UEFA Cup 2008–09

Infobox International Football Competition
tourney_name = UEFA Cup
year = 2008–09
other_titles =


size =
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country =
dates = 17 July 2008 – 20 May 2009
num_teams = 80 (competition proper)
157 (qualifying)
confederations =
venues =
cities =
champion_other =
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second_other =
third_other =
fourth_other =
matches = 40
goals = 205
attendance =The UEFA Cup 2008–09 is the 38th edition of the UEFA Cup football tournament. The final will be played at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, home ground of Fenerbahçe, in Istanbul, Turkey on 20 May 2009. [cite web |url=http://www.fenerbahce.org/eng/detay.asp?ContentID=718 |title=Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium selected for 2009 UEFA Cup Final |accessdate=2007-09-05 |coauthors=Eugene Ravdin & Paolo Menicucci |date=2007-09-05 |publisher=UEFA ] This season will be the final one using the current format; starting in 2009, the event will be known as the UEFA Europa League.

Qualification

119 teams qualified directly for the 2008–09 UEFA Cup from 53 UEFA associations. An additional three teams qualified via the UEFA Fair Play league, while 35 further teams will qualify from the UEFA Intertoto Cup and the UEFA Champions League. Each association enters a certain number of teams to the UEFA Cup based on its league coefficient. Through domestic competitions (national championships and cups and league cups in certain countries) an association may qualify up to four teams. Below is the qualification scheme for the 2008–09 UEFA Cup:

*Associations 1–6 each have 3 teams qualify
*Associations 7–8 each have 4 teams qualify
*Associations 9–15 each have 2 teams qualify
*Associations 16–21 each have 3 teams qualify
*Associations 22–53 each have 2 teams qualify, with the exception of Liechtenstein (38), Andorra (51) and San Marino (52) who have 1 teamplus
*3 UEFA Fair Play entries
*11 winners of the UEFA Intertoto Cup 2008
*16 losers from the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round
*8 third-placed teams from the UEFA Champions League group stage

First qualifying round: (74 teams)
*33 cup winners from associations 21–53
*32 runners-up from associations 19–37, 39–50 and 53
*6 third-place finishers from associations 16–21
*3 entries through UEFA Fair Play

Second qualifying round: (64 teams)
*37 winners from the first qualifying round
*6 cup winners from associations 15–20
*7 third-place finishers from associations 9–15
*3 runners-up from associations 16–18
*11 entries from UEFA Intertoto Cup

First round: (80 teams)
*32 winners from the second qualifying round
*14 national cup winners from associations 1–14
*2 third-place finishers from associations 7–8
*5 fourth-place finishers from associations 4–8
*7 fifth-place finishers from associations 1–3, 5–8
*2 sixth-place finishers from associations 1–2
*2 League Cup winners from associations 3–4
*16 entries from UEFA Champions League third qualifying round

Group stage: (40 teams)
*40 winners from the First Round

Knockout stage: (32 teams)
*24 top-three finishers from the group stage
*8 entries from UEFA Champions League group stage

*fnb|5 Played in Smederevo at Fortress Stadium as Borac Čačak's home ground did not meet UEFA criteria.
*fnb|6 Played in Berlin at Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark because Olympiastadion was occupied by another event. [ [http://www.morgenpost.de/sport/hertha/article653097/Hertha_gegen_Nistru_im_Jahn_Sportpark_und_im_TV.html] ]
*fnb|7 Played in Chisinau at Zimbru Stadium as Nistru Otaci's home ground did not meet UEFA criteria.
*fnb|8 Played at Tórsvøllur as EB/Streymur's home ground did not meet UEFA criteria.
*fnb|9 Manchester City played their home game at Oakwell Stadium, home of Barnsley, because the pitch at their home ground needed to be relaid after a Bon Jovi concert. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_city/7445562.stm Oakwell to host Man City tie]
*fnb|10 Played at Råsunda Stadium as Djurgården's home ground did not meet UEFA criteria.
*fnb|11 Midtjylland were originally drawn to play at home in the first leg, but the order of the games was reversed.
*fnb|12 Bangor City's home leg was played at Wrexham's Racecourse Ground, as their own ground did not meet UEFA criteria.

In each region of the draw for the first qualifying round, teams were divided into two pots, on the basis of UEFA coefficients. The lower pots contained unranked teams from associations 34–53, together with Vėtra of Lithuania (the 33rd association). The higher pots contained teams from associations 1–32, together with Sūduva of Lithuania, and FH (who had a team ranking, 209).

Three of the 37 ties were won by the lower ranked team, all involving teams whose ranking was that of their association: WIT Georgia (Georgia, ranked 38) beat Spartak Trnava (Slovakia, 24); Vllaznia Shkodër (Albania, 43) beat Koper (Slovenia, 29); and St Patrick's Athletic (Ireland, 35) beat Olimps (Latvia, 31).

econd qualifying round

The draw for the second qualifying round was held on 1 August 2008 in Nyon, Switzerland, [cite news |title=Draws for UEFA Champions League and UEFA Cup |url=http://www.uefa.com/multimediafiles/download/pressrelease/uefa/uefamedia/73/42/19/734219_download.pdf |format=PDF |publisher=UEFA |date=2008-07-22 |accessdate=2008-07-22 ] and featured 16 teams entering directly at the second qualifying round, as well as the 37 winners from the previous round and the 11 third round winners of the UEFA Intertoto Cup. The first legs were played on 14 August 2008 and the second leg on 28 August 2008.

