According to a UEFA press release, Barcelona have confirmed their intent to apply for a place in the 2003 UEFA Intertoto Cup "in an attempt to ensure they do not miss out on European football for the first time in their history." The release can be found here: http://www.uefa.com/competitions/IntertotoCup/News/Kind=1/newsId=56706.html The Intertoto Cup is UEFA’s summer competition and allows clubs which do not qualify for the Champions League or UEFA Cup to engage in continental competition. Three 2003/2004 UEFA Cup berths will be the final reward for the best of those 61 teams entering the summer competition. Spain, by virtue of being a top seed, will see their two tournament representatives enter starting in the 2nd-round. The match dates of those legs areas follows: Second round: 5/6 July (first legs) and 12/13 July (second legs) Third round: 19/20 July (first legs) and 26 July (second legs) Semi-finals: 30 July (first legs) and 6 August (second legs) Finals: 12 August (first legs) and 26 August (second legs) The doubleheader involving both the Revolution vs. DC United match and the Barcelona vs. Juventus match is scheduled for Sunday, July 27th, coming one day after the 2nd leg of the third round. Barcelona, featuring such players as Dani Garcia (Esp), Carles Puyol (Esp.), Patrick Kluivert (Ned.), Phillip Coco (Ned.), and Juan Roman Riquelme (Arg.) is currently positioned in 9th out of the 20 teams in Spain's La Liga. However, they are only three points clear of 17th place Alavés. In short, there's a likelihood, dependent on how Barcelona finish, that they could chose to bail out on the friendly at Gillette Stadium in favor of fighting for a place in Europe. The draw for the first three rounds of the tournament will be made in Nyon, Switzerland on Monday, 7 April 2003. FYI, The Magpie
barcelona has at least one other match scheduled over here (aug 3 v man u. in philly). do they have a third scheduled as well? one would have to think they'll bail if they have to go intertoto. what are the chances they can go split squad....relatively nil i'd think. i followed fulham this past summer. the competition is not that great in the early rounds...but their 2 matches straddle rounds 2 and 3. i think they're gone. btw...for those that aren't familiar with it, intertoto boils 61 teams down to 3 co-winners that move on into uefa cup.
Well, that probably wouldn't be enough considering that each participating team in the 2003 Inertoto Cup will earn $37,000 per round played through the first three, with those clubs making it through to the semi-finals and finals earning $29,430 per round there-after. Then factoring in the favorable odds that Barcelona can make it into Europe next season (and earning a percentage of the broadcast rights to the UEFA Cup)... ... sorry, Gillette would be no good pay day by comparison. The Magpie
Barca in the Intertoto. That just sounds so wrong! (but it's a great chance for some smaller teams to see them live). BTW, the later stages of the Intertoto are hard, and feature mid-table teams from the big 4. Those aren't easy wins by any stretch of the imagination.
Sorry. I knew I shoulda included a winking smilie. I assumed 25K (Real U.S. dollars, nudge) was chump change for Barca, like a few day's pay for a Kluivert. But thanks for the financial info.
Sorry, my sense for sarcasim isn't exactly fine-tuned yet... I'm still in pre-season form and need to work out the kinks ;-) The Magpie
well, sorta'. there wasn't much punch in the 3rd round this past intertoto (all the teams are "in" by this point) Intertoto 2002-2003 3rd Round i think barca v ashdod, synot, or krylya sovetov would be an unattractive gillette matchup. but hey! our old friend santa clara was in the 3rd round this past year. maybe barca could reassemble some bulldogs to play them in the "home" leg?
Aren't there signed pieces of paper called "contracts" lying about somewhere that should address the consequences if Barca were to try to pull such a thing?