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The second match day for 2009-10 Europa League Group Stage is Thursday, 1st October. 

There are 48 clubs in the Group Stage of this the inaugural Europa League competition.  The biggest difference between the Europa League and the competition it replaced,  the UEFA Cup,  is that the group stage now consists of 12 4-team groups playing home-and-away matches against the other 3 teams in the group.  The UEFA Cup had 8 5-team groups playing single matches against the other 4 teams in the group.

10 of the clubs come into the competition from the Champions League play-off round…Sheriff [Tiraspol],  of Moldova’s breakaway Transdnester region;  Red Bull Salzburg,  of Austria;  FK Ventspils of Latvia;  FC Copenhagen,  of Denmark;  Levski Sofia,  of Bulgaria;  RSC Anderlecht,  of Belgium;  Celtic FC,  of Scotland,;  Timisoara,  of Romania;  Sporting CP,  of Portugal;  and Panathinaikos,  of Greece.

There are some pretty big clubs in the 09/10 Europa League.  Clubs which averaged over 30,000 last season (in their domestic leagues) are as follows… Scotland’s Celtic FC;  Germany’s Hamburg,  Hertha Berlin,  and Werder Bremen; the Netherlands’ Ajax, and PSV Eindhoven;  Italy’s AS Roma, and SS Lazio;  Spain’s Valencia CF,  and Athletic [Bilbao];   England’s Everton;  Portugal’s SL Benfica;  and Turkey’s Fenerbahce SK [06/07 gate figures for Fenerbahce, as none more recent were available].   

Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org {click here (set at 2009-10 Europa League)}.   Thanks to uefa.com/Europa League page {click here}.

I don’t care what anyone says,  I like the UEFA Cup.  All too often,  Champions League games are boring affairs,  with both sides playing so conservatively that the tempo is deadened.  But very often in UEFA Cup matches,  the play is wide open and go-for-broke.  And to those who say what is the point, because it’s not the Champions League,  it’s the second-best cup,  I say…  nations’ Champions League status is directly affected by outcomes in the UEFA Cup.  For example,  for 2009-2010,  Russia will now have 2 clubs, not just 1,  that go directly to the Champions League Group Stage,  and 1 club that will enter the 3rd round of the Champions League Qualifiers.  That means 3,  not 2,  clubs from Russia can now make it to the 09/10 Champions League.  Conversely,  only 2 clubs from Portugal,  not 3,  can make it to the 09/10 Champions League.  This is due to outcomes not just in the Champions League,  but the UEFA Cup as well.  Russia’s Zenit St. Petersburg won last season’s UEFA Cup,  and that contributed to Russia’s rise in the UEFA Coefficient rankings,  from #9 to #6.  And the clubs that finished in second and third place in the 2009 Russian Premier League will benefit from this.

So while English clubs like Bolton (last season) and Aston Villa (this season) feel it is necessary to field weakened sides in the latter stages of the UEFA Cup,  clubs from many other parts of Europe feel otherwise.

UEFA Coefficient rankings, {click here}.

Thanks to ESPN Soccernet, for attendance figures {click here (set at 2008-’09 Bundesliga attendances).   Thanks to the European Football Statistics site for attendance figures {click here}.   Thanks to Ukrainiansoccer.net,  for attendance figures {click here}.   Thanks to the contibutors to the pages at Wikipedia {click here (set to 08/09 UEFA Cup/Round of 16).

Thanks to Colours Of Football, for kits {click here}.   Thanks to Switch Image Project for kits {click here}.   [Note: I decided not to display the Euro kits which some clubs have, because I was unable to get illustrations of all of these.  So I used their domestic leagues kits.  To see: Olimpique Marseille’s 08/09 Euro kit, (click here};  St.-Etienne’s 08/09 Euro kit, {click here};  Hamburg’s 08/09 Euro Kit, (click here}

The 2008-2009 UEFA Cup begins the Final phase/ Round of 32 on Wednesday, 18th February. 

The two-legged match-ups can be seen {here (UEFA site) }.

UEFA site/ UEFA Cup page, latest news {click here}.   ‘Ten to watch in the UEFA Cup’, from 16th February {click here}.

2008-’09 UEFA Cup at Wikipedia {click here}.

Thanks to European Football Statistics {click here}.

Here are the groups {Click here}.   Here is the UEFA site’s description of the draw {Click here}. 

There are 7 clubs who played in the 07/08 UEFA Cup Group Stage,  and are returning this season… From England:  Tottenham.   From Germany:  Hamburg.   From Portugal:  Sporting Braga.   From Russia:  Spartak Moscow.   From Turkey:  Galatasaray.   From Croatia:  Dinamo Zagreb.   From Denmark:  Copenhagen.

After playing in the Champions League in 07/08,  Sevilla return to the UEFA Cup.  The Andalusian club won the UEFA Cup in consecutive years (in 2006 and 2007).

