Does anyone know about the dates and the format of the Intertoto Cup at the end of this season? I suppose Euro 2008 might delay it a bit. Being a Villa fan, this is of vital importance to me!

Perhaps those nice www.calcioitalia.co.uk peeps could help out, and tell us which Serie A teams may be present?

I don't think that the dates have been sorted out yet - Everton and Man City (and possibly Villa?) have expressed their intention to apply for it, though.

Format is for 50 teams to take part.

First round is between 28 teams from the lowest ranked nations; the 14 best out of this lot then go into the second round into which 14 teams from the associations ranked between 9 and 22 in the UEFA rankings join in.

At the end of the second round, the 14 winners from that round go into the Third round, where they're joined by the sides from the top eight associations. Villa would go in at this stage.  All the above is complicated if one national association doesn't send a team, since that opens up another slot for another nation.

After the Third round, the top 11 sides go into the UEFA cup 2nd qualifying round.

The Intertoto will end with the next competition, as a result of the changes to the CL (22 teams into the group stages, 10 from qualifying) and the UEFA Cup qualification system that kick in from next year.

There is a section on the InterTwoBob Cup on the UEFA site:

http://www.uefa.com/competitions/intertotocup/index.html

Not been updated for this year yet.

Also worth pointing out (in a season where only one UEFA Cup place going to high-finishing Prem teams due to two unusual cup winners) about the UEFA Cup place due to the Fair Play league.

The Premiership is currently top of the European fair play league table, and if it finishes there, then the team that is top of the Premiership's fair play league will get a guaranteed UEFA Cup place.

http://www.premierleague.com/page/FairPlayTable/0,,12306,00.html

With the top five (probably) having already qualified for Europe, it looks like Manchester City will be in with a shout. Although we could be represented in Europe by Wigan, Reading or Fulham..

Admittedly this doesn't really affect Villa.

Looking at that table - ten years ago would anyone have ever believed that the team with the 'best behaved manager and officials' record would ever be the one managed by one Roy Maurice Keane, Esq?

I'm looking forward to Keane's next literary opus The Gentleman's Guide to Football Etiquette...

I suspect that Reading and Fulham (now they have Hodgson) might do OK in the opening skirmishes of the UEFA cup, despite their poor form this year.