Overview

Dates

The competition will begin in May 2008 and the final will take place on May 20th 2009.

Qualification Process

The UEFA Cup currently has two preliminary qualifying rounds, followed by a first round, each round of which has two legs – home and away against the same team. It is left up to chance as to which team plays home or away.

Qualification Requirements

In order to compete in the tournament, a club must be provided a spot by it’s’ countries football association. Each country is given a certain amount of club entries into the UEFA Cup depending on its UEFA ranking. The country grants the clubs that won the biggest tournaments, usually the national cup and league cup, a spot in the tournament. Also eight teams that ended third place during the group stages of the Champions League enter into the UEFA Cup during the group stages of the tournament.

Competition Format

In order to advance into the group stages of the competition, clubs must get past two qualifying rounds and the first round of the competition. The remainder 40 clubs are divided into five groups of eight. Every team in each group plays two games at home and away. The winners, second and third place teams advance into the knockout phase of the competition.

After a short winter break the knockout stages begin, with 32 clubs playing two matches against each other on a home and away basis. Eight clubs that finished third in during the group stages of the Champions League join the UEFA Cup during this stage of the competition. The clubs which score the greatest aggregate of goals qualify for the round-16. If both teams score the same amount of goals, the team which scores the most away goals qualifies.

During the round-16, 16 teams compete against each other in order to advance into the next stage. There are two legs to the competition, as every team play at home once and away once. After this round eight teams are eliminated from the competition and eight club move on to the next round, the quarterfinals.

In the quarterfinals, the remainder teams battle it out in a two leg knockout stage format in order to advance into the semi-finals. Each team plays one match at home and another away. The winner of the quarterfinals advances into the semi-final of the competition.

The four teams that are in the semifinalists battle it out in order to get into the final. This is considered to the best the hardest stage of the competition. There are also two legs in this stage of the competition.

The final is held at a neutral location chosen by UEFA before the start of the tournament. The two remaining team battle it out in order to be crown the champion. The previous winner of the competition was the Russian club Zenit St. Petersburg.

Location and Venues

Each club plays home games at their own stadium and away games at their opponent’s stadium. The final of the competition is held at a neutral location. The final for the 2009 UEFA Cup is being held at Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium in Istanbul Turkey.

Ticket Availability

Tickets for the event are available through OleOle at the tickets and travel section.

Official Sponsors

Carlsberg-- http://www.carlsberg.com

Important Links

http://www.uefa.com/competitions/uefacup/format/index.html

References

http://www.uefa.com/competitions/uefacup/format/index.html