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InterToto Cup

The UEFA Intertoto Cup, also abbreviated as UI Cup is a summer football competition for European clubs that have not qualified for one of the two major UEFA competitions, the Champions League and the UEFA Cup. more...

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Invited to participate are clubs ranked directly below those that qualify for the major UEFA competitions. The top three teams went on to take part in the UEFA Cup until the 2005–2006 season. From the 2006–2007 season, eleven winning teams go through to the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup.

The cup bills itself as providing both an opportunity for clubs to enter the UEFA Cup who otherwise would not get the chance, but also as an opportunity for sports lotteries (or pools) to continue during the summer. This reflects its background, which was as a tournament solely for football pools. In 1995, the tournament came under official UEFA sanctioning and UEFA Cup qualification places were granted.

History

The Intertoto Cup was conceived by 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 World Cup and the Austrian national team at the 1954 World Cup. The 'cup for the cupless' was also heavily promoted by the Swiss newspaper 'Sport'. 'Toto', in the cup's name, is the German term for Football pools.

Thommen, who had set up football betting pools in Switzerland in 1937, had a major interest in having purposeful matches played in the summer break. The betting background made the tournament initially distasteful for the UEFA. They permitted this new tournament but refrained from getting officially involved. 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. The knock out rounds and the final were thus scrapped, and the tournament became one without a winner.

By 1994, 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, FC Girondins de Bordeaux, in 1995, encouraged UEFA to add a third UEFA Cup place to Intertoto clubs. Bordeaux, after winning the Intertoto Cup, had gone on to reach the UEFA Cup final, thanks to young players such as Zinedine Zidane and Bixente Lizarazu.