The second most popular competition in European football is the Union of European Football Association tournament, more commonly known as the UEFA Cup.  Although the UEFA Cup is not as old as other football related competitions (such as the FA Cup), it was founded in the year 1971 with the intention of being a tournament for second-place winners in other leagues.  However, the UEFA Cup has since evolved into an extremely popular and well-watched competition.

Although the UEFA Cup tournament itself is a fairly new concept, the format of the competition is even newer, having undergone many changes since the Cup’s inception in 1971.  While originally supposed to be a “knockout-only” type of tournament, the UEFA Cup evolved into a more complicated competition format.  The last reform was as early as the 2004-2005 season, in which the biggest change (a second qualifying round added to the first) was accompanied by many smaller, somewhat less significant changes.  This new format of play, however, is the current format in which the UEFA Cup is played.  There may or may not be further reforms of the UEFA Cup format.

Italy has taken the UEFA Cup competition by storm, leading other countries by several wins and several second-place wins.  Since its inception, Italy has had a total of ten wins and eight runners-up, tied only with the country of England – also with a total of ten wins and eight runners-up under their belts.  Spain is a close follower with ten wins in the UEFA Cup as well, but Spain has two less runners-up from the country – a total of six.  The number of wins and runners-up falls significantly after Spain, with Germany having six wins and seven runners-up and the Netherlands having a mere four wins and two runners-up.  After Sweden (with a 2-0 score), several countries including Belgium, Hungary, Portugal, Croatia, Russia and Turkey have only one win, accompanied by various numbers of runners-up (none of which are above three).  France, Scotland, Austria and Serbia all have zero wins with France leading the runners-up category with four, Scotland with two and Austria and Serbia with only one runner-up each.

I want to check out the latest UEFA Cup picks.

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