European Football Pool, UEFA's partner for the UEFA Intertoto Cup

Strong together for football: State Gaming Companies support the UEFA Intertoto Cup

The origins of the UEFA Intertoto Cup date back to 1961, when the first international summer tournament was played under the name "IFC - International Football Cup". A major reason for organising the IFC was to fill the summer gap during which the state pools companies had very few attractive matches to include on their coupons. From 1961 onwards, the IFC enabled national pools companies to run an uninterrupted annual programme with interesting fixtures all the way through. In 1995, the competition was taken over by UEFA and incorporated in its calendar under the name "UEFA Intertoto Cup".

The European Football Pool (EFP), the association of state lotteries and gaming companies, was and remains UEFA's partner, supporting the competition with substantial sponsorship money. With the three winners qualifying automatically for the UEFA Cup, the competition has become steadily more attractive in recent years.

Against the background of this long-standing, intensive partnership between football and European gaming companies, the following points should be mentioned:

• The state gaming companies that make up the EFP play a major part in financing the UEFA Intertoto Cup. Without their support, the competition would be unfeasible.
• A large proportion of the money received from the national lotteries and gaming companies is used, directly or indirectly, to support amateur and grassroots sport.
• The commercial bookmakers make no contribution to amateur and grassroots sport nor to football in general.
• The UEFA Intertoto Cup is an attractive international competition played in the otherwise empty months of June and July. It gives people who do the football pools an interesting selection of matches to bet on.
• The UEFA Intertoto Cup offers participating clubs and their supporters competitive matches in an international environment.
• By competing in the UEFA Intertoto Cup, clubs are able to generate revenue during the summer break and have a chance of qualifying for the UEFA Cup.
• The period without football is substantially shortened for the media. There are many opportunities for regional coverage and live TV broadcasts.
• Teams from smaller countries are able to compete on the international stage. In addition, clubs ranked below the top group are given the chance to take part in an official UEFA competition.

From the point of view of the European Football Pool (EFP), advertising for commercial bookmakers in connection with UEFA Intertoto Cup matches is counter-productive and should therefore be avoided.

Contact: Thomas Büchler-De La Cruz
Project Manager UIC
Phone: +41 61 284 11 11
tb@intertoto-cup.org
www.intertoto-cup.org


EFP, April 2003, TB