Because there are an odd number of teams in the Central and Northern groups in the 2nd qualifying round, UEFA moved Rennes from the Central-East group to the Northern group. Furthermore Liepājas Metalurgs and Sūduva were moved from the Northern group to the Central-East group, and Vaslui and Interblock Ljubljana were moved from the Southern-Mediterranean group to the Central-East group. It is unknown why UEFA decided on these last moves since it is not strictly required. One of the reasons could be to have more balance in the groups with respect to the coefficients.

!colspan="5"|Southern-Mediterranean region
-!colspan="5"|Central-East region
-!colspan="5"|Northern region

*fnb|13 Played at Fortress Stadium in Smederevo as Borac Čačak's home ground did not meet UEFA criteria.
*fnb|14 Order of legs reversed due to APOEL playing the same day at Omonia's stadium
*fnb|15 The return leg was played in AFG Arena, St. Gallen as Grasshoppers' home ground, the Letzigrund is occupied by a Golden League athletics meet the following day. [de icon [http://stadt24.ch/page/21324/1 UEFA-Cup in der AFG Arena] , stadt24.ch, retrieved 14 August 2006]
*fnb|16 Due to the current conflict in Georgia and the ensuing safety concerns, UEFA ordered the first leg to be cancelled. The match was held as a single leg tie in Vienna. [ [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/uefacup/news/kind=1/newsid=738235.html Vienna to host the WIT-Austria tie] ]
*fnb|17 Played at Stadio Cornaredo in Lugano as Stadio Comunale in Bellinzona did not meet UEFA criteria.
*fnb|18 Played at Petrol Arena in Celje as Interblock's home ground in Ljubljana did not meet UEFA criteria.
*fnb|19 Played at Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark because Hertha BSC's usual home ground, Olympiastadion, was occupied with a Madonna concert.
*fnb|20 Played at Råsunda Stadium as Djurgården's home ground did not meet UEFA criteria.
*fnb|21 Order of legs reversed at the request of both clubs. [cite news |title=Switch Confirmed |url=http://www.avfc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~1357546,00.html |publisher=Aston Villa F.C. |date=2008-08-04 |accessdate=2008-08-05 ]

In each region of the draw for the second qualifying round, teams were divided into two pots, on the basis of UEFA coefficients. The higher pots contained teams with a ranking of 176 or higher, and unranked teams from associations ranked 1 to 15 (or 17 in the Southern-Mediterranean region).

12 of the 32 ties were won by the lower-ranked team. The 12 teams that lost to a lower team were: AEK Athens, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Aris Thessaloniki, Red Star Belgrade, Grasshopper, Slovan Liberec, Viking, Lokomotiv Sofia, Elfsborg, Gent, Queen of the South and Debrecen.

First round

32 teams entered the tournament at the first round, along with the 32 winners from the previous round and the 16 losers from the Champions League third qualifying round. The 80 teams were then split into eight groups of 10 teams; five seeded teams and five unseeded teams. The draw was based on their coefficient ranking with one exception: no country can have multiple teams in any group. Teams ranked 108 or higher were seeded, as were unranked teams from England and Spain.

The draw, which was conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor, was held on Friday, 29 August 2008 at 13:00 CET in Monaco. The matches were played on 18 September and 2 October 2008.

!colspan="5"|Group 1
-!colspan="5"|Group 2
-!colspan="5"|Group 3
-!colspan="5"|Group 4
-!colspan="5"|Group 5
-!colspan="5"|Group 6
-!colspan="5"|Group 7
-!colspan="5"|Group 8

*fnb|22 Order of legs reversed.
*fnb|23 Order of legs reversed due to AC Omonia's ground-share fixture congestion.
*fnb|24 Played at Alvalade XXI, since Vitória FC's homeground at Setubal do not meet UEFA criteria
*fnb|25 Order of legs reversed due to Spartak Moscow playing the same day in Moscow.

Group stage

The draw for the group stage of the 2008–09 UEFA Cup was held at UEFA Headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, on 7 October 2008. The 40 teams in the draw were divided into five pots based on their UEFA coefficients. The eight teams with the highest UEFA coefficient were allocated to Pot 1, the next eight teams to Pot 2, and so on. One team from each pot was drawn for each group, with the restriction that no team could be drawn with one from the same country. [cite news |title=Draw for UEFA Cup Group Stage |url=http://www.uefa.com/multimediafiles/download/pressrelease/uefa/uefamedia/75/51/72/755172_download.pdf |publisher=Union of European Football Associations |date=2008-09-29 |accessdate=2008-09-30 ]

Tie-breaking criteria

Based on paragraph 6.06 in the UEFA regulations for the current season, if two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings:
#superior goal difference from all group matches played;
#higher number of goals scored;
#higher number of goals scored away;
#higher number of wins;
#higher number of away wins;
#higher number of coefficient points accumulated by the club in question, as well as its association, over the previous five seasons.

Group A

Group D

Group G

Final

The final of the UEFA Cup 2008–09 will be held on 20 May 2009 at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey. This will be the first time that the UEFA Cup Final has been held in Turkey and follows the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final which was held in Istanbul's Atatürk Olympic Stadium.

Top goalscorers

Teams and players in bold are still in the UEFA Cup

ee also

*UEFA Champions League 2008–09
*UEFA Intertoto Cup 2008
*UEFA Cup

References

External links

* [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/uefacup/index.html UEFA Cup website]