UEFA Intertoto Cup

UEFA Intertoto Cup

Founded	1961 (taken over by UEFA in 1995)
Abolished	2008
Region	Europe (UEFA)
Number of teams	50
Last champions	Braga

The UEFA Intertoto Cup, also abbreviated as UI Cup and originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition for European clubs that had not qualified for one of the two major UEFA competitions, the Champions League and the UEFA Cup. The competition was discontinued after the 2008 tournament.^[1] Teams who originally would have entered the Intertoto Cup directly enter in the qualifying stages of the UEFA Europa League from this point.

The tournament was founded in 1961–62, but was only taken over by UEFA in 1995.

Any club who wished to participate had to apply for entry, with the highest placed club (by league position in their domestic league) at the end of the season entering the competition. The club didn't necessarily have to be ranked directly below the clubs which had qualified for another UEFA competition; if the club which was in that position did not apply, they would not be eligible to compete, with the place instead going to the club which did apply.

The cup billed itself as providing both an opportunity for clubs who otherwise would not get the chance to enter the UEFA Cup and as an opportunity for sports lotteries (or pools) to continue during the summer.^[2] This reflects its background, which was as a tournament solely for football pools. In 1995, the tournament came under official UEFA sanctioning^[3] and UEFA Cup qualification places were granted. Initially, two were provided; this was increased to three after one year; but in 2006, it was again increased to the final total of 11.

History

The Intertoto Cup was the idea of the later FIFA vice-president and founder of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, Ernst B. Thommen, and the Austrian coach Karl Rappan, who coached the Swiss national team at the 1938 FIFA World Cup and the Austrian national team at the 1954 World Cup.^[2] The "Cup for the Cupless" was also heavily promoted by the Swiss newspaper Sport. It derived its name from Toto, the German term for Football pools.

Thommen, who had set up football betting pools in Switzerland in 1932, had a major interest in having purposeful matches played in the summer break. UEFA were initially disinclined to support the tournament, finding its betting background distasteful; nevertheless they permitted the new tournament but refrained from getting officially involved.^[2] Clubs which qualified for one of the official continental competitions, such as the European Champions Cups and Cup Winners Cup, were not allowed to participate.

The first tournament was held in 1961 as the International Football Cup (IFC). Initially the Cup had a group stage, which led to knock-out matches culminating in a final. By 1967, it had become difficult to organize the games,^[3] and so the knock-out rounds and the final were scrapped, leaving the tournament without a single winner. Instead, group winners received prizes of CHF10,000-15,000.

By 1995, UEFA had reconsidered its opinion, took official control of the tournament and changed its format. Initially, two winners were given a place in the UEFA Cup. The success of one of the first winners, Bordeaux, in reaching the final of the 1995–96 UEFA Cup encouraged UEFA to add a third UEFA Cup place in 1996.^[3]

Many clubs disliked the competition and saw it as disruptive in the preparation for the new season. As a consequence, they did not nominate themselves for participation even if entitled. In particular, following its 1995 relaunch, clubs in England were skeptical about the competition; after initially being offered three places in the cup, all English top division teams rejected the chance to take part.^[4] Following the threat of bans of English teams from all UEFA competitions,^[4] the situation was eventually resolved with three English clubs entering weakened teams, and none of them qualifying.

In following years, UEFA made it possible for nations to forfeit Intertoto places. For example, in 1998, Scotland, San Marino and Moldova forfeited their places, and England, Portugal, and Greece forfeited one of their two, Crystal Palace being the sole English entrant despite finishing bottom of the Premiership.^[5] Other clubs have built upon their success in the UI Cup, following it up with great campaigns in the UEFA Cup. Furthermore, UEFA rejected this assertion that the tournament is disruptive. They point out that in the 2004–05 season, two of the three 2004 Intertoto Cup winners went on to qualify directly for the Champions League, whilst the 3rd one qualified by winning its 3rd qualifying round tie (Schalke and Lille directly, Villarreal by winning their 3rd qualifying round tie).^[3]

In December 2007, following the election of new UEFA president Michel Platini, it was announced that the Intertoto Cup would be abolished as of 2009. This was a part of a range of changes that were to be made to the UEFA Cup/Champions League System. Instead of teams qualifying for the Intertoto Cup, they will now qualify directly for the qualifying stages of the UEFA Europa League, which will be expanded to four rounds to accommodate them.

