The 1972–73 UEFA Cup was the second season of the UEFA Cup, the third-tier club football competition organised by UEFA. The final was played over two legs at Anfield, Liverpool, England, and at Bökelbergstadion, Mönchengladbach, West Germany. It was won by Liverpool of England, who defeated West German team Borussia Mönchengladbach by an aggregate result of 3–2 to claim their first UEFA Cup title.

Quick Facts Tournament details, Dates ...

1972–73 UEFA Cup

The first leg of the final was played at Anfield in Liverpool.
Tournament details
Dates	13 September 1972 – 23 May 1973
Teams	63 (from 29[1] associations)
Final positions
Champions	Liverpool (1st title)
Runners-up	Borussia Mönchengladbach
Tournament statistics
Matches played	124
Goals scored	405 (3.27 per match)
Attendance	1,947,828 (15,708 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Jupp Heynckes (Borussia Mönchengladbach) Jan Jeuring (Twente) 12 goals each
← 1971–72 1973–74 →

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This was the sixth consecutive title won by an English team between the UEFA Cup and the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, as well as the first time Liverpool won a European competition.

A total of 63 teams from 29 UEFA member associations participate in the 1972–73 UEFA Cup. A new allocation scheme was devised by UEFA, which featured fixed slots for all but two competing associations, and lasted for eight seasons:

• 3 associations have four teams qualify.
• 3 associations have three teams qualify.
• 18 associations have two teams qualify.
• 7 associations have one team qualify.

Spain was the only association with a fixed allocation of three teams; the other two associations would rotate on a yearly basis among all countries that were allocated two teams.

Albania was not included in this scheme, as it had only entered the competition once without playing and would not have a UEFA Cup competitor until 1981. Northern Ireland withdrew from the competition, so another association was granted an extra third birth for this season. The three chosen associations were France, Yugoslavia and Portugal.

More information Four teams, Three teams ...

Associations in the 1972–73 UEFA Cup

Four teams England Italy West Germany Three teams Spain Portugal Yugoslavia France

Two teams Hungary Scotland Netherlands Poland East Germany Czechoslovakia Belgium Bulgaria Soviet Union Romania Turkey Austria Greece Switzerland Denmark Sweden Norway

One team Republic of Ireland Luxembourg Malta Iceland Cyprus

Did not compete Wales[Note WAL] Northern Ireland[Note NIR] Albania[Note ALB] Finland[Note FIN]

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Teams

The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for competition:

• TH: Title holders
• CW: Cup winners
• CR: Cup runners-up
• LC: League Cup winners
• 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc.: League position
• P-W: End-of-season European competition play-offs winners

Qualified teams for 1972–73 UEFA Cup

Tottenham Hotspur (TH)	Liverpool (3rd)	Manchester City (4th)	Stoke City (LC)
Torino (3rd)	Cagliari (4th)	Inter Milan (5th)	Fiorentina (6th)
Borussia Mönchengladbach (3rd)	Köln (4th)	Eintracht Frankfurt (5th)	Kaiserslautern (CR)[Note GER]
Valencia (2nd)	Barcelona (3rd)	Las Palmas (5th)	Vitória de Setúbal (2nd)
Barreiro (4th)	Porto (5th)	Red Star Belgrade (2nd)	OFK Beograd (3rd)
Vojvodina (4th)	Nîmes (2nd)	Sochaux (3rd)	Angers (4th)
Budapest Honvéd (2nd)	Salgótarján (4th)	Aberdeen (2nd)	Partick Thistle (LC)
Feyenoord (2nd)	Twente (3rd)	Zagłębie Sosnowiec (2nd)	Ruch Chorzów (4th)
BFC Dynamo (2nd)	Dynamo Dresden (3rd)	Slovan Bratislava (2nd)	Dukla Prague (3rd)
Club Brugge (2nd)	Racing White (4th)	Levski Sofia (2nd)	Beroe Stara Zagora (3rd)
Ararat Yerevan (2nd)	Dinamo Tbilisi (3rd)	UTA Arad (2nd)	Universitatea Cluj (3rd)
Eskişehirspor (2nd)	Fenerbahçe (3rd)	Austria Wien (2nd)	VÖEST Linz (3rd)
Olympiacos (2nd)	AEK Athens (3rd)	Grasshoppers (3rd)	Lausanne-Sport (4th)
Hvidovre (2nd)	Frem (3rd)	Åtvidabergs (2nd)	Norrköping (3rd)
Lyn (2nd)	Viking (3rd)	Bohemians (3rd)	HIFK Helsinki (2nd)[Note FIN]
Rumelange (2nd)	Valletta (3rd)	ÍBV (2nd)	EPA Larnaca (2nd)

Notes

1. ^
   West Germany: The fourth UEFA Cup spot for West Germany was not awarded to the fourth best team not qualified for the European Cup or the European Cup Winners' Cup, which was Hertha BSC, as it was common practice. Instead, this place was awarded to Kaiserslautern, who had been runners-up in the 1971–72 DFB-Pokal.
2. ^
   Finland: Official UEFA records show that HJK Helsinki was the Finnish representative in the UEFA Cup, despite finishing 4th in the 1971 Mestaruussarja, and later withdrawing from its first round match-up.^[2] However, records from the RSSSF, contemporary papers and the Football Association of Finland show that HIFK Helsinki was indeed the team that withdrew from the tournament after finishing 2nd in the Mestaruussarja.^[3][4][5] While no official reason for the withdrawal has been provided, HIFK ran into financial problems during the 1972 season and was fighting to avoid relegation at the time of the UEFA Cup first round. The team was finally relegated on 24 September 1972, halfway through what should've been its European participation.^[6]

The schedule of the competition was as follows. Matches were scheduled for Wednesdays, though some matches took place on Tuesdays.