i have just looked at Team Talk and it states that NUFC will be able to enter the Inter Toto as some Italian team have dropped out!!

There are ties in July and it looks, according to them, that we will be in it? Can this be right? I bloody hope not.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Answers

Can I be the first to say this is a good thing. What's the difference between playing a few competitive games in the Intertoto or the likes of Gothenberg et al in a mini tournament?

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Straight into the third round, playing the winners of the second round tie between one Polish team and one Belgian team.

We may have no choice to enter or not if we are serious about bringing some top name players to the club.

Besides without Cort, Shearer, Dyer, Griffin and Lee, would we progress!!

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

It may be a good think if it doesn't knacker the first team before the season starts. How many games needed until we reach the final?

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Games like Exeter have shown that if you're going to get injured you're going to get injured no matter the opposition and type of game.

It has been shown that those teams that do enter struggle in the Premierhsip. Our aim should be to qualify for Europe by normal means next season and entering this cup may hinder that. I have mixed feelings about this.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Besides, anything that gets the Mackem's backs up has got to be a good thing....."Waaaay those Skooonk Gets are gerrin inta Yewrrup by the back door agaaaayn".

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Well of course, when they finally was coming to Sweden then of course we will play the Intertoto =[

Me = egoistic

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

play chopra, kerr, lee, Ameobi, Barton etc...

Bonvin, Lua etc...

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Teams that enter the Inter Toto struggle in the league because they are always mid-table sides. I will be delighted if the lads have to play some competetive games instead of going through the motions somewhere with the "stars" being wrapped in cotton wool and starting the season unfit. At least they will have played 180 minutes of proper football instead of a gentle stroll with a penalty shoot-out.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Newcastle have been handed a UEFA Cup lifeline after they were given a place in this summer's Intertoto Cup.

The Football Association were approached by UEFA after one of the Spanish entries withdrew from the competition, which offers UEFA Cup berths to the winners of its three finals.

'From the English clubs which expressed and interest, Newcastle were the next highest team in the Premier League table after Aston Villa, who had already been entered,' FA spokesman Adrian Bevington said. 'Newcastle accepted the invitation to play in the competition and will take their place in the third round which will take place on July 14/15 and July 21.'

Last month Bobby Robson's men missed out on a place in the UEFA Cup following the Fair Play League draw in Nyon, Switzerland.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

It certainly does not get my back up. I find the skunks' public international humiliation and disastrous start to the Premiership season (á lá West Ham) a very encouraging prospect.

You can always moan about injury crises when you get sucked into a relegation dogfight.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

I agree that we won't care if we get into Uefa but as long as it's only the second string that plays in this cup, it might not be too bad. Knowing BR, I suspect he'll play his strongest team. It is clear that without Euro football we are struggling to attract decent players.

The worry is that West Ham for example really struggled in the league after playing in the tournament.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

If I remember rightly West Ham didn't do too badly in the league after their intertwobob exploits. Come on Lurker admit it, you'll not be happy if we get through.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

West Ham struggled in the league after selling Rio.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

But we really struggled in the League and didn't have a sniff of Europe and got dumped out of the FA Cup at the first fence.

Liverpool played a record number of games and won three cups. Get the players fit for a change and they will have a great season. If this forces them to get fitter earlier instead of hitting the ground crawling when the season starts then so much the better.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

West Ham struggled cos they were crap.

They were gutted at only getting a point at SoL in their first away game, but we proved how even a very poor side could achieve the same later in the season.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

This is a good thing. We did really well while we were in Europe the season before last, largely cos we got some real momentum going. This year, we lost all momentum and I think that contributed to our poor season.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

play the nearly men, a bit of pre season 'prove yourself could really be a good thing. We could find out all about Bonvin, for instance. Harper could stake a bigger claim and Bassedas gets a chance to get in the groove and show us whats what. will push transfer talks a bit i reckon

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

We've accepted the invitation apparently - we ARE in the Intertoto cup. So we get an opportunity to rush those injured players back too early after all. Hurray!

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

we were destined to enter europe. remember...ALAVES got to the final via the intertoto so it can't be ALL bad

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

I can't believe anyone wants to protect our footballers from having to kick footballs. Great overpaid jessies need to get their bloody knees brown a sight more often in my opinion.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Ok, I do have holiday and trip to Sweden in July. For nothing it seems now ;) This rollercoaster is getting a bit too bouncy. So many twists and turns. Tis' pity it's all outside the field.

I think this InterToytoy could prepare our players better for the season. Recent pre-seasons have been bliddy awful.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

We appear to up against either Zaglebie Lubin (Poland) or Lokeren (Belgium).

