| Tourney Name: | UEFA Cup |
| Year: | 2002–03 |
| Size: | 300px |
| Dates: | 13–29 August 2002 (qualifying) 17 September 2002 – 21 May 2003 (competition proper) |
| Num Teams: | 96+8 (competition proper) 121+24 (total) |
| Associations: | 51 |
| Champion Other: | Porto |
| Count: | 1 |
| Second Other: | Celtic |
| Matches: | 205 |
| Goals: | 576 |
| Attendance: | 3139630 |
| Top Scorer: | Derlei (Porto) 12 goals |
| Prevseason: | 2001–02 |
| Nextseason: | 2003–04 |
The 2002–03 UEFA Cup was the 32nd edition of the UEFA Cup, the second-tier European club football tournament organised by UEFA. The final was played between Portuguese side Porto and Scottish side Celtic at the Estadio Olímpico de Sevilla, Seville, on 21 May 2003. Porto won 3–2 after silver goal extra time and became the first Portuguese team to win the competition.[1]
Feyenoord could not defend their title as they automatically qualified for the 2002–03 UEFA Champions League and were also eliminated from all European competitions after finishing bottom of their group.
A total of 145 teams from 51 UEFA member associations participated in the 2002–03 UEFA Cup. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[2]
The winners of the 2001–02 UEFA Cup were given an additional entry as title holders if they did not qualify for the 2002–03 UEFA Champions League or UEFA Cup through their domestic performance. However, this additional entry was not necessary for this season since the title holders (Feyenoord) qualified for European competitions through their domestic performance.
For the 2002–03 UEFA Cup, the associations were allocated places according to their 2001 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 1996–97 to 2000–01.[3] [4]
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations had additional teams participating in the UEFA Cup, as noted below:
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Since the title holders (Feyenoord) qualified for the Champions League through their domestic performance, the first round spot reserved for the title holders was vacated, and the following changes to the default allocation system were made:
| Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from previous round | Teams transferred from Champions League | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying round (82 teams) |
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| First round (96 teams) |
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| Second round (48 teams) |
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| Third round (32 teams) |
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A UEFA Cup place is vacated when a team qualifies for both the Champions League and the UEFA Cup, or qualifies for the UEFA Cup by more than one method. When a place is vacated, it is redistributed within the national association by the following rules:[2]
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).[6]
| Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying round | 21 June 2002 | 15 August 2002 | 29 August 2002 |
| First round | 30 August 2002 | 19 September 2002 | 3 October 2002 |
| Second round | 8 October 2002 | 31 October 2002 | 14 November 2002 |
| Third round | 15 November 2002 | 28 November 2002 | 12 December 2002 |
| Fourth round | 13 December 2002 | 20 February 2003 | 27 February 2003 |
| Quarter-finals | 13 March 2003 | 20 March 2003 | |
| Semi-finals | 21 March 2003 | 10 April 2003 | 24 April 2003 |
| Final | 21 May 2003 at Estadio Olímpico, Seville | ||
See main article: 2002–03 UEFA Cup qualifying round.
In the qualifying round, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2002 UEFA club coefficients,[7] and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
The draw was held on 21 June 2002 in Geneva, Switzerland. The first leg was played on 13 and 15 August, and the second leg was played on 29 August 2002.
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See main article: 2002–03 UEFA Cup first round.
As in the previous round, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams, based on their UEFA club coefficients, and drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
The draw was held on 30 August 2002 in Monaco. The first leg was played on 17 and 19 September, and the second leg was played on 1 and 3 October 2002.
|}1This match was played in front of an empty stadium as punishment to Partizan for earlier crowd trouble.
See main article: 2002–03 UEFA Cup second round. As in the previous rounds, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams, based on their UEFA club coefficients, and drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
The draw was held on 8 October 2002 in Nyon, Switzerland. The first leg was played on 29 and 31 October, and the second leg was played on 7, 12 and 14 November 2002.
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See main article: 2002–03 UEFA Cup final phase.
In the final phase, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The mechanism of the draws for each round was as follows:
The draw was held on 15 November 2002 in Geneva, Switzerland.[8] The first leg was played on 26 and 28 November, and the second leg was played on 10 and 12 December 2002.
The draw for the fourth round and quarter-finals was held on 13 December 2002.[9] The first leg was played on 20 February, and the second leg was played on 27 February 2003.
The first leg was played on 13 March, and the second leg was played on 20 March 2003.
The draw for the semi-finals and final (to determine the "home" team for administrative purposes) was held on 21 March 2003. The first leg was played on 10 April, and the second leg was played on 24 April 2003.
See main article: 2003 UEFA Cup final.
| Rank | Name | Team | Goals | Minutes played | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Derlei | Porto | 12 | 1,159 | |
| 2 | Henrik Larsson | Celtic | 11 | 887 | |
| 3 | Maciej Żurawski | Wisła Kraków | 9 | 723 | |
| 4 | Nenad Jestrović | Anderlecht | 7 | 413 | |
| 5 | Mustafa Özkan | Denizlispor | 6 | 630 | |
| 6 | Stanko Svitlica | Legia Warsaw | 5 | 334 | |
| Jean-Claude Darcheville | Bordeaux | 460 | |||
| Imre Szabics | Sturm Graz | 532 | |||
| Alan Smith | Leeds United | 540 | |||
| Štěpán Vachoušek | Slavia Prague | 687 | |||
| Hélder Postiga | Porto | 736 | |||
| Julio Dely Valdés | Málaga | 822 | |||
| Source: [10] | |||||