[Archived] Intertoto Cup

[promoted2001]

Now that we've secured survival maybe we could find a cheeky backroute into europe. Does anyone know if we've applied for an intertoto place? Normally Villa get it but we could finish above them with a few good wins.

[philipl]

As far as I know we haven't and given the club's silence are very unlikely to.

There are two places for English clubs and three have applied.

Newcastle have done- Shepherd likes visiting "exotic" venues on the continent and showing what a big club he has got to the locals who in turn like the money he generates.

Bolton are rumoured to have applied but it seems very likely they will take the conventional route into the UEFA- asking a lot of them to make it into the Champs League now.

In the event of their being three genuine contenders, the two highest placed clubs get into the Intertoto provided they finish at least twelth in their league.

So at the moment, Newcastle will not even qualify for the Intertoto.

Incidentally, my favourite banners in the Milan derby towards the end of the season a few years ago with Internazionale then lying 8th in Serie A. Prominently in the AC end painted in blue and black- just one word.

INTERTOTO

[Rover_Shaun]

Why waste our time in the Inter-two-bob when the UEFA cup generates less money than the FA cup and the public of Blackburn couldn't really care less about it? (judging by past attendances)

Only the champs league is the european competition worth bothering with as it generates more money.

As a club official said "we hardly made any money from our last UEFA cup campaign and hardly made any the year before and that included two games against celtic"

[Alex Rover]

Anyway, we might even qualify for the UEFA cup as "Fair Play" winners

[pksrover]

Intertoto will just ruin our next season anyway...that cup is rubbish for any premiership team! guess everyone rememberes what happend with fulham after they played in intertoto all summer? a total disaster!

next season in the prem we'll push at least for a place that secure UEFA cup.

is the 7th place the last uefa cup place this season? chelsea won the league cup and with arsenal and scum in the FA cup final it will generate a bonus place in the league

[Tony Diamond Inc]

Rovers to finish 7th this season?

[philipl]

Currently Tottenham- 7th played 34 points 48- will qualify for the UEFA Cup with both the League Cup and the FA Cup places coming back into the Premiership.

Rovers are 12th played 33 points 39

I played the BBC Premiership predictor putting 1-0 wins to the Rovers in all remaining games and being quite generous to Spuds.

Amazingly we finished 7th!!!

OK dream over when we lose to City on Saturday.

Also I found I had Norwich escaping relegation and ended up with SIX clubs at risk of going into the last three places on the last day!

[blue/white]

My nomination for post of the year:

Anyway, we might even qualify for the UEFA cup as "Fair Play" winners 

congratulations, CirrenRover-

come on down and collect your prize!

[RoyRover]

The Intertoto Cup would be a terrible idea IMO. It means that the players have less time off in the summer, after a long season. It also means that we will have far more fixtures, without having the squad to cope with them. These games could well catch up with us next season, when we are hopefully trying to qualify for Europe or even trying to stay in the league.

[jobo380]

I agree with roy, our players need the best build up in the summer and nothing should jepodise that especially a rubbish competition like the Intertoto.

waste of time

[Dr Rich]

Middlesbrough have applied and will likely take one of the places. They seem to have enjoyed their time in Europe this year quite a bit, despite its correlation with their lengthening injury list.

Rovers certainly should not apply, the Uefa Cup itself was bad enough for our league performances and confidence, we hardly need to try and compete in a qualifying tournament we have little hope of getting through. Travelling to far flung corners of Europe(not to mention Kazakhstan) to drain our players before the season has even started isn't worth the potential rewards.

[tchocky]

Agree wholeheartedly about not applying for the Intertoto cup. We could qualify as the 7th team for the UEFA cup, but I won't hope for that until we have at least beaten Chity. Either way, its not like we are going to take 6 points from the two trips to Burminum.

[DanLad]

Why waste our time in the Inter-two-bob when the UEFA cup generates less money than the FA cup and the public of Blackburn couldn't really care less about it? (judging by past attendances)

Only the champs league is the european competition worth bothering with as it generates more money.

As a club official said "we hardly made any money from our last UEFA cup campaign and hardly made any the year before and that included two games against celtic"

The poor attendances were as a result of Souness saying that he wasn't bothered about Europe and putting weakened sides out!

Souness then said after the games that the public had agreed with this action by not turning up! If he'd have said we were looking to progress as far as possible and taken it seriously more people would have gone to the games!

I find it amazing that people are still beliving in the rubbish spouted by Souness after all that has gone on!

For people to be saying that we hardly made any money from playing in Europe I'd point out that the game isn't all about money!

