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UEFA CUP: City start their quest for Istanbul

/noticias.info/ The road to the 2008/09 UEFA Cup final at the Sükrü Saraçoglu Stadium in Istanbul begins in earnest this afternoon with 74 teams awaiting the outcome of the draw for the first qualifying round of the competition.

Former winners
The draw will take place at UEFA Headquarters in Nyon at 13.30CET. Arguably the biggest name in the pots will be English side Manchester City FC, who qualified for the UEFA Cup through the Fair Play system. With their City of Manchester Stadium having hosted the 2007/08 UEFA Cup final, in which FC Zenit St. Petersburg beat Rangers FC 2-0, the 1969/70 UEFA Cup winners will be among the biggest sides competing at this stage of the tournament, with games to be played on 17 and 31 July. Other notable sides awaiting their fate include FC København, Brøndby IF, FK Austria Wien, Hertha BSC Berlin, Legia Warszawa, Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC and HNK Hajduk Split.

Regional groups
The first stage of the competition sees the teams divided into three regional groups – Southern, Central-East and Northern – with clubs in each section being seeded or unseeded in accordance with the club rankings established at the start of the season. For each subdivision, the balls containing the seeded teams will be placed in one bowl and the balls containing the teams that are not seeded will be put in another bowl. A ball will be taken from each bowl and placed in a large empty bowl in the middle, where they will be shuffled. The first team drawn will play its first match at home, against the second team drawn.

Draw procedure
Clubs from the same association cannot come face-to-face at this stage, and in the event of two sides from the same nation coming out of the pots, the club drawn second will be put on hold. In their place, another ball from the corresponding group pot (seeded or not) will be drawn to complete the pairing. The ball put on hold will then be moved to the next match and placed as the visiting team. Another ball will then be drawn from the other group pot (seeded or not) and placed as the home team of this match. If the clash occurs with the last pairing, the club drawn second will be switched with the corresponding seeded or non-seeded team of Match 1.

2008/09 UEFA Cup first qualifying round draw participants
Northern section
Seeded Unseeded
Manchester City FC (ENG)
FK Vėtra (LTU)
FC København (DEN) Cork City FC (IRL)
Brøndby IF (DEN) Saint Patrick's Athletic FC (IRL)
Viking FK (NOR)
ÍA Akranes (ISL)
FC Nordsjælland (DEN)
FC Flora (EST)
FC Midtjylland (DEN) FC TVMK Tallinn (EST)
Djurgårdens IF FF (SWE)
Glentoran FC (NIR)
Kalmar FF (SWE)
Cliftonville FC (NIR)
FC Haka (FIN) Bangor City FC (WAL)
FC Honka Espoo (FIN)
The New Saints FC (WAL)
FH Hafnarfjördur (ISL)
EB/Streymur (FRO)
SK Liepájas Metalurgs (LVA)
B36 Tórshavn (FRO)
JFK Olimps (LVA)
CS Grevenmacher (LUX)
FK Sūduva (LTU) FC Racing Union Luxembourg (LUX)
Central-East section
Seeded Unseeded
FK Austria Wien (AUT)
FC Dacia Chisinau (MDA)
Hertha BSC Berlin (GER)
FC Nistru Otaci (MDA)
Debreceni VSC (HUN)
FC Zestaponi (GEO)
FC Salzburg (AUT)
FC WIT Georgia (GEO
AC Bellinzona (SUI)
FC MTZ-RIPO Minsk (BLR)
KKS Lech Poznań (POL) FC Gomel (BLR)
FK Vojvodina (SRB)
FK Khazar Lenkoran (AZE)
FK Borac (SRB)
FK Olimpik Baku (AZE)
Legia Warszawa (POL)
FC Ararat Yerevan (ARM)
MŠK Žilina (SVK)
FC Banants (ARM)
FC Spartak Trvana (SVK)
FC Tobol Kostanay (KAZ)
Győri ETO FC (HUN)
FC Shakhtyor Karagandy (KAZ)
Southern section
Seeded Unseeded
Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC (ISR)
FK Milano (MKD)
PFC Cherno More Varna (BUL)
FK Pelister (MKD)
HNK Hajduk Split (CRO)
FC Vaduz (LIE)
Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona FC (ISR)
KS Vllaznia (ALB)
NK Slaven Koprivnica (CRO)
FK Partizani (ALB)
APOEL FC (CYP)
Birkirkara FC (MLT)
AC Omonia (CYP)
Marsaxlokk FC (MLT)
NK IB Ljubljana (SVN)
FK Mogren (MNE)
FC Koper (SVN)
FK Zeta (MNE)
NK Zrinjski (BIH)
UE Sant Julià (AND)
NK Široki Brijeg (BIH)
AC Juvenes-Dogana (SMR) notas_de_prensa_archivo