The UEFA Cup

Organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), from which the UEFA Cup takes its name, the UEFA cup is a football competition for European club teams. Also known as the European Cup 3, CE3 or C3, the UEFA Cup is the second most important international competition for European football clubs, second only to the UEFA Champions League. To qualify for the UEFA Cup, clubs must perform well in national leagues and club competitions nationally. The idea for the UEFA Cup was first conceived by Swiss man, Ernst Thommen, who teamed up with Italy's Ottorino Barassi and England's Sir Stanley Rous to create a tournament for European cities to bring them together in competitive sport. The first UEFA Cup began in 1971, replacing the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, a smaller cup that was running at the time. In 1999 the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was disbanded, with the competition merging with the UEFA Cup. Because of this, the UEFA directors are now rumoured to be changing the name of the competition to the "UEFA Europa League" which would become effective for the 2009-2010 season. The current holders of the UEFA cup are Zenit St. Petersburg, who won the competition in 2-0 against Rangers. The City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester held the last UEFA Cup Final, with the last match held on the 14th of May 2008.

UEFA Cup Facts

The UEFA Cup trophy weighs 15kg and was designed and crafted by the Bertoni workshops in Milan in 1972 for the 1972 UEFA Cup Final, at the cost of €23,000. The cup is silver in colour, presented on a yellow marble plinth and has no handles - with the focus on simplicity. Above the marble plinth, a group of players can be seen jostling for the ball - but are actually supporting the octagonal cup, emblazoned with the UEFA emblem. The trophy is kept by the winners for just a year, and after this year they are presented with a replica to keep - which is four-fifths of the size of the original trophy. If a club is lucky enough to win the trophy three times in a row or five or more times overall, they are allowed, according to regulations, to keep the original trophy. This has never happened, and so the original trophy has always been available to award a winning team year after year. For the UEFA Cup 2008/09 the official ball used will be the Nike Conquest, continuing the Nike sponsorship of the UEFA club and many other football events and tournaments. For the next UEFA Cup in 2008-09, the UEFA Cup Final will be played at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, Istanbul. The last winner of the UEFA Cup, were FC Zenit Saint Petersburg (Russian: ФК "Зенит" Санкт-Петербург), a Russian football club from Saint Petersburg. One of the most successful clubs in the UEFA Cup is the Italian team Real Madrid CF. Indeed, from the 1990s Italian clubs held the UEFA Cup aloft many times, with an impressive 8 wins in 11 seasons. In this time, Internazionale Milano FC won the cup three times, before the Turkish team, Galatasaray SK, claimed it as Turkey's first ever European club prize in 2000.