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, Seville, on 21 May 2003. Porto won 3–2 after silver goal extra time and became the first Portuguese team to win the competition.
Feyenoord could not defend their title as they automatically qualified for the 2002–03 UEFA Champions League and were also eliminated from all European competitions after finishing bottom of their group.
Association team allocation
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: Associations 1–6 each had three teams qualified; Associations 7–8 each had four teams qualified; Associations 9–15 each had two teams qualified; Associations 16–21 each had three teams qualified; Associations 22–49 (except Liechtenstein) each had two teams qualified; Associations 50–51 each had one team qualified; Liechtenstein had one team qualified (as it organises only a domestic cup and no domestic league); The top three associations of the 2001–02 UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking each gained an additional berth; Moreover, 24 teams eliminated from the 2002–03 UEFA Champions League were transferred to the UEFA Cup. 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.
Association ranking
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: – Additional berth via Fair Play ranking (Norway, England, Czech Republic) – Additional teams transferred from the Champions League – Additional teams qualified from the Intertoto Cup
Distribution
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: The domestic cup winners of associations 17 (Switzerland) and 18 (Croatia) were promoted from the qualifying round to the first round.