The qualifying round of the 2002–03 UEFA Cup was contested from 13 to 29 August 2002. A total of 82 teams participated in this round, which decided 41 of the 96 places in the first round.
Contents
Format
In the qualifying round, each tie was played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs advanced to the next round. If the aggregate score was level, the away goals rule was applied, i.e., the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs advanced. If away goals were also equal, then thirty minutes of extra time were played, divided into two fifteen-minute halves. The away goals rule was again applied after extra time, i.e., if there were goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score was still level, the visiting team advanced by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals were scored during extra time, the tie was decided by penalty shoot-out.
Teams
A total of 82 teams from 44 national associations were involved in the qualifying round, including three teams that qualified via the Fair Play ranking (FP).
Below are the participating teams, sorted by their 2002 UEFA club coefficient (in parentheses).
Seeding
The draw was held on 21 June 2002 in Geneva. Before the draw, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams, based on their UEFA club coefficients at the beginning of the season. For convenience of the draw and to avoid pairing of teams from the same association, the teams were further divided into 10 groups (nine groups of eight teams and one group of ten teams), each containing an equal number of seeded and unseeded teams. In the draw, a seeded team from each group was paired with an unseeded team from the same group. The first team to be drawn played the first leg at home.
Matches
The first leg matches were played on 13 and 15 August, and the second leg matches were played on 29 August 2002.