Can someone explain this to me? I understand that it's a qualifier for European play, but how does it work? Why isn't FFC in it? Thanks
1.They set aside a couple of UEFA Cup places for folks who just missed out on qualifying. 2. cause we were crap last year.
Slightly more complicated than Don may make out in point 2! There are a number of Inter Toto places allocated to the EPL, 2 usually, the top 2 teams who failed to qualify for Europe get offered IT cup places. If they reject them it goes to the next team in the league and so on until the places are take up. Hence, the season when we finished 10th, 2 teams above us did not take up their places, we did and won ourselves through to the UEFA cup.
Didn't we finish something like 13th or 14th during the year before our Intertoto Cup -winning run (which, I must add, was sparked by my main man Junichi Inamoto)? How did that work?
Some of the teams above us did not want to enter the competition (I think Villa and Spurs both were offered and turned it down, but I would not put money on it). Many teams in mid table accept that the stress of the IT along with UEFA cup means injuries and squad burn out, so unless you have a hughe squad then it is a hard thing to do. The season we played I think we also had an extra place in the EUFA cup due to the fair play award and the cup winners and runners up were both in the champions league or UEFA cup already.
