Maltese trio among clubs in today’s UEFA draw

Maltese champions Valletta and Luxembourg’s F91 Dudelange are the two seeded teams in the draw for the first qualifying round of the 2011/12 Champions League, to be made this afternoon at UEFA’s Nyon headquarters.

With only four clubs in the hat for the opening round of Europe’s premier competition, Valletta will face either Andorra’s Santa Coloma, who were knocked out by Birkirkara last season, or San Marino’s SP Tre Fiori.

One of last season’s Champions League group stage participants, FK Partizan, and fellow alumni APOEL, SK Sturm Graz, FC BATE Borisov, Rosenborg BK, Maccabi Haifa FC, HJK Helsinki, NK Maribor and NK Dinamo Zagreb will all have an interest when the first and second qualifying round draws are conducted today.

Those nine sides and 1979 Champions Cup runners-up Malmo are among 32 teams awarded byes to the second stage. There they will be joined by the two winners of the first qualifying round matches, on June 28/29 and July 5/6.

In the second qualifying round draw that immediately follows, the teams entering at that stage will be split into groups, containing 17 seeded and 15 unseeded clubs (the two first qualifying round winners also go into the latter pot), who will then be matched.

The ties take place on July 12/13 and 19/20 with the winners already knowing their opponents when they join 13 sides in the third qualifying round draw on July 12.

A total of 76 teams have entered the 2011/12 edition, 22 starting in the group stage. The tournament concludes with the final at the Allianz Arena in Munich on May 19.

In the 2011/12 Europa League, a total 105 teams enter today’s draws for the first and second qualifying rounds.

Floriana, runners-up in the Premier League and FA Trophy winners last season, and Birkirkara are Malta’s representatives in the Europa League. As winners of the domestic cup competition, the Greens enter the fray in the second qualifying round.

For the first qualifying round, equal numbers of seeded and unseeded teams will be allocated to five groups of 10 in accordance with rankings established at the beginning of the season. Birkirkara are one of the 25 seeded teams.

For each group, balls containing seeded teams will be placed in one bowl and unseeded teams in another. A ball from each will be placed in a large empty bowl in the middle, and the first team drawn will play its first match at home. Clubs from the same association cannot be drawn against each other.

The 80 teams involved in the second qualifying round are divided into eight groups of 10, each containing five seeded and five unseeded teams. The draw follows the same procedure as the first qualifying round, with the groupings to be confirmed after the draw for the first qualifying round.

The first qualifying round matches are on June 30 and July 7. The second qualifying round ties will be played on July 14 and 21.