On Thursday, UEFA’s Control and Disciplinary Committee imposed fines on several clubs for incidents from recent matchdays in both the Champions League and UEFA Cup.

+ Lyon were fined 3,200 Euros for what has been noted as “incidents of an unsporting nature” in the first leg of their knockout tie against Manchester United. This relates to the Lyon fan in the crowd who shone a laser pointer in Cristiano Ronaldo’s eyes during the course of the warmups.

+ Everton and Norwegian side SK Brann have been fined 3,200 and 9,611 Euros respectively. There were pitch invasions by both sets of fans as well as the throwing of missiles and fireworks from the Norwegians. Brann may appeal within three days, while Everton’s decision is final.

+ Spanish side Club Atlético de Madrid have been fined 19,206 Euros and English opponents Bolton Wanderers FC 6,401 Euros for incidents at the UEFA Cup Round of 32 second-leg game in Spain on February 21st. Atlético were punished for the throwing of missiles and fireworks by spectators, crowd disturbances and insufficient organisation, while Bolton were fined for crowd disturbances. Both clubs may lodge appeals within three days of receipt of the grounds for the decision.

+ A decision in the case involving the alleged racial abuse of Olympique de Marseille players by spectators at the UEFA Cup Round of 16 match against FC Zenit St. Petersburg in Russia on March 12th was postponed until the next meeting of the committee. A disciplinary inspector has been mandated to conduct further investigations.

I applaud the decision to fine or sanction clubs for unruly crowd behaviour but are these penalties strong enough? For a club like Atletico or Bolton, perhaps they should be fined half or all of what they were set to earn from that round of competition. These slaps on the wrist do not seem to be doing much to control the crowd violence which continues to sully the image of the beautiful game.

After a nice long break from the action both the Champions League and UEFA Cup competitions will kick off their knockout rounds. We’ll first look at the UEFA Cup as their Round of 32 first leg fixtures take place this week.

Spanish clubs have dominated this competition in recent years but Germany, with 5 clubs, and England, with 3 clubs are strongly represented this season. My pre-tournament favourites to win it all, Bayern Munich, take on Scottish club Aberdeen in what looks to be a mismatch at Pittodrie. Bayern have cooled off after their fast start but Aberdeen are coming off the back of two thrashings — first a 4-1 defeat to Dundee United in the CIS Insurance Cup and then a 5-1 loss in this past weekend’s league fixture against Celtic. Dons manager Jimmy Calderwood will need to shore up his porous defence or Bayern could run riot over them.

Two-time winners Tottenham are up against my sentimental favourites Slavia Prague. It would be a miracle for Slavia to turn over Spurs and I do not expect that to happen. Tottenham have started to improve under Juande Ramos and their backline was upgraded significantly during the January transfer window. Joining the squad were Gilberto (from Hertha Berlin) and Jonathan Woodgate (from Middlesbrough) as well as 12m Euro signing Alan Hutton. However, Hutton is ineligible to play for Spurs because his former club Rangers FC have transferred to this competition. Despite that, I feel that if their core group of players stays healthy, Tottenham should make a strong UEFA Cup run.

Everton, currently 4th in the EPL, have a great chance of making the final 16. They face Norwegian champions Brann Bergen in Norway for the first leg but Brann’s season ended in November so match sharpness could be an issue. Due to the harsh winter conditions, the Norwegian league season typically starts in early April and lasts until early November.

Compounding their problems is the fact that they have won only one of their three home games in the UEFA Cup this season, losing the other two. Brann will have at least one face familiar to English Premier League fans, former Leeds United midfielder Eirik Bakke now plies his trade for Brann. Some might also remember Azar Karadzas, who had a loan spell with Portsmouth in 2005/06. The winner of the this tie goes on to fave the winner of the tie between Rosenborg BK and ACF Fiorentina in the Round of 16 setting up the potential for an all-Norwegian clash.

The prospects are not as bright for Bolton as they are up against Atletico Madrid. Atletico are likely to be without Sergio Aguero after he sprained ligaments in his right ankle during this past Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Real Murcia. However, Atletico still possess a lot of firepower with the likes of Diego Forlan, Maxi Rodriguez, Simao and Jose Antonio Reyes. Bolton sold top scorer Nicolas Anelka during the transfer window and brought in Polish striker Grzegorz Rasiak to try and help fill the void. Definitely not a like for like swap but so far Bolton have been slipping toward the relegation zone and the added fixtures of the UEFA Cup might not be the best thing for them at this time. Ultimately, I can’t see them beating Atletico over two-legs based on their current form.

Feb 13
Zenit v Villarreal
Galatasaray v Leverkusen
AEK v Getafe
Brann v Everton
Bremen v Braga
Anderlecht v Bordeaux
Marseille v Spartak Moskva
PSV v Helsingborgs
Rangers v Panathinaikos
Sporting v Basel

Feb 14
Aberdeen v Bayern
Zürich v Hamburg
Rosenborg v Fiorentina
Bolton v Atletico
Slavia v Tottenham
Benfica v Nurnberg

As I mentioned last week, we’re going to take a look at the UEFA Cup, this companion competition to the Champions League. The UEFA Cup evolved from the old Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, which was founded in 1955, two weeks after the founding of the European Champion Clubs’ Cup.

The original tournament lasted three years, with matches timed to coincide with trade fairs and involved teams from Barcelona, Basle, Birmingham, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Lausanne, Leipzig, London, Milan and Zagreb. Barcelona, using players purely from FC Barcelona, beat a London representative side 8-2 on aggregate in the final.

