestic cup competitions have also entered the UEFA Cup. Also, clubs eliminated in the third round of the UEFA Champions League and the third placed teams at the end of the group phase could go on to compete in the UEFA Cup. Also admitted to the competition are three Fair Play representatives, the UEFA Intertoto Cup ‘winners’ and winners of some selected domestic league cup competitions.