The UEFA Cup began in 1971 with Tottenham Hotspur FC being crowned the first champion. The 2009 final in Istanbul will be the last UEFA Cup final as the competition's name will change to the UEFA Europa League. Italian clubs have taken a national best nine titles, thanks to a big run in the 1990s.
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
Before the UEFA Cup was formed there was the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, sprouted by the idea from Swissman Ernst Thommen, Italian Ottorino Barrasi and future FIFA president Stanley Rous of England. Founded on April 18, 1955, the Fairs Cup was a tournament for representative sides from European cities regularly holding trade fairs. Lasting three years, the tournament changed format to become a club competition though the teams still had to come from cities staging trade fairs.
Switch To UEFA Cup
The tournament switched its name to the UEFA Cup in 1971 as UEFA now ran the competition and it had nothing to do with trade fairs.
Tottenham Hotspur First Winner, Northern European Domination
The first winner crowned after the 1971-72 season was English club Tottenham Hotspur FC. The early years of the UEFA Cup were dominated by northern European clubs. Between 1971 and 1984, Juventus in 1977 was the only team from southern Europe to take the crown with clubs from England, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden taking home the hardware.
First Repeat Champions
Spanish giants Real Madrid FC finally broke through the northern European man-handle and captured the 1985 UEFA Cup crown. And Real defended the title in 1986 to become the first repeat champions.
Italian Run
Italy eventually took over the competition when SSC Napoli won the 1989 title. That started an 11-season stretch until 1999 in which Serie A clubs captured eight UEFA Cup crowns, including three trophies for FC Internazionale Milano. Galatasaray AS opened the new millennium by taking the 2000 crown as Turkey's first European club championship.
Liverpool Third Three-Time Winners
Liverpool FC grabbed the 2001 crown for their third UEFA Cup trophy following 1973 and 1976. The English giants became the third club to win three UEFA Cup titles after FC Internazionale Milano (1991, 1994, 1998) and Juventus (1977, 1990, 1993).
CSKA Moskva Grab First Russian Title
The first Russian team to grab an UEFA Cup was PFC CSKA Moskva in 2005 and FC Zenit St. Petersburg captured title number two for Russia in 2008.
Second Repeat
Between the two CSKA and Zenit titles, Sevilla FC collected back-to-back championships in 2006 and 2007 - following Real Madrid CF as the only other team to repeat their UEFA Cup crown.
Italy All-Time Winners
The eight titles in 11 years gave Italy the boost they needed to become the best nation in UEFA Cup crowns with nine. Germany and England are knotted for second place with six trophies a piece, though Werder Bremen face Shakhtar Donetsk and could capture Germany's seventh crown. Spanish teams have won the UEFA Cup five times and Dutch four times.