In 1972 the tournament was renamed the UEFA Cup to reflect that the competition was now run by UEFA and no longer associated with the trade fairs. Tottenham Hotspur were the initial winners of the renamed competition.

The current UEFA Cup tournament is open to teams finishing in leading positions behind the champions in their domestic top flights, the winners of national cup competitions, the winners of the League Cup in certain countries, the eleven winners of the final matches in the UEFA Intertoto Cup, and three clubs from UEFA’s Fair Play League.

The tournament starts with three knockout qualifying rounds held in July and August. Participants from associations ranked 18 and lower enter the first qualifying round, and participants from associations ranked 9-18 join them in the second qualifying round. In addition, three places in the first qualifying round are reserved for the Fair Play winners, and eleven places in the second qualifying round are reserved for the UEFA Intertoto Cup winners.

The tournament used to be a straight knockout competition but the format was changed in 2004/05, however, when for the first time a group stage was introduced. Winners of the qualifying rounds join teams from the associations ranked 1-13 in the first knockout round. In addition, losers in the third qualifying round of the Champions League also enter this round, and another place is reserved for the UEFA Cup title-holders. There are 80 teams total in this round.

After the first knockout round, the 40 survivors enter a group phase, with the clubs being drawn into eight groups of five each. Unlike the Champions League group phase, the UEFA Cup group phase is played in a single round-robin format, with each club playing two home and two away games. The top three teams in each group advance, where they are joined by the eight third-place teams in the Champions League group phase. The winners, runners-up and third-placed teams from each section advance to the last 32 where they are joined by the eight third-placed clubs from the UEFA Champions League group stage. Here, the traditional two-match knockout format resumes, until the final.

After the group stage there is a winter break. From this point, knockout play resumes, with two-legged ties leading to the one-off final, which is held at a neutral ground meeting UEFA’s criteria for a four star stadium. This season The City of Manchester Stadium, which seats 47,000 fans, will stage the 2007/08 UEFA Cup final on May 14th 2008.

Here are the matchups for the first knockout round which will be played over two legs on September 20th and October 4th 2007. I think there are some dynamite match-ups that were tough to pick a winner for, especially the Lens – Copenhagen fixture. In the end, I think Copenhagen’s European experience will come through. In what would be an upset I think that Crvena Zvezda could get knocked out by Polish side Groclin Dyskobolia. The Serbs have been in turmoil so far this season and went so far as to fire coach Boško Djurovski and replace him with Milorad Kosanovic. The goals have been in short supply for the Serbian side but they are hoping that recently signed striker Nenad Jestrovic, who scored 55 goals in 79 appearances for Anderlecht during a four-year spell with the Belgian side, will bolster a forward line that has been poor in the finishing department.

Ajax have been handed a tricky tie against Dinamo Zagreb but I expect them to come through. The FC Twente – Getafe tie also looks promising but I think the Spanish side is just a bit stronger at the moment. All of the English clubs involved (Tottenham, Everton, Bolton, Blackburn) have received favourable ties and should advance to the group stage.

(My picks to advance are highlighted)
FC Midtjylland (Denmark) v Lokomotiv Moscow (Russia)
FC Groningen (Netherlands) v Fiorentina (Italy)
Rabotnicki Kometal (Macedonia) v Bolton (England)
AEK Athens (Greece) v SV Red Bull (Austria)
Nurnberg (Germany) v Rapid Bucaresti (Romania)
Everton (England) v FC Metalist Kharkiv (Ukraine)
Zenit St Petersburg (Russia) v Standard Liege (Belgium)
Bayer Leverkusen (Germany) v Uniao Leiria (Portugal)
Villarreal (Spain) v BATE (Belarus)
FC Sion (Switzerland) v Galatasaray (Turkey)
Atletico Madrid (Spain) v Kayseri Erciye (Turkey)
Bordeaux (France) v Tampere United (Finland)
Panathinaikos (Greece) v Artmedia Bratisl (Slovakia)
Sparta Prague (Czech Republic) v Odense BK (Denmark)
FC Zurich (Switzerland) v Empoli (Italy)
Sochaux (France) v Panionios (Greece)
Rapid Vienna (Austria) v Anderlecht (Belgium)
Pacos Ferreira (Portugal) v AZ (Netherlands)
Sampdoria (Italy) v AaB Alborg (Denmark)
Spartak Moscow (Russia) v BK Hacken (Sweden)
Hammarby (Sweden) v Braga (Portugal)
Larissa (Greece) v Blackburn (England)
Mlada Boleslav (Czech Republic) v Palermo (Italy)
Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia) v Ajax (Netherlands)
Rennes (France) v Lokomotiv Sofia (Bulgaria)
SK Brann (Norway) v Club Brugge (Belgium)
Bayern Munich (Germany) v Belenenses (Portugal)
Aberdeen (Scotland) v Dnipro (Ukraine)
Heerenveen (Netherlands) v Helsingborgs IF (Sweden)
Toulouse (France) v CSKA Sofia (Bulgaria)
Hamburg (Germany) v Litex Lovech (Bulgaria)
FK Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina) v Basle (Switzerland)
FK Austria Magna (Austria) v Valerenga (Norway)
AIK Solna (Sweden) v Hapoel Tel Aviv (Israel)
Aris Salonika (Greece) v Real Zaragoza (Spain)
Dinamo Bucuresti (Romania) v IF Elfsborg (Sweden)
Tottenham Hotspur (England) v Anorthosis Famagusta (Cyprus)
Lens (France) v FC Copenhagen (Denmark)
Getafe (Spain) v FC Twente (Netherlands)
Groclin Dyskobolia (Poland) v Crvena Zvezda (Serbia)