This was already explained in a different thread, but no damage in repeating it. The best teams from the previous season in their national leagues go in the CL. The top three leagues in UEFA’s ranking get 2 direct places and two places in the preliminary for the CL. As you go down the UEFA rankings countries get less places. The next best placed teams in the national leagues go in the UEFA cup. Number of places again depends on the position in the UEFA rankigs. The winners of the national cups( comparable to the Open cup in US) also go in the UEFA cup. England,Scotland and France have another cup(league cup) only for the teams from the four top divisions. The winners also go into the UEFA cup. Those teams who finish in the highest position outside the UEFA cup places have the chance to go into the summer tournament called the UEFA Intertoto cup. A lot of countries didn’t participate this summer because they thought that the reward was not worth tiring their players in the summer. But there were some great success stories from the Intertoto, like Bordeaux reaching the final in 96. Three teams that survive in this knock out competition earn the right to play in UEFA cup. If this wasn’t complicated enough for you, there is more. The teams that lose in the 3. and final round of CL preliminaries also go in the UEFA cup. And then the teams that finish 3. in the CL group stage join the UEFA cup in the 3. round.
LOL! Some gamespotters we've got here. Basically, "UEFA" is the governing body of European football. "UEFA Cup" is one of the continental tournaments that the governing body organises, which runs on elimination principle. The qualification for this tournament is as explained above. "Champions League" is another UEFA tournament, which involves the most superior teams of the season. Definitely the league title winners of the season, mostly the runners-up from some countries which occupy higher places in UEFA rankings, and occasionally teams that took the third and fourth places in their domestic leagues (such as Italian, Spanish, German and sometimes English teams, as these countries usually have very high rankings due to their club teams' past successes in the continental arena). Some teams go directly into the group stages, depending on their club rankings and their countries' overall rankings at club level, the others have to pass a three-stage preliminary qualification before joining the Champions League group stages. Again, some teams start at the very bottom, some join in the 2nd qualification stage and some only play one qualification match. Although they are the winners of their own leagues, some teams of some countries can't even make it to Champions League at all, as their country ranking is not enough for them to go directly into group stages, and they also lose against other teams in preliminary qualification stages prior to group stages (ie. Bulgaria). At the end of both continental tournaments the winners of Champions League and UEFA Cup play the top continental final called the "Super Cup".
I would like to thank all you for taking the time to explain this to me. I understand most of it. This one of the reasons I enjoy European football is that is so different than any US sport.
You could always go to www.uefa.com too. They'll have EVERYTHING there. the history, how it started, all the winners, the evolution of the tournements etc, etc. it's got to be said that it's one of the best footey sites around. Too bad they don't have a forum. HMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmm............come to think of it.............I think i'll e-mail that very idea to them......
And here is the direct link to regulations of UEFA tournaments, all in pdf format: http://www.uefa.com/uefa/MediaServices/Regulations/index.html