Format

When the competition was taken over by UEFA in 1995, the format was both a group stage and a knock-out stage; 60 teams were split into 12 groups of five with the 16 best teams then contesting the knock-out stage with two-legged ties at each stage, the two winning finalists qualifying for the UEFA Cup. In 1996 and 1997, just the 12 group winners entered the knock-out round, with now three finalists advancing. Nations were allocated places according to their UEFA coefficients, much as with other UEFA tournaments.

The group stage was scrapped for the 1998 tournament, which became a straight knock-out tournament, with clubs from more successful nations entering at a later stage. This arrangement lasted until 2005.

From the 2006 tournament, the format for the Cup changed. There were three rounds instead of the previous five, and the 11 winning teams from the third round went through to the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup.^[6] For the first time since the 1960s, there was provision for an actual trophy – whichever sides go furthest in the UEFA Cup will each be awarded a trophy.^[7] The first winners were Newcastle United, who won the 2006 tournament outright by going further in the UEFA Cup 2006–07 than the other ten qualifiers.^[8]

Only one team from each national association was allowed to enter. However, if one or more nations did not take up their place, the possibility was left open for nations to have a second entrant. Seedings and entry were determined by each association. ^[6] Teams from the weakest federations entered at the first round stage, while those from mid-level federations entered in the second round, and those from the strongest federations entered in the third round.

Winners

2006–2008

Listed are all 11 teams that won the third round matches, qualifying them for the UEFA Cup. The outright winners (determined by their UEFA Cup performance) are marked in bold.

Year	Overall winners	Other Third round winners
2008	Sporting de Braga	Aston Villa	Deportivo La Coruña	Stuttgart	Rosenborg	Napoli
		Rennes	Vaslui	Elfsborg	Grasshopper	Sturm Graz
2007	Hamburger SV	Atlético Madrid	AaB	Sampdoria	Blackburn Rovers	Lens
		União de Leiria	Rapid Wien	Hammarby	Oţelul Galaţi	Tobol
2006	Newcastle United	Auxerre	Grasshopper	OB	Marseille	Hertha BSC
		Kayserispor	Ethnikos Achna	Twente	Ried	NK Maribor Branik

1995–2005

The results shown are the aggregate total over two legs.

Year	Winners	Runners-Up	Result
2005	Hamburg	Valencia	1 – 0
	Lens	CFR Cluj	4 – 2
	Marseille	Deportivo La Coruña	5 – 3
2004	Lille	União de Leiria	2 – 0 (after extra time)
	Schalke 04	Slovan Liberec	3 – 1
	Villarreal	Atlético Madrid	2 – 2 (3 – 1 on penalties)
2003	Schalke 04	Pasching	2 – 0
	Villarreal	Heerenveen	2 – 1
	Perugia	Wolfsburg	3 – 0
2002	Málaga	Villarreal	2 – 1
	Fulham	Bologna	5 – 3
	Stuttgart	Lille	2 – 1
2001	Aston Villa	Basel	5 – 2
	Paris Saint-Germain	Brescia	1 – 1 (away goals)
	Troyes	Newcastle United	4 – 4 (away goals)
2000	Udinese	Sigma Olomouc	6 – 4
	Celta de Vigo	Zenit St. Petersburg	4 – 3
	Stuttgart	Auxerre	3 – 1
1999	Montpellier	Hamburg	2 – 2 (3 – 0 on penalties)
	Juventus	Rennes	4 – 2
	West Ham United	Metz	3 – 2
1998	Valencia	Austria Salzburg	4 – 1
	Werder Bremen	Vojvodina	2 – 1
	Bologna	Ruch Chorzów	3 – 0
1997	Bastia	Halmstad	2 – 1
	Lyon	Montpellier	4 – 2
	Auxerre	Duisburg	2 – 0
1996	Karlsruhe	Standard Liège	3 – 2
	Guingamp	Rotor Volgograd	2 – 2 (away goals)
	Silkeborg	Segesta	2 – 2 (away goals)
1995	Strasbourg	Tirol Innsbruck	7 – 2
	Bordeaux	Karlsruhe	4 – 2

1967–94

During this time there were no competition winners, as only group stages were contested.

1961–67

The results shown are the aggregate total over two legs unless otherwise noted.

