ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

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The 2008 Intertoto Cup is the fourteenth and final edition of the Intertoto Cup organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). It takes place in June and July 2008. It is also the last edition of this annual competition, as UEFA President Michel Platini wanted to reform European competitions to maintain only the Champions League and the UEFA Cup. SC Braga wins the competition.

Operation
This competition takes 50 clubs from as many UEFA member federations. Only the federations of Andorra, Liechtenstein and San Marino are not represented. To limit travel costs, teams are divided into three geographical areas: the South - Mediterranean region, the Central - West region and the North region.

The 2008 Intertoto Cup takes place on three laps and allows the 11 winning teams to qualify for the second round of qualifying for the 2008–2009 UEFA Cup. This mode of operation has been in effect since the 2006 Intertoto Cup. The ranking of federations establishes at the end of the 2007-2008 season based on UEFA coefficients determines the clubs exempted from the first round. Representatives of the first 8 federations - in the order Spain, England, Italy, France, Germany, Portugal, Romania and the Netherlands - are thus integrated directly into the third round. Teams of federations ranked between - in the order Russia, Scotland, Ukraine, Belgium, Czech Republic, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Norway, Israel, Serbia, Denmark and Austria - start the competition in the second round.

The draw of all three rounds of the 2008 Intertoto Cup was made on 21 April 2008. The first round return and return matches take place on 21-22 and 28-29 June 2008, respectively. The second round takes place on 5-6 and 12-13 July 2008. The third round matches took place on 19-20 and 26-27 July 2008.

Southern Region - Mediterranean
17 teams are grouped within the South Mediterranean region. They represent the federations of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Italy, Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey. Each of these federations sends an Intertoto Cup team. Teams from this region compete for 4 qualifying places for the 2008–2009 UEFA Cup. The competition takes place on three different rounds and in round-trip games. Some teams compete in the first round, others are automatically qualified for the second round and the representatives of the Spanish, Italian and Portuguese federations integrate the competition directly into the third and final round.

Qualified for the 2008–2009 UEFA Cup in this region are SSC Naples, Deportivo La Coruña, Sporting Braga and Grasshopper Zürich.

* = Serial head during the draw; e = Victory at goals m