Fans Comment
Phil Roberts

Champions League Qualifiers
9 May 2005

So what happens in August?  Well, a bit of research at Uefa.com brings the answers and a search of this season's results brings the clarity.  As Basil so wonderfully said to Manuel “Let me explain”...

It all starts with the First Qualifying Round (QR1) in early July with 24 clubs playing 12 two-leg matches.  Now these are the champions of leagues such as Luxembourg, Faroe Islands, Northern Ireland and even Romania (Last year they joined in Round 2).  How the mighty have fallen.  For those of us old enough to remember, the 1986 trophy — the one we would have won if it wasn’t for the European ban — was won by Steaua Bucharest.

The 12 winners of QR1 ties are then joined by 16 more clubs.  10 are the champions of their leagues, places such as Poland, Austria, Denmark and Sweden and the 6 runners up of places such as Norway, Scotland and Turkey, all making up the Second Qualifying Round (QR2).  From these two-leg matches at the end of July, they then progress on to the third and last qualifying round before the group stages.  The 14 winning teams are joined 18 more teams, the champions of the leagues with the 6 runners up from the previous round, runners up of the leagues in Greece, Netherlands and Czech republic plus the 3rd and sometimes 4th place teams from the big 6 countries  That's were we come in!

These 16 matches in the Third Qualifying Round (QR3) are over 2 legs in the 2nd and 4th weeks of August, the group stages not starting until mid-September.  So it will be well deserved rest for the players, but an early start back with the first leg possibly before the season starts.

So the real question is who are we going to play?  Based on last year’s draw, there is some form of seeding. The Italian, German, Spanish, French, English sides did not play against each other.  However, with 14 clubs from the 2nd round and 18 clubs now joining, then there is the possibility of playing a club who is also joining at the same stage.  Last year there were 4 such fixtures:

• England’s 4th placed team played the Champions of Austria;
• Italy’s 4th placed team played the Champions of Switzerland;
• Germany’s 3rd placed team player the Champions of Czech Republic;
• Portugal’s 2nd placed team played the Champions of Belgium (and lost!)

Was it seeding but the 3rd-placed teams from Italy, Spain and England (the only countries with 4 representatives) didn’t get drawn against teams entering at this stage?

So, were there any shocks?  We all remember Newcastle failing a few years ago after doing the hard work of qualifying ahead of Chelsea.  Well three teams that entered the competition in QR2 did beat teams who were now joining in QR3:

• Israel’s runners up beat Greece’s 3rd placed team;
• Norway’s champions beat Israel’s champions
• Russia’s champions beat Scotland’s runners-up.

There were however two ties featuring clubs who had made it through from QR2.  Ukraine’s runners-up beat the Belgium’s runners-up Czech runners up beat the Hungarian champions.  So the seeding in the draw seemed only to prevent the clubs from the big nations playing each other.

Of course, as Evertonians, we always fear the worst.  We could be lucky!  Two clubs who started in QR1 actually beat teams entering in the Second Qualifying Round and were therefore paired against the 3rd-placed teams from France and Spain.  Monaco despatched the Slovenian Champions 9-0 and Deportivo saw off Shelbourne from Ireland 3-0 on aggregate.

Each year the qualifications from the countries change as clubs do well, so that Portugal now have 3 places not 2 and the Scottish champions now come in at the 3rd round stage and not direct into the league as Celtic did last year.  But check out the web site link to see the full list.

The web site does reveal something very interesting.  The 16 clubs from the QR3 will join 15 clubs plus the cup holders, who are not part of the teams finishing 1st or 2nd.  It looks like UEFA have already made a place available in case AC Milan fail to win in Turkey.  Interesting we have not heard this one!  And the holders go straight into the group stages!  Sounds like another article, but the implications are that if AC Milan do win, then they will have to give a place to another couple of teams from other countries to bring the right number of teams into the competition. (They will now need 17 teams from the QR3 which means either 16 matches in the QR2 and therefore 4 more teams joining the competition).

Phil  Roberts

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