Season	Winners	Runner-Up	Results
1966–67	Eintracht Frankfurt	Inter Bratislava	4 – 3
1965–66	Lokomotive Leipzig	IFK Norrköping	4 – 1
1964–65	Polonia Bytom	Leipzig	5 – 4
1963–64	Slovnaft Bratislava	Polonia Bytom	1 – 0*
1962–63	Slovnaft Bratislava	Padova	1 – 0*
1961-1962	Ajax	Feyenoord	4 – 2*
* - Single match finals (although 1962–63 has been unofficially reported (http://www.rsssf.com/tablesi/intertoto.html) as over two legs)

Winners by nation

From 2006 onwards, the final round was no longer termed as the "Final", but instead simply as the "Third Round". In addition, there were 11 winners, compared to three under the old system. The club which progressed furthest in the UEFA Cup were declared overall winners. The Third Round winners and losers from 2006 are included in this table. Teams which are in bold have been overall winners.

Nation		Winners	Runners-Up	Winning Clubs	Runner-Up Clubs
	France	16	5	Auxerre (2), Bastia, Bordeaux, Guingamp, Lens (2), Lille, Lyon, Marseille (2), Montpellier, Paris Saint-Germain, Rennes, Strasbourg, Troyes	Auxerre, Lille, Metz, Montpellier, Rennes
	Germany	11	4	Frankfurt, Hamburg (2), Hertha BSC, Karlsruhe, Schalke 04 (2), Stuttgart (3), Werder Bremen	Duisburg, Hamburg, Karlsruhe, Wolfsburg
	Spain	7	5	Celta de Vigo, Málaga, Valencia, Villarreal (2), Atlético Madrid, Deportivo La Coruña	Atlético Madrid, Deportivo La Coruña, Valencia, Villarreal (2)
	Italy	6	3	Bologna, Juventus, Napoli, Perugia, Sampdoria, Udinese	Bologna, Brescia, Padova
	England	6	1	Aston Villa (2), Blackburn Rovers, Fulham, Newcastle United, West Ham United	Newcastle United
	Austria	3	3	Rapid Wien, Ried, Sturm Graz	Tirol Innsbruck, Pasching, Austria Salzburg
	Denmark	3	1	AaB, OB, Silkeborg	OB
	Netherlands	2	4	Ajax, Twente	Feyenoord, Heerenveen, NAC Breda, Utrecht
	Romania	2	3	Oţelul Galaţi, Vaslui	CFR Cluj, Farul Constanţa, Gloria Bistriţa
	Sweden	2	3	Elfsborg, Hammarby	Halmstad, IFK Norrköping, Kalmar
	Czechoslovakia	2	1	Inter Bratislava (2)	Inter Bratislava
	Portugal	2	1	Braga, União de Leiria	União de Leiria
	Switzerland	2	1	Grasshopper (2)	Basel
	Poland	1	2	Polonia Bytom	Polonia Bytom, Ruch Chorzów
	Turkey	1	2	Kayserispor	Sivasspor, Trabzonspor
	East Germany	1	1	Lokomotive Leipzig	Lokomotive Leipzig
	Norway	1	1	Rosenborg	Lillestrøm
	Cyprus	1		Ethnikos Achna
	Kazakhstan	1		Tobol Kostanay
	Slovenia	1		Maribor
	Russia		5		FC Moscow, Saturn, Rotor Volgograd, Rubin Kazan, Zenit St. Petersburg
	Belgium		3		Gent (2), Standard Liège
	Greece		3		Larisa, OFI Crete, Panionios
	Ukraine		3		Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, Chornomorets Odessa, Tavriya Simferopol
	Bulgaria		2		Cherno More Varna, Chernomorets Burgas
	Czech Republic		2		Sigma Olomouc, Slovan Liberec
	Israel		2		Maccabi Petah Tikva, Bnei Sakhnin
	Moldova		2		Dacia Chişinău, Tiraspol
	Serbia		2		Vojvodina, Hajduk Kula
	Azerbaijan		1		Neftchi Baku
	Croatia		1		Segesta
	Hungary		1		Budapest Honvéd
	Lithuania		1		Vėtra
	Latvia		1		Riga
	Scotland		1		Hibernian

See also

• List of UEFA Intertoto Cup winning managers
• International club competition records
• UEFA competition records
• UEFA Champions League
• UEFA Cup

References

External links

• Official UEFA site
• Official lotteries site
• Soccernet guide to Intertoto Cup: Part 1 and Part 2
• (Italian) Enrico Siboni Web Site - Winners of UEFA Intertoto Cup