This is the 38th edition of the UEFA Cup,  and the 12th since the single-match final was established.  Here is a list of the last 11 finals {Click here}.   It is interesting to note that 10 of the 11 winners are either in this season’s Champions League,  or UEFA Cup;  the exception is 1999 UEFA Cup winners Parma.  Four of the clubs on the list are currently in the Champions League this fall (Internazionale,  Liverpool,  Porto,  and last season’s UEFA Cup champion,  Zenit St. Petersburg).  On the other hand,  six of the UEFA Cup runners-up from the last 11 seasons are not playing in Europe at all this season,  clubs that range from German giants Borussia Dortmund to the small Basque Country club Alaves;  and including the last three finals losers:  Middlesbrough (2006),  Espanyol (2007),  and Rangers (2008).  Talk about a setback.   This is the big risk of playing  in the UEFA Cup,  especially for smaller clubs without the resources to field a large squad.

Thanks to the EFS site for attendance figures.  I set the link to last season’s attendance figures from the 07/08 UEFA Cup {Click here}.

Last Thursday, the 2007-’08 UEFA Cup competition was pared down to 16 clubs.   {Click here, for results.} 

The only club that looks out of place in the final 16 are the Spanish upstarts Getafe {see this article}.  This is a club that had never been in the top flight before 2004.  They are based in a grim industrial area south of Madrid, that is ringed by highways.  Their fan base is comprised of a significant percentage of disenchanted ex-Atletico Madrid supporters.  I think these fans made the right decision to dissociate themselves from those chronic underachievers… Atletico were eliminated from this competition by stolid Bolton ‘s smothering defense, while Atletico Madrid management showed incredibly poor form, by posting Bolton’s travel and hotel accomadations on their official website {see this article}. 

Here are the matchups for the Round of 16.  The first legs will be played on March 6, the second legs on March 12, and 13.  

Thanks to Wikipedia for the chart.

Since the UEFA Cup’s Knockout Stage is beginning February 13 and 14, I thought it would be appropriate to show my map of the competition again.  Club crests are sized to reflect each clubs’ 2006-’07 domestic league average attendance figures.  At the bottom left of the map is a chart of the clubs who came over from the Champions League (clubs which finished third in their groups).

Setanta Broadband is featuring SK Brann v. Everton, so I thought I’d show some photos of the Brann Stadion. 

And while we’re on the subject, click here, for everything you ever needed to know about the Norwegian Premier League.

**{Click here, for UEFA Cup fixtures, etc. (the UEFA site).}

**{Click here, for Wikipedia’s entry on the 2007-’08 UEFA Cup.}

Here is a table that shows the 2007-’08 UEFA Cup Knockout Stage matchups.

Thanks to Wikipedia; thanks to http://www.tunliweb.no.;  thanks to http://www.colours-of-football.com/.

UEFA Cup 2007-08, Knockout Round.  Qualifiers. (Winner of Group listed first.)

Group A.  Qualified:  Everton,  Nurnberg,  Zenit St. Petersburg.                   Eliminated: Larisa,  AZ Alkmaar.

Group B.  Qualified:  Atletico Madrid,  Panathinaikos,  Aberdeen.         Eliminated: Copenhagen,  Lokomotiv Moscow.

Group C.  Qualified:  Villareal,  Fiorentina,  AEK Athens.                          Eliminated: Mlada Boleslav,  Elfsborg.

Group D.  Qualified:  Hamburg,  FK Basel,  Brann.                                           Eliminated: Dinamo Zagreb,  Rennes.

Group E.  Qualified:  Bayer Leverkusen,  Spartak Moscow,  Zurich.                Eliminated:  Sparta Prague,  Toulouse.

Group F.  Qualified:  Bayern Munich,  Sporting Braga,  Bolton.                Eliminated:  Aris Thessaloniki,  Red Star Belgrade.

Group G.  Qualified:  Getafe,  Tottenham,  Anderlect.                                           Eliminated: AaB Aalborg,  Hapoel Tel Aviv.

Group H. Qualified: Bordeaux,  Helsingborgs,  Galatasaray.                                   Eliminated:  Panionios,  Austria Vienna.

Teams from Champions League.  (Finished 3rd in their groups there, thus qualifying for the UEFA Cup Knockout Round.)  Benfica,  Marseille,  PSV Eindhoven,  Rangers,  Rosenborg,  Slavia Prague,  Sporting Lisbon,  Werder Bremen.

Interesting note:  the 9 teams with the lowest average attendance in the Group Stage were all eliminated.  But Slavia Prague, with a miniscule 4,700 average gate in the Czech league, advanced to this competition with a 3rd-place finish in the Champions League Group Stage. 

Here are the matchups for the Knockout Round: 

Franz Beckenbauer once called the UEFA Cup the “Losers Cup.”  But now, as president of Bayern Munich, he must watch his team compete in it.  Bayern’s average gate dwarfs much of the competition; Germany has the top 3 here.  There are some decent numbers from clubs like FC Copenhagen, FC Basel, and Zenit St. Petersburg, all drawing in the low 20,000s.  The UEFA Cup may be the second-tier cup of Europe,  but there are still solid attendance figures for most of the clubs involved.