Live UEFA Cup Football

ABOUT THE UEFA CUP

One game which has captured the lives of millions round the globe and is still raking in billions is the UEFA Cup. This is the one game for which a person is ready to give his all for and won't hesitate giving up their life. It has not only become a part of our daily life but also an essential part our soul. The game is so exciting that predicting results is futile as every game goes till the end of wire. One league which ensures all of the above is UEFA Champions League. It has got everything that a live football game demands, be it energy, excitement, emotion, drama, and sportsmanship. Watching the live uefa cup football isn't an easy task on the internet but now thanks to LivesportsTV you can watch it on your home PC without any extra hardware.

UEFA or Union of European Football Association is the original inspiration of Switzerland's Ernst Thommen (a future FIFA vice-president) - and England's Sir Stanley Rous, the future president of FIFA. Their basic idea was to organise a tournament for various cities in Europe that regularly organised trade fairs. A meeting was held to discuss the issue and afterwards the concept was agreed upon resulting in the birth of Inter-Cities Fairs Cup .It was founded on 18 April 1955, two weeks after the founding of the European Champion Clubs' Cup.

The first Fairs Cup involved teams from Barcelona , Basle, Birmingham , Copenhagen , Frankfurt, Lausanne , Leipzig , London , Milan and Zagreb . The founders decided upon a two year format but seeing its enormous crowd-pulling power, it lasted for three, during which time 23 games were played. Barcelona beat the London side 8-2 on aggregate in the final.

The second tournament had more stringent rules. A knockout format was introduced , but the teams still had to come from cities staging trade fairs. Sixteen clubs took part in the 1958-60 tournament, after which it was staged on an annual basis. By 1962 the number of entrants had risen to 32; there were 48 in 1967; and, as from the 1969-70 season, there were 64 teams. The 1960 competition was almost cancelled for lack of support after many countries left it too late to apply. The name 'UEFA European Championship' was coined in 1968, the same year as knock-out preliminaries were replaced by the modern qualifying round.

The UEFA European Championship is held every four years in the year in between the world cups. The trophy awarded to the winner is named after its founder Henri Delaunay ,

the first general secretary of UEFA. Earlier only four teams qualified for the final tournament but it was expanded to its present number (16). The competing teams are chosen by a series of qualifying games and playoffs. To qualify, the countries have to win seven qualifying stages, but the host country, or countries, have been chosen beforehand and qualify automatically for the tournament. Sixteen teams progress to the final tournament. For the 2008 tournament they will be the winners and runners up of the seven qualifying groups, and joint hosts Austria and Switzerland. Watching a live uefa cup football match is a dream come true for any footy fan!

The daddy of footy competitions is the UEFA Champions League (mother being the World Cup). The tournament was inaugurated in 1955, at the suggestion of the French sports journalist and editor Gabriel Hanot as a competition for winners of the European national football league, as the European Champion Clubs' Cup , which was later abbreviated to European Cup. You can watch live uefa cup football action at LivesportsTV and enjoy all the action.

At present the UEFA Champions League contains 32 teams in the group stage, and is preceded by three qualifying stages. The champions of all countries enter the Champions League, but high ranking countries can send up to 4 teams. Some teams of these countries directly qualify for the group stage, while others have to play qualifying rounds. The first qualifying round commences on July 30 and champions from countries ranked 23 or lower take part. The 2nd qualifying round begins during Jul-Aug and involves 28 teams with the following breakup; 1 5 winners from 1st qualifying round,7 champions from countries ranked 16-22 and 6 second-placed teams from countries ranked 10-15.

3rd Qualifying Round starts in August with 32 teams that are; 14 winners from 2nd qualifying round 6 champions from countries ranked 10-15 3 second-placed teams from countries ranked 7-9 6 third-placed teams from countries ranked 1-6 3 fourth-placed teams from countries ranked 1-3. The group stage has 8 groups of 4 teams each and then we have playoffs in volving 16 teams: 8 group second-placed teams and 8 winners from group stage play the 2nd round, the quarter finals, the semi finals, and the final.

Losing teams in the 3rd qualifying round enter the 1st round of the Live UEFA Cup, and third-placed teams from the group stage enter the 3rd round of the cup.

One of the things that makes the UEFA interesting is that the defending Champions league cup-holder always take part. If the defending cup-holder does not finish in a qualifying place in their domestic competition they will come in at the expense of the last-placed side of that association, except for associations ranked 16 or below (which implies that the champion of each country always takes part). In this case the last-placed team for the Champions League of that association has to take part in the UEFA Cup. Only if the defending Champions league cup-holder also did not qualify for the UEFA Cup this will lead to an additional live uefa cup football berth for that association.

UEFA is the strongest federation when it comes to wealth as most of the top players play from English sides. The money generated is distributed among the clubs. The prize money is astronomical with the figure touching 7.5 million pounds in Euro 2008 and approx. 30 million pounds for Liverpool in UEFA champions League. Nobody should ever miss the live uefa cup football and now thanks to LivesportsTV you never have to!