The Intertoto Cup is a summer football tournament that was held from 1995 to 2008 and was a kind of addition for larger tournaments such as the Champions League and the UEFA Cup. Its winners got a chance to play in the UEFA Cup, even if they did not qualify for this tournament as a result of the domestic championship. Thus, the Intertoto Cup is a tournament that was held between the teams that took places outside the Eurocups in their championships. This tournament existed until 1995, but it was called differently and was not recognized by UEFA, so it was, in fact, friendly.
The period from 1995 to 2005
The Intertoto Cup was held in the summer before the start of the season, so that the winning teams could then join the UEFA Cup. The principle of the tournament was quite simple: there were five stages in all, on each of which teams from stronger leagues appeared. As a result, it came down to three final matches, the winners of which received tickets to the UEFA Cup.
As you can see, the tournament did not have a single finale or any trophy (although it was called the Intertoto Cup). The teams fought for the right to participate in a more prestigious tournament, and many believed that this was a meaningless competition. However, the results show the opposite.
For example, in the debut year of the tournament, one of the winners was the French club Bordeaux. And in the UEFA Cup in the same year he reached the final, where, unfortunately, lost. In 1999, the Italian “Bologna” was able to reach the semifinals of the UEFA Cup, and in 2004, the Spanish “Villarreal” repeated its achievement. A lot of clubs that won the Intertoto Cup reached the 1/4 and 1/8 of the UEFA Cup final. However, there were still problems, and something had to be done so that Intertoto Cup continued to exist.
Tournament Challenges
The biggest problem was that the Intertoto Cup was just a summer soccer tournament. This meant that the teams that took part in it started their season much earlier than other clubs. This affected the performances in the domestic championships, as the players simply did not have enough strength for the whole season. Therefore, the tournament had a large number of opponents, so changes were simply necessary.
As a result, in 2006 it was decided to reduce the duration of the tournament. Instead of the five rounds that used to make up the Intertoto Cup, now there are three rounds left. And there were not three winners, as before, but eleven.
Last years
However, these changes did not help. In 2006, English Newcastle, as the winning club of the Intertoto Cup, which went the furthest away from the rest in UEFA, received a symbolic trophy for the first time in the history of the tournament. The popularity of the competition was falling, so UEFA representatives soon announced that since 2009 the UEFA Intertoto Cup will not be held.
Thus, in the new format the tournament was held only three times. Since the summer of 2009, the Intertoto Cup officially ceased to exist. In its place no other came, so only two major European competitions remained - the Champions League and the UEFA Cup, which at that time was already called the Europa League. It was due to a change in the format of the tournament for the League that it was possible to compensate for the liquidation of the Intertoto Cup.