UEFA Cup 2002–03

2002–03 UEFA Cup

The Estadio Olímpico de Sevilla hosted the final.
Tournament details
Dates	13–29 August 2002 (qualifying) 17 September 2002 – 21 May 2003 (competition proper)
Teams	96+8 (competition proper) 121+24 (total) (from 51 associations)
Final positions
Champions	Porto (1st title)
Runners-up	Celtic
Tournament statistics
Matches played	205
Goals scored	576 (2.81 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Derlei (12 goals)
← 2001–02 2003–04 →

The 2002–03 UEFA Cup was the 32nd edition of the UEFA Cup, the second-tier European club football tournament organised by UEFA. The final was played between Portuguese side Porto and Scottish side Celtic, at the Estadio Olímpico de Sevilla in Seville, Spain, on 21 May 2003. Porto won 3–2 through a silver goal in extra time and became the first Portuguese team to win the competition.

A total of 145 teams from 51 UEFA member associations participated in the 2002–03 UEFA Cup. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:

The winners of the 2001–02 UEFA Cup were given an additional entry as title holders if they did not qualify for the 2002–03 UEFA Champions League or UEFA Cup through their domestic performance. However, this additional entry was not necessary for this season since the title holders (Feyenoord) qualified for European competitions through their domestic performance.

For the 2002–03 UEFA Cup, the associations were allocated places according to their 2001 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 1996–97 to 2000–01.

Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations had additional teams participating in the UEFA Cup, as noted below:

Since the title holders (Feyenoord) qualified for the Champions League through their domestic performance, the first round spot reserved for the title holders was vacated, and the following changes to the default allocation system were made:

A UEFA Cup place is vacated when a team qualifies for both the Champions League and the UEFA Cup, or qualifies for the UEFA Cup by more than one method. When a place is vacated, it is redistributed within the national association by the following rules: