2006–07 UEFA Cup

The 2006–07 UEFA Cup was the 36th edition of the UEFA Cup, Europe's second-tier club football tournament. On 16 May 2007, at Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Sevilla won their second consecutive UEFA Cup, defeating Espanyol 3–1 on penalties after the match finished 2–2 after extra time. Sevilla became the second side to win the competition for two consecutive seasons, following the hiatus of the original record holder Real Madrid achieved in 1985 and 1986.
Walter Pandiani of Espanyol was the top goals scorer of this UEFA Cup edition with 11 goals.

Association team allocation

A total of 155 teams from 52 UEFA associations competed for the 2006–07 UEFA Cup. Associations were allocated places according to their 2005 UEFA league coefficient, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2000–01 to 2004–05.
Below is the qualification scheme for the 2006–07 UEFA Cup:

Associations 1–6, 16–21 each have three teams qualify
Associations 7 and 8 each have four teams qualify
Associations 9–15, 22–39, 41-50 each have two teams qualify
Associations 40, 51 and 52 each have one team qualify
The top three associations of the 2005–06 UEFA Fair Play ranking each gain an additional berth
Eleven winning teams from the 2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup
24 teams from the 2006–07 UEFA Champions League

Association ranking

;Notes

: Additional berth via UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking
: Additional berth via 2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup
: Additional teams transferred from the 2006–07 UEFA Champions League

Distribution

The title holder would have been given an additional entry if they did not qualify for the 2006–07 UEFA Champions League or UEFA Cup through domestic performance; however, this additional entry was not necessary as Sevilla, winners of the 2005–06 UEFA Cup, qualified for the UEFA Cup through domestic performance. This means that the following changes to the default allocation system were made to compensate for the vacant title holder spot in the group stage:

The first UEFA Cup qualifying entrant of association 14 gained direct access to the 1st round – Superfund.
The domestic cup winners of associations 19 and 20 are moved from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.

	Teams entering in this round	Teams advancing from previous round	Teams transferred from Champions League
First qualifying round	2 domestic league champions from associations 51 and 52 31 domestic league runners-up from associations 19–50 4 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 18–21 30 domestic cup winning teams from associations 21–50 3 teams which qualified via Fair Play rankings
Second qualifying round	6 domestic cup winners from associations 15–20 3 domestic league runners-up from associations 16–18 9 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 9–17 11 Intertoto Cup winners	35 winners from the first qualifying round
First round	14 domestic cup winners from associations 1–14 2 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 7 and 8 5 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 4–8 8 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 1–8 3 domestic league sixth-placed teams from associations 1–3	32 winners from the second qualifying round	16 losers from 2006–07 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round
Group stage		40 winners from the play-off round
Round 3		8 group winners from the group stage 8 group runners-up from the group stage 8 third-placed teams from the group stage	8 third-placed teams from the 2006–07 UEFA Champions League group stage

Teams

The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:

TH: Title holders
CW: Cup winners
CR: Cup runners-up
LC: League Cup winners
Nth: League position
PO: End-of-season European competition play-offs
IC: Intertoto Cup
FP: Fair play
CL: Relegated from the Champions League
* GS: Third-placed teams from the group stage
* Q3: Losers from the third qualifying round

;Notes

Round and draw dates

The schedule of the competition was as follows.

Early issues

Italian match-fixing scandal

The 2006 Serie A scandal resulted in major changes to the clubs that originally qualified in Italy. Originally, Roma took the cup winners' place as losing finalists in the 2006 Coppa Italia, as the winners, Internazionale finished in the top four in the league and qualified for the Champions League. The other two UEFA Cup places initially went to Lazio and Chievo.
Lazio, however, as well as the remaining three Champions League qualifiers, were formally indicted on 22 June on charges relating to the scandal.
On 14 July, all four of the indicated clubs were penalised by an Italian court and the Italian Football Federation. Results of the FIGC appeal were announced on 25 July. The impact on the UEFA Cup was:

Lazio were barred from European competition.
Roma and Chievo were promoted to the Champions League.
Palermo, Livorno and Parma were granted Italy's places in the UEFA Cup.

Greek Football Federation

FIFA suspended the Hellenic Football Federation from all international competitions on 3 July 2006 because of "political interference in sport" after the Greek government passed a law, giving it control of the sports authorities in Greece. After the law was amended to address FIFA's objections, FIFA reinstated the HFF on 12 July. The Greek government in response, decided to withdraw all of its funding to the Hellenic Football Federation.

Group stage

The top three teams of each group qualified for the next round. Based on paragraph 4.06 in the UEFA regulations for the current season, if two or more teams are equal on points on completion of all the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings:

superior goal difference from all group matches played;
higher number of goals scored in all group matches played;
higher number of goals scored away in all group matches played;
higher number of wins;
higher number of away wins;
higher number of coefficient points accumulated by the club in question, as well as its association, over the previous five seasons.