Bayern and Ajax given tough ties

FC Bayern München will take on CF Os Belenenses in their first UEFA Cup tie for a decade while AFC Ajax, another of the three clubs to have won all three major European club trophies, were paired with NK Dinamo Zagreb in Friday's first-round draw in Monaco.

Champions return
Bayern were last in this tournament in 1996/97 as holders, while Ajax and Dinamo are among 16 clubs who transferred from the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, all hoping to gain one of the 40 places on offer in the group stage. Tottenham Hotspur FC, who lifted the first UEFA Cup in 1971/72 and repeated the feat 12 years later, will play Cypriot qualifiers Anorthosis Famagusta FC. Of the other former winners, Galatasaray SK have been drawn against FC Sion and RSC Anderlecht will meet two-time UEFA Cup Winners' Cup finalists SK Rapid Wien.

Holders in draw
Ajax and Bayern's fellow former European champions Hamburger SV - one of nine survivors from the UEFA Intertoto Cup - and FK Crvena Zvezda will face PFC Litex Lovech and Groclin Grodzisk Wielkopolski respectively. The UEFA Cup winners for the last two seasons, Sevilla FC, were also in the draw due to the postponement of their UEFA Champions League third qualifying round second leg at AEK Athens FC due to the death of the Spanish side's midfielder Antonio Puerta. The losers of that tie will face 1993/94 runners-up FC Salzburg.

Road to final
The first-round ties are played on 20 September and 4 October. Five days after the second legs the draw will be held for the group stage, the fixture dates for which are 25 October, 8 November, 29 November, 5 December and 19/20 December. The top three from each of the eight groups will be joined by the eight third-placed teams in the UEFA Champions League for the Round of 32 in February, with the eventual aim a place in the final at England's City of Manchester Stadium on 14 May.