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Author: naaba
Date: 02-04-2006, 16:40
| Gretna, a club from the third division in Scotland, will play the final of the Scottish Cup against Hearts.
But if Hearts go to Champions League next year, it means Gretna will play for sure UEFA Cup next season !
Is it the first time that a team from a so low national division play in European competition ?
Recently I know there were Milwall, Aachen, a team from Sweden. But they were all from second division. |
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Author: Michele
Date: 02-04-2006, 17:00
| Gretna currently plays in 2nd division in Scotland, the 3rd best league, but they are so far ahead of the pack that they will be promoted for sure. So when they play in Europe, they will be a 1st division team although they qualified as a 3rd league team.
I think Leixoes from Portugal achieved the same a few years ago, but hopefully some of the Portuguese in here can confirm that story. And Nimes from France also played European cup as a 3rd league team, I think. Other than these two, I can't remember any instances of 3rd league teams playing in European cups, but I really love when it happens. That's why I'm sorry that the rules will be changed from next season so only cup winners will play in Europe, not final losers losing to a team that qualifies for Champions League. |
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Author: Gauss
Date: 02-04-2006, 17:00
| Some lower division teams who played in UEFA-Cup can be found in this thread. |
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Author: ianmorrison
Date: 02-04-2006, 19:09
| If Hearts were to finish third in the league and qualify for the Uefa Cup this way, would Gretna still qualify for the Uefa Cup if they were to lose the cup final or would it be fourth place in the league that qualifies? |
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Author: Gauss
Date: 02-04-2006, 19:35
| The losing cup finalist qualifies for UEFA-Cup only if the cup winner is already qualified for Champions League.
So, no, it would be fourth place in league. |
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Author: kurt
Date: 02-04-2006, 20:17
| i think the rangers or going to be second, so gretna better win the cup |
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Author: badgerboy
Date: 03-04-2006, 15:11
| I hope not - about Rangers that is. Hearts are still playing well (see Scottish Cup Semi-Final result) and it would be good to see a "new face" in the CL - qualifying at least.
Will be a close fight though - only three points in it if Celtic beat Hearts in midweek.
Have had one fairly disturbing thought (especially if you are a Hearts fan). The fixture list for the last five matches in the SPL wont have been drawn up yet, as all six top half teams aren't yet known but I can see a scenario where a team in 4th (Hibs or Kilmarnock) are far enough ahead of the fifth placed team to guarantee they will finish 4th and have to play Rangers in one of the final fixtures. Isn't it then in their best interests for Rangers to finish second in the league so that the 4th placed team in Scotland gets a UEFA Cup spot? Hmmm... |
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Author: isidromv
Date: 03-04-2006, 15:25
| You are right.
It may happen that the only way of a team to qualify for UC is losing a match, instead of winning it. |
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Author: exile
Date: 03-04-2006, 18:02
| Though I normally hope for the teams with the best coeffs to qualify, I am making an exception here - I do hope Hearts hang on to 2nd place.
About time we had a new face in the CL for Scotland. In any case, Rangers should do reasonably well in the UC with the experience they gained this season.
I don't think Hearts will make it to the group stage of the CL, mind you. Best they can hope for is a QR3 tie with Fenerbahce, or FK Austria (who they have beaten in the past, mind you) or Liberec, they might have a 40% chance against these teams.
As for Gretna, wouldn't it be great for them to get through the qualifying rounds in the UC and play against a team like Roma,
A few years ago they were playing at level 8 in English football! |
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Author: MalcolmW
Date: 04-04-2006, 00:07
| Gretna is a small town (village) just over the border from England, north of Carlisle. It is renowned in England as a place where young couples could elope to in order to marry (under Scots law) without parental permission.
When Gretna played in England the last time they qualified to the FA Cup competition proper they lost in the first round to Bolton Wanderers (who went on to defeat Everton, Arsenal and Aston Villa in reaching the quarter-finals). It could just be that next season they reach UEFA Cup ... and play Bolton Wanderers! |
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Author: exile
Date: 04-04-2006, 23:08
| Gretna's population is 2,800. I wonder if there is any smaller town/village which has had a team in a European competition? |
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Author: TimJohnson
Date: 04-04-2006, 23:58
| TNS (Total Network Solutions)from Wales who of course played Liverpool this season are based in a village called Llansantffraid-ym-Mechain with a population of less than 1000 people |
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Author: Gauss
Date: 05-04-2006, 00:40
| My guess was Balzers (Liechtenstein) in CWC 1993/94. But Balzers appears to be somewhat bigger than Gretna. Their homepage says they have a population of 4368. |
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Author: Michele
Date: 05-04-2006, 00:43
| Does anyone know the size of Welsh town Carmarthen? They played in the UEFA cup this seasonand I think they come from a very small town, but whether it's smaller than TNS's hometown, I don't know. |
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Author: TimJohnson
Date: 05-04-2006, 08:58
| In 2001 Carmarthen itself had a population of around 13000. Would not have changed much since then |
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Author: badgerboy
Date: 05-04-2006, 14:24
| Don't know about Europe but the first ever World Cup winners only had an estimated population of 2762 in 1997. See here for population figures and herefor the story of their triumph. |
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