UEFA Cup

The UEFA Cup is an annual football club competition organised by UEFA since 1971 for eligible European football clubs. Clubs qualify for the competition based on their performance in their national leagues. It is now the 3rd-tier competition of European club football, ranking below the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, they have been a third-tier competition before from 1971 to 1999 before the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was discontinued.

In 1999, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was abolished and merged with the UEFA Cup. For the 2004–05 competition a group stage was added prior to the knockout phase. The 2009/10 saw the introduction of the new UEFA Europa Conference League as a 3rd tier competition and the winner entered the UEFA Cup. The winner of the UEFA Cup qualifies for the UEFA Super Cup and, since the 2009–10 season, the following season's UEFA Champions League, entering at the group stage. In 2015–16, UEFA Europa Conference League was replaced with the returning Cup Winners' Cup with league cup winners (such as the Carabao League Cup) also

Spanish clubs have the highest number of victories (12 wins), followed by England and Italy (9 wins each). The title has been won by 28 clubs, 13 of which have won it more than once. The most successful club in the competition is Sevilla, with six titles. Sevilla are also the reigning champions, having beaten Inter Milan 3–2 in the 2020 final.

## **Background**

The first competition was to be held over 2 seasons to avoid clashes with national leagues fixtures. Because it was also intended to coincide with trade fairs, it ran over into a 3rd year. It commenced in 1955 and finished in 1958. Cities that entered teams included Barcelona, Basel, Birmingham, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Vienna, Cologne, Lausanne, Leipzig, London, Milan, and Zagreb. The first competition included a group stage and also featured some city representative teams instead of clubs. The eventual finalists were the city of Barcelona and a London XI. While the latter side consisted of players from 11 clubs, the former was effectively FC Barcelona with one player from RCD Espanyol. After a 2–2 draw at Stamford Bridge, Barcelona emerged triumphant after winning the return 6–0. A second tournament took place between 1958 and 1960. This time, the group stage format was abandoned in favour of a knockout tournament. Birmingham City retained the cup, beating Barcelona 4–1 in the final.

The 1961–62 season saw the rules amended to allow three teams from each country to enter. The "1 city, 1 team" rule was temporarily abandoned and 2 teams represented each of Edinburgh, Milan, and Barcelona (respectively Hibernian and Heart of Midlothian, Internazionale and A.C. Milan, and FC Barcelona and RCD Espanyol). This increase in teams resulted in Spanish teams continuing to dominate the competition. FC Barcelona were now regularly joined by Valencia CF and Real Zaragoza. These three clubs won the competition six times between them from 1958 to 1966. The Fairs Cup saw three all-Spanish finals in 1962, 1964, and 1966. The 1962 final saw Valencia CF beat FC Barcelona 7–3 on aggregate and in 1963 they retained the title after beating Dinamo Zagreb with a 4–1 aggregate score. They reached their third final in 1964 but lost 2–1 to Real Zaragoza in a single game at the Camp Nou.

The 1965 tournament saw a record entry of 48 teams, testimony to the growing status of the Fairs Cup. It also produced only the second final not to feature a Spanish team. Ferencvárosi TC of Hungary beat Juventus in another single-game final. The 1966 competition attracted attention for all the wrong reasons. Chelsea were pelted with rubbish at Roma and Leeds United fought a bruising encounter with Valencia CF which ended with three dismissals. Leeds also had Johnny Giles sent off in the semi-final against Real Zaragoza. The final saw FC Barcelona beat Real Zaragoza 4–3 on aggregate.

## **Trophy**

The UEFA Cup, also known as the *Coupe UEFA*, is the trophy awarded annually by UEFA to the football club that wins the UEFA Europa League. Before the 2009–10 season, both the competition and the trophy were known as the 'UEFA Cup'.

Before the competition was renamed the UEFA Europa League in the 2009–10 season, the UEFA regulations stated that a club could keep the original trophy for a year before returning it to UEFA. After its return, the club could keep a four-fifths scale replica of the original trophy. Upon their third consecutive win or fifth win overall, a club could retain the trophy permanently. However, under the new regulations, the trophy remains in UEFA's keeping at all times. A full-size replica trophy is awarded to each winner of the competition. Furthermore, a club that wins three consecutive times or five times overall will receive a multiple-winner badge. As of 2016–17, only Sevilla has earned the honour to wear the multiple-winner badge, having achieved both prerequired feats in 2016.

The trophy was designed and crafted by Bertoni for the 1972 UEFA Cup Final. It weighs 15 kg (33 lb) and is silver on a yellow marble plinth.

## **Format**

Top 8 from the UEFA club nation coefficient sends out 4 teams the rest send out 3. All 80 teams competing in the qualifying round a 2-legged home-and-away knockout round, the 40 winners from the qualifying round enter the group stage, 8 groups of 5 teams, a team in a group plays the other 4 teams in his group once for a toal of 4 games, 2 home and 2 away. Top 2 advance to the knockout stage. The Round of 16 until final is 2-legged home-and-away knockout. Whoever wins the 2 legged contest in the final wins competition. Throughout the tournament a team from the same nations can not be drawn together until the quarterfinal stage.