[The Producer]

The Intertoto was bad enough at tiring out players in the old days, but now that the UEFA Cup itself is even more games due to the league system, coping with the extra Intertoto games is probably beyond any English club with a squad smaller than Man U.

[CAPT KAYOS]

Personall I tend to disagree with most and think we should apply.

The basis for this to me is it would be ample opportunity to give some fringe players (inc Jansen) and youngsters an opportunity to play in competitive games without too much ( at that stage) to worry about and also help with the pre season - if we go out we go out - if we progress then we end up in the UEFA Cup and the more established players take over and have had the opportunity to see what the others can do.

At the end of the day - pre season is part and parcel and we play 'friendlies' as such anyway, which in all analysis the early games in the Intertoto are really.

[B.R.F.C]

I had this discussion last night. If the top 4 qualify for the Champions League and then the next 2 qualify for the Uefa Cup. We currently have:

Champions League

Chelsea

Arsenal

Man Utd

Everton

Uefa Cup

Liverpool

Bolton

FA Cup

League Cup

Now we know that both the FA Cup Finalists and the League Cup Finalists have guaranteed a Champions League or a Uefa spot already. Does anyone know for certain that the 2 remaining places go to teams finishing 7th and 8th in the league?

Edited April 22, 2005 by B.R.F.C

[philipl]

3 places in the UEFA, I believe.

If it did go down to 8th, Rovers would be in with as very decent chance of qualifying.

At 7th, we have to win all remaining games and hope neither Boro nor Spurs suddenly click into form.

Incidentally, if the Intertoto is a nightmare this season, it kicks off a week after the World Cup Final next season.

[vyeo]

I had this discussion last night. If the top 4 qualify for the Champions League and then the next 2 qualify for the Uefa Cup. We currently have:

Champions League

Chelsea

Arsenal

Man Utd

Everton

Uefa Cup

Liverpool

Bolton

FA Cup

League Cup

Now we know that both the FA Cup Finalists and the League Cup Finalists have guaranteed a Champions League or a Uefa spot already. Does anyone know for certain that the 2 remaining places go to teams finishing 7th and 8th in the league?

just wondering - if liverpool somehow manages to win the champions league, but finish 5th behind everton, does that mean england will have 5 teams in the champs league next season? or does that mean that everton's out?

[blue/white]

My understanding is the Everton is out-

just another reason to root hard for the red scousers.

[Dr Rich]

It means Everton are out, England can only have four teams in the "Champions" League.

I wouldn't worry too much about it if I was Everton, Liverpool beating Chelsea over two legs and then AC Milan is unthinkable.

[Alex Rover]

just wondering - if liverpool somehow manages to win the champions league, but finish 5th behind everton, does that mean england will have 5 teams in the champs league next season? or does that mean that everton's out?

The official line is that if Liverpool win they won't qualify again as winners unless they finish in the top four as there's no rule to say that the winners automatically qualify UEFA seem to be very keen that the maximum from every country is four teams.

However I seem to recall that in Spain there was a season that the Spanish FA opted to demote Real Zaragoza (I think?) to the UEFA cup despite finishing 4th so that Real Madrid (the CL winners but finished outside the top four) could defend their title.

I didn't think that the home FA's had this power but apparently so. Well anything to get Real in I reckon

[Eddie]

That's not true at all. The official line is that if Liverpool win, no matter what league position they finish, they will be in the Champions League next season. No country can have more than four participants so Everton would not qualify.

[Dr Rich]

What I don't understand is why they've decided a country can 'only' have four teams. Needless to say a country should only have one team in the Champions League but that's beside the point. I thought a countries number of Champions League places was variable and based on their Uefa coefficient(or some such silliness) which was determined by how well teams from that country peformed in Europe. Which is why England have 4 teams in the Champions League(or at least the qualifying stages), and Holland have only 2 eligible. This of course can fluctuate(albeit at the speed of the FIFA rankings) and if PSV Eindhoven managed to win the Champions League for the next 10 years(or something), the Dutch might get 3 teams into the competition(or would they get 4, what with PSV qualifying as winners?). So, surely if English teams performed well enough, the Premier League should be able to get 5 entry level positions, and so should also be able to get an additional place if one of the Premiership clubs win it.

[vyeo]

i was actually rooting for liverpool to win the champions league, but now, i guess it's gotta be milan. totally rooting for everton to finish fourth and into the champs league next season, and it'd be a travesty if they end up not qualifying for it, and be screwed out of it by their fiercest rivals.

[USABlue]

That's not true at all. The official line is that if Liverpool win, no matter what league position they finish, they will be in the Champions League next season. No country can have more than four participants so Everton would not qualify.

Now that does not seem quite right, poor Everton fans what a dagger through the heart that would be.