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City will be seeded directly to the group stages - above Portsmouth, despite the fact that Pompey qualified as FA cup winners

I would pay money to see Harry's face when he hears this

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'Fabio, the round thing there is the ball'

Aguero

Does this mean we don't have to take part in the qualifying round(s)? Or does it mean if we make it through the qualifiers that we will then be seeded higher than pompy in the groups?

yep - we go straight through to the group stages

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'Fabio, the round thing there is the ball'

Aguero

then my dream of watching city play away in europe before i go travelling is over? lol, god damn. So when is roughly the earliest european match we can play?

Where did you find this out?

I'm pretty sure we still have to qualify for the tournament, but when we get to the group stages we will be ranked higher than Pompey

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Please don't think that I'm being a bitch
I just happen to witness a lot of things which
Get me annoyed cos you're filling a void
Have you got nothing better to do?

Yep, that's my understanding of it too. We still have to qualify.

I heard at the weekend City will have to play an Irish Eircom League team.

Not sure how true this is though.

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And put on that wig I bought you. No, no, no, no. The reddish-brown one.

its all done via a draw isnt it?

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Posting Bi-Monthly These Days

I was born with "methemoglobinemia"

No. For the preliminary rounds north European teams are in one draw and South European teams in another.

I think.

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And put on that wig I bought you. No, no, no, no. The reddish-brown one.

I'm confused - the paper says that we are seeded into the group stages, ahead of pompey - so we don't need to qulify, right ?

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'Fabio, the round thing there is the ball'

Aguero

we may draw an irish team but could also get any from the northern section of the draw

This is what it says on Wiki. UEFA site hasn't got anything about 08/09 matches yet.

Current format
The UEFA Cup starts with two knockout qualifying rounds held in July and August. Participants from associations ranked 18 and lower enter the first qualifying round, and participants from associations ranked 9-18 join them in the second qualifying round. In addition, three places in the first qualifying round are reserved for the Fair Play winners, and eleven places in the second qualifying round are reserved for the UEFA Intertoto Cup winners.

So it looks like we're in from the beginning.

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The UEFA Cup
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Euro booster for Blues
Chris Bailey
27/ 5/2008

CITY have been handed a major boost in their quest to make significant progress in next season's UEFA Cup.

The Blues will be ranked above FA Cup winners Portsmouth and seeded all the way through to the group stage.

That should ensure the Fair Play League's nominee a smooth passage through the two congested qualifying rounds and even the first round proper when the likes of Everton, Portsmouth and Spurs enter the fray.

Despite only one appearance in a European competition in more than a quarter of a century, City have a high enough UEFA co-efficient - the complicated mathematical formula on which seedings are based - to be considered one of the top sides in the early ranking.

When they kick off in the Northern Section in the third week of July, City will be graded the number one side which should help them overcome the potential problem of playing their home leg in Yorkshire as Eastlands is put back together after a summer concert from American band Bon Jovi. It seems certain that City's latest Fair Play league adventure, following the 2003 escapade under Kevin Keegan that ended at the third hurdle at the hands of Polish side KS Groclin- Dyskobolia, will kick-off at the Galpharm Stadium in Huddersfield where the Giants are playing Super League.

In all there are 73 teams alongside City in the first qualifying round which is split, for ease of travelling and on economic grounds, into three sections, Northern, Central-East and Southern-Mediterranean.

Draw

When the draw is made in Nyon on June 27, the Blues now know that they will face a team from Lithuania, Estonia, Iceland, Luxembourg, Faroe Islands, the Republic of Ireland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

The draw throws up the possibility of a repeat of five years ago when City's first foray back into European competition saw them play Total Network Solutions from Wales. Now renamed the The New Saints they are one of the 14 teams in the opposite half of the draw. So, too, are Cork City, St Patrick's Athletic, Glentoran, and Cliftonville as well as Welsh side Bangor City.

The others that City could face are now confirmed as Flora Tallin and TVMK Tallin from Estonia, Akranes from Iceland, EB Streymour or B36 Torshavn from the Faro Islands, Vetra Vilnius from Lithuania and finally Racing FC from Luxembourg or that country's recently crowned cup winners CS Grevenmacher.

Should City, as expected, leap over the first hurdle they then join the likes of CSKA Moscow, Besiktas, AEK Athens and Scotland's Queen of the South in the second qualifying round.

Again that round is split into three sections with the Blues current co-efficient of 30.996 making them the top ranked of the 22 sides in the North group ahead of Germans Hertha BSC.

They can be thankful, though, that they are not in the Southern region second qualifying round that features the likes of Besiktas, Levski Sofia and AEK Athens who are all in possession of a higher co-efficient that the Blues.

When it comes to the first round proper, there will be 80 teams still left in the competition half of whom will go out before the group stage.

AC Milan are easily the top rated team by UEFA followed by Sevilla, Valencia, Benfica, CSKA Moscow, Spurs, Hamburg and Ajax, but if all goes to plan City will be seeded in the top 30 below Everton, though above Pompey and will not have to face another English side.

Once the 80 teams have been halved they are drawn into the eight groups from which 24 will qualify for the knockout stage where they will be joined by eight sides eliminated from the Champions League at the group level.

Planning for next season's UEFA Cup final is well advanced with the decider destined for the Sukru Saracoghu Stadium the home of Turkish side Fenerbahce on May 20, 2009.

A total of 122 clubs will start the competition which is set for some streamlining next season.

So basically we still have to qualify but UEFA have made it a lot easier for us.

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Joeyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

ESM, King of Cut 'n' Paste

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'Fabio, the round thing there is the ball'

Aguero

Fuck off!! Least the last sentence is mine you lazy pasting bastard!!

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Joeyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

careful, you don't want to get an rsi from all that typing !

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'Fabio, the round thing there is the ball'

Aguero