* 1.Great Britain - 4
* 2.Spain (and Andorra, Gibraltar) - 4
* 3.Germany - 4
* 4.Italy (and San Marino) - 4
* 5.France - 4
* 6.Portugal - 4
* 7.Russia - 4
* 8.Netherlands - 4
* 9.Ukraine, Poland, Belarus
* 10.Belgium and Luxembourg
* 11.Greece
* 12.Turkey
* 13.Czech Republic & Slovakia
* 14.Switzerland
* 15.Croatia
* 16.Serbia and Slovenia
* 17.Austria and Hungary
* 18.Romania (Moldova)
* 19.Nordic League (Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Greenland)
* 20.Cyprus and Malta
* 21.Balkan League (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Montenegro)
* 22.All-Ireland
* 23.Baltic League (Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia)
* 24.Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia)

An exception to this was 2019–20, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, from the quarter-finals onwards the UEFA Cup was played as a mini-tournament style single-legged knockout ties at neutral venues over 8 days in August.

In the 2020–21, all knockout games were single legged at a neutral venue for the qualifying round or seeded team gets home advantage in the knockout stage, the seeded team is the team that finishes top of their group (who are paired with the unseeded team that is the 2nd placed team). UEFA agreed to pair (as much as possible) 2 teams from the same country together (e.g. pair 2 English teams together, and then pair the 3rd English team with an Irish team or 2 of them) in the group stage, to reduce travel and overcome travel restrictions imposed by country governments. This was the first team in history of UEFA Cup, as usually this would not happen as a draw rule until Quarters. This was exclusively for the 2020-21 UEFA Cup group stage, as the 'no nation paired together' rule would be enforced in the qualifying round and Round of 16. The final 3 rounds was played exactly like 2019–20 but in May rather than April.

### **Format history**

* 1955/58: Group stage followed by a 4-team 1 legged knockout stage
* 1958/60 – 1997/98: 2-legged straight knockout all the way through the tournament
* 1998/99 – 2003/04: 2-legged straight knockout all the way through the tournament until the final in which is played as a single legged tie at a neutral venue chosen before the tournament's beginning
* 2004/05 – 2008/09: Four 2-legged qualifying rounds followed by a group stage consisting of 48 teams spilt into 12 groups of 4 teams, top 2 advance to be joined by 8 3rd placed teams from the UCL group stage. 2-legged knockout stage until the final in which is played as a single legged tie at a neutral venue chosen before the tournament's beginning
* 2009/10 – 2014/15: Two 2-legged qualifying rounds followed by a group stage consisting of 32 teams spilt into 8 groups of 8 teams. An additional knockout round is added. The top team in the group stage advances to the 2nd knockout round, 2nd placed team play the 3rd placed team in the UCL group stage in the 1st knockout round. 2-legged knockout stage until the final in which is played as a single legged tie at a neutral venue chosen before the tournament's beginning

## **Prize money**

* Winner – €10,000,000
* Runner up – €8,500,000
* Semi final – €4,500,000
* QF – €2,400,000
* R16 – €1,100,000
* Winning a group match – €570,000
* Drawing a group match – €190,000
* First round - €480,000

## **Sponsorship**

The UEFA Europa League is sponsored by five multinational corporations; the current tournament sponsors are:

* FedEx
* Heineken International (Heineken 0.0 being the main brand, with local brands being also advertised)
* Kia Motors
	+ Kia Stinger
	+ Kia Soul EV
	+ Kia e-Niro
* Enterprise Rent-A-Car
* Hankook Tire - Laufenn (except for the United Kingdom and Ireland)
* Molten is a secondary sponsor and supplies the official match ball.
* The tournament has used its own hoardings (in that year it debuted in the round of 32) like UEFA Champions League. Individual clubs may wear jerseys with advertising, even if such sponsors conflict with those of the UEFA Cup. However, only 1 sponsorship is permitted per jersey unless it is a non-profit sponsor (plus that of the manufacturer), and if clubs play a match in a country where the relevant sponsorship category is restricted (such as alcohol in the case of France, Norway and UK), then they must remove that logo from their jerseys.

### **UK & Ireland history**

* 1983/84 - 1990/91: BBC and ITV; 1 match per round; in the final 1 leg is shown on BBC and the other leg is shown on ITV)
* 1991/92 - 1996/97: BBC and Eurosport; 1 match per round for each broadcast, 1 leg is shown on BBC and the other leg is shown on Eurosport
* 1997/98: Channel 5 (1 match per round until Round of 16), BBC (quarter final onwards) and Sky Sports
* 1998/99 & 1999/2000: Channel 5 (1 match per round until quarters), ITV (quarter final onwards) and Sky Sports
* 2000/01: Channel 5 (1 match per round until Round of 16), BBC (quarter final onwards) and Sky Sports
* 2001/02 until 2005/06: Channel 5 (1 match per round until Round of 16), ITV (quarter final onwards) and Sky Sports
* 2006/07 - 2008/09: Channel 5 (1 match per round), ITV (1 match per round, not shown by C5) and Setanta Sports
* 2009/10 - 2011/12: ESPN
* 2012/13 - 2014/15: BT Sport
* 2015/16 - 2017/18: ITV (British club matches, 1 semifinal match and final), Sky Sports and Virgin Media Sports (Irish club matches only)
* **2018/19 - present: Channel 4 (British club matches, 1 semifinal match and final), Sky Sports and Virgin Media Sports (Irish club matches only)**

### **Intro**

* 1997/98 until 2001/02
* 2002/03 until 2003/04
* 2004/05 until 2008/09
* 2009/10 until 2014/15
* 2015/16 until 2017/18
* 2018/19 until present

UEFA Super Cup intro 1999

UEFA Super Cup intro 2002