June start for Intertoto hopefuls

The draw for the 2003 UEFA Intertoto Cup was made today at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland.

Knockout matches
The competition will kick off on 21/22 June with the first 42 clubs, of which 17 will be seeded, facing each other in knockout matches on a home-and-away basis. The pairings for this round and the subsequent two stages have been decided on the basis of nationality as the participants will not be named until the 23 May deadline.

Seeded teams
The draw was conducted by Jean Fournet-Fayard, co-opted member of the UEFA Club Competitions Committee, and Michele Centenaro, the committee's senior manager. Also present was Thomas Büchler De La Cruz from the European Football Pool. The second round will be contested by the 21 first-round winners and a further eleven seeded sides. The 16 winners will then face the final eight seeded entrants in the third round.

UEFA Cup spots
The UEFA Intertoto Cup is designed to produce three 'winners', each of whom will gain a place in the first round of the 2003/04 UEFA Cup. The draw for the semi-final and final matches involving the 12 winners of the third-round matches will take place on 14 July.

Decided in August
The three UEFA Cup qualifiers will be known on 26 August when the second legs of the three finals are played. Fulham FC, VfB Stuttgart and Málaga CF, who reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup before losing to Boavista FC, advanced from this season's competition.