By JB
May 6 2004

Our involvement in the UEFA Cup is set be a cash cow, providing we can get past the first round knockout stage, where we'll be in the hat with 80 teams. Our involvement in the UEFA Cup is set be a cash cow, providing we can get past the first round knockout stage, where we'll be in the hat with 80 teams.

Once past that, we're into the group phase involving 40 teams in eight groups of five. At that point we'll be guaranteed only another 4 matches and not 8 as you might expect. The reason is the five clubs in each group will play the other four teams in the group only ONCE.

The 24 teams who negotiate this stage (the TOP 3 from each group) will then be joined by eight teams from the UEFA Champions League for the final knockout phase, which will consist of 32 teams.

The UEFA Cup may be less lucrative than the Champions League as there's very little prize money up for grabs, but clubs can negotiate their own television contracts – UEFA get just 10% – and we get to keep 96% of our gate receipts...which ain't necessarily such a big deal with our disappointing attendances!

The TV money is where we could clean up, especially if we draw a couple of European giants in the group stages and manage to nick 3rd spot at that stage to play one of the Champs League drop-outs!