[Gilli]

Digged this one up at www.soccerway.com ...

Norway's SK Brann gets UEFA cup spot

NYON, May 27 (SW) - Norway have finished top of the UEFA Fair Play ranking for the 2001/2002 campaign and the Norwegian club, SK Brann, have therefore earned the right to enter the qualifying round of the 2002/2003 UEFA Cup.

Although third in their domestic fair play competition, SK Brann qualify automatically as Rosenborg BK and Viking FK have already qualified for the Champions League and UEFA Cup respectively.

France and the Czech Republic will meet in final tomorrow in Basel at 20:30 The final of the European Under-21 Championship will take place at 20:30 on Tuesday 28 May 2002, at St. Jakob-Park Stadium, in Basel.

France will take on the Czech Republic after France beat the host country Switzerland 2-0 and the Czech Republic beat Italy 3-2 with a golden goal in the other semi-final. Tickets for the final are still available through the 400 TicketCorner points of sale until tomorrow afternoon.

During the half-time interval of the final, the draw for the two remaining Fair Play spots will take place, where two other national associations will also be entitled to an extra place each in the qualifying round of the 2002/2003 UEFA Cup. The two entrants will be decided through the draw involving no fewer than seventeen national associations who ended the season with a Fair Play rating of 8 or more.

The UEFA ranking is based on all UEFA competitions matches played between 1 June 2001 and 27 May 2002. Matches after that date will count towards next season’s competition. The ranking as it stands today will not be affected by the remaining matches until the end of the UEFA season, as far as position and associations with an average mark of over 8.00 is concerned.

--
As far as I get it, there will be 12 national associations involved in the draw, with Israel being one of them. Since Ashdod was chosen as the most fair team in Ligat ha'AL, in case Israel wins one of the 2 remaining spots, the small team of Ashdod could find itself playing European-football next season. If not, they'll still be able to do so via the Intertoto competition where they'll be facing FC Banik Ostrava in the first round.

 

[Hrevivo]

I think that Ashdod was the team because they were the next in the league and not the most fair team (but we probably game some crap documents to UEFA so they'll be happy).

If Ashdod will get the berth, Beer Sheva will be the team to play in the Intertoto.

 

[Kappa18]

you know what will be cool?



if next season bney yehuda was to play in UEFA or Inter toto they deserve it?


they never been on since 1993/1994 or something like that!

 

[Hrevivo]

I don't believe Bney Yehuda ever played in Europe. And no, they don't deserve any spot in Europe, they were in Liga Leumit.

 

[Gilli]

Well, Ashdod lost in the draw, the winners who will play UEFA Cup football next season are Czech team Sigma Olomouc and MM's Ipswich Town (they've been relegated but it won't prevent them from playing in Europe )



Hopefully they prevail against Banik in the Intertoto.

 

[Hrevivo]

If they will finish 4th next season they have a good chance to appear in the UEFA Cup.

 

[Jones 5]

well tey were one of 18 teams, not many chances of winning this draw at the first place.


Onto another issue, Ashdod's managing body members have announced their resignation. Reason, the municipality have promised to finance only one football team (SC Ashdod) whereas they also support Hapoel Seaport Ashdod.

 

[Raful]

No European luck for Ashdod SC

Ashdod SC, which was hoping to gain a UEFA Cup qualifying round berth yesterday was disappointed to discover it was not one of the two lucky winners in the draw held by European soccer's governing body yesterday. The draw, contested between 17 clubs from nations that finished highest in the UEFA fair play standings, saw two lucky clubs add European fixtures to their itinerary. The lucky clubs were relegated English Premier League side Ipswich Town and Czech outfit SK Sigma Olomouc. The two teams were drawn during halftime of the European under-21 Championship final between France and the Czech Republic in Basel, Switzerland last night.

Ipswich, who were relegated on the last day of the season after defeat at Liverpool, were ranked fourth in the premier league Fair Play rankings. But the three teams ahead of them - Newcastle United, Liverpool and Manchester United - have already qualified for the Champions League. Sigma Olomouc were third in the Czech rankings but Sparta Pragua and Sloven Liberec will both play in the Champions League next season. Norwegian side SK Brann, who were third in the rankings behind Rosenborg and Viking FK, gained an automatic place after their domestic league topped the Fair Play table. (Doron Bergerfreund) www.haaretzdaily.com