If you can translate, then the Poles are at http://www.zaglebie.lubin.com/

But the Belgians (Flemmish they say) have an English version that tells you nowt useful, 'cept they are recently merged side (2000). Enjoy http://www.kscl.be/

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Depressed Dougal approach ..... Hey I don't want us to get to the Final and then get stuffed the way Alaves did

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

My choice not Clarkie`s for line of the week has got to go to Softie for his hitting the ground crawling, I disagreed with the States jolly last year, Gothenburg will be a great football occasion, its the 45 mins that bother me , I will go for the Desmond Tutu Cup now that we do not enter till next round, makes perfect sense , Dundee who with Bonetti and his Italian pals played some really great naive Keegan-esque football last year played a nondescript Yugo team at home last week and were held 0-0 , 20,000 expected at return. Play your first choice back 4 Bobby , any new signings , we are not signing squad players are we ? , a couple of decent results in meaningful games may just be the impetus we need and the timing could not be better.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

I just visited FC Jazz's homepage (Finnish team in Inter Toto) and they have won the first leg against FC Gloria Bistritan. But what hit me was that their next opponent will be some spanish team. Does this mean Newcastle could be coming to Finland next round?! It would sure beat the trip to Sweden. That is from my point of view.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

2nd leg still to play eh Jussi , better than the transfer crap talk, sorry folks , deein ma heed in

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

There seems to be some confusion as to which countries teams have pulled out, some say Italians and some say Spanish

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

So it seems buff. Just found the uefa's pages... i agree with what you say. Good competitive cup fixtures. It'll teach us how not to lose to weak teams.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

I agree this is a good thing.....I think we should view it as serious pre season matches rather than get caught up in the whole UEFA cup thing though....

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

My thoughts too Gav

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

ir wouldn't be my first choice on how to re enter European competitions but better some meaningful competitive games than so- called friendlies in which we seem to get an abundance of injuries. I think our main problem will be to field a strong enough team in the time available -- perhaps we should quickly reconsider the resigning of Gallacher.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

This is not only Europe by the back door or even the cat flap, it's by the crack where the putty's fallen off the window pane.

It would be great if it's Lokeren Belgium - we haven't organised our hols yet, so it would be perfect timing. I went to an Intertoto game in Holland (1 hour from Brussels for me) of Bradford v Waalwijk (NL) last summer for want of anything better to do one Sunday, and it was a good atmosphere.

Lokeren is half way between Gent and Antwerp, so only 45 minutes from Brussels and according to my colleague Domenico who follows Belgian football closely they are a good team.

Now how do we get tickets? For Bradford- Waalwijk I just bought one at the turnstile.

With this glamour match in prospect, players such as Zenden, etc will be queueing up to join us and no fears of Dyer leaving now.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

floridian, re. Gallagher that was my first thought. Month by month contract would be nice.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

What's Stephen Galss up to these days?

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Does the winner the only team that gets the UEAFA place or do both finalists get in?? How the article is worded is eluding to that teams just have to reach the final, bizzare!

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

There are effectively three finals!

Six teams go into the final stages with three winners gaining entry into the UEFA Cup.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

They have three places in the UEFA Cup for Intertoto winners. There are 3 Intertoto "Finals" in parallel and the winners of each get into the UEFA Cup.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

I'm gald we agreed on that Barry!

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Glad even!

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Great minds ...

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

They get three places, that's just great. With so many windows of opportunity we are bound to fail. Just wanted to get back to comfort zone of pessimisim before we all start slapping ourselves on the back and claiming that we'll win the whole thing.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Nice one Syme....back down to earth with a bang ;)) to be honest we should be viewing this as pre-season training ONLY.....forget the UEFA cup unless we get there....

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

http://www.intertoto-cup.org/

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

What a crap site...why on earth does it need a login for you to view the first round fixtures? what a crock....

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Another good thing (from a personal standpoint) is that if we get into UEFA then we will play our games on thursdays with our premier league games being played on Sundays which means loads of US tv coverage. Haha ya bastards. Think I'll go buy me a lottery ticket.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Only if Sky are showing us, Syme. Usually the matches rearranged to Sundays have a 3pm ko and aren't aired. More likely fewer opportunities for foreign telly coverage.

Still, I won't be complaining much IF we actually get through to that point. Let's get through preseason first. And if this helps us attract some better players, all the better! :-)

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Ahhhhhhh but.....he says still clinging to the measley straws left in his hand. Sky usually keeps its options open when it comes to their games on sundays, they schedule a few but more often than not they leave it till the last moment. I remember liverpool being on TV almost every bastard weekend. That's my story and I am sticking to it!!!

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

"This is not only Europe by the back door or even the cat flap"

What no pussy jokes then???

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Ya, same here in Sweden! UEFA-cup here we come!

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

We're not Liverpool.

Yet.

;-)

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Where is the Uefa Final played next season ? I know the CL final is at Hampden

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

With apologies to the author of the memorable phrase "Brown is the new Black" :-

The Inter Toto is the new CL.
:-)

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

why is it called the inter toto cup? who's toto and do you get a cup if you win.

when you repeat it in your head a few times "inter toto cup" sounds a bit silly.

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

If there are three finals, who gets the trophy?

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

Who really cares?

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

It was a suggestion from Dorothy in Kansas

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001

when you repeat it in your head a few times "inter toto cup" sounds a bit silly.

Not as silly as Champions League when most of the entrants are runners up and worse. :-)

The Inter Cities Fairs Cup. - Now that was a proper competition. :-)

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2001

'Toto' means 'football pools' in Dutch and German. The 'inter-toto' was dreamed up to give continental punters some football to bet on in the summer.

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2001