The 1980âÂÂ81 UEFA Cup was the 10th edition of the UEFA Cup, the third-tier club football competition organised by UEFA. The final was played over two legs at Portman Road, Ipswich, England, and at the Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was won by Ipswich Town of England, who defeated AZ Alkmaar of the Netherlands by an aggregate result of 5âÂÂ4 to claim their only UEFA Cup title.
This was the only European title for Ipswich Town, who never made it past a quarterfinal round before, and would never go beyond the third round in future competitions. As of 2024, this has been the only appearance in a major European final for both teams, which was also the case with the finalists of the European Cup Winners' Cup that season. Both are the only current instances in a major UEFA tournament; it has also happened with the finalists of the 1968âÂÂ69 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, which is considered an unofficial tournament by UEFA.
The UEFA ranking was introduced to serve as the method to determine the number of competing teams per country, and the Fairs Cup entry criteria was finally abolished.
A total of 64 teams from 31 UEFA member associations participate in the 1980âÂÂ81 UEFA Cup. For the first time, an association ranking based on the newly introduced UEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:
For the 1980âÂÂ81 UEFA Cup, the associations are allocated places according to their 1979 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 1974âÂÂ75 to 1978âÂÂ79.
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for competition:
Notes
The schedule of the competition was as follows. Matches were scheduled for Wednesdays, though some matches in the first two rounds exceptionally took place on Tuesdays.
Zbrojovka Brno won 5âÂÂ1 on aggregate.
3âÂÂ3 on aggregate; Kaiserslautern won on away goals.
Magdeburg won 5âÂÂ3 on aggregate.
AZ Alkmaar won 10âÂÂ0 on aggregate.
Vorwärts Frankfurt won 4âÂÂ2 on aggregate.
Dynamo Dresden won 2âÂÂ0 on aggregate.
Utrecht won 2âÂÂ0 on aggregate.
FC Bohemians Praha won 4âÂÂ3 on aggregate.
1âÂÂ1 on aggregate; Levski Sofia won on away goals.
Eintracht Frankfurt won 3âÂÂ1 on aggregate.
Sochaux won 3âÂÂ2 on aggregate.
Twente won 5âÂÂ3 on aggregate.
Beroe Stara Zagora won 3âÂÂ1 on aggregate.
Porto won 1âÂÂ0 on aggregate.
Grasshopper won 8âÂÂ3 on aggregate.
Hamburg won 7âÂÂ5 on aggregate.
St Mirren won 2âÂÂ1 on aggregate.
Ipswich Town won 6âÂÂ4 on aggregate.
Köln won 10âÂÂ0 on aggregate.
Juventus won 6âÂÂ4 on aggregate.
Lokeren won 2âÂÂ1 on aggregate.
Saint-ÃÂtienne won 14âÂÂ0 on aggregate.
RadniÃÂki Nià ¡ won 6âÂÂ2 on aggregate.
1âÂÂ1 on aggregate; Widzew à Âódà º won on away goals.
PSV Eindhoven won 3âÂÂ2 on aggregate.
Torino won 4âÂÂ3 on aggregate.
Dundee United won 7âÂÂ2 on aggregate.
Barcelona won 3âÂÂ0 on aggregate.
Standard Liège won 3âÂÂ2 on aggregate.
Real Sociedad won 2âÂÂ1 on aggregate.
Boavista won 2âÂÂ1 on aggregate.
Stuttgart won 10âÂÂ1 on aggregate.
Real Sociedad won 3âÂÂ2 on aggregate.
Standard Liège won 4âÂÂ2 on aggregate.
1. FC Köln won 4âÂÂ1 on aggregate.
1âÂÂ1 on aggregate; Lokeren won on away goals
Eintracht Frankfurt won 4âÂÂ3 on aggregate.
Sochaux won 3âÂÂ2 on aggregate.
1âÂÂ1 on aggregate; Dynamo Dresden won on away goals
Grasshoppers won 3âÂÂ2 on aggregate.
Ipswich Town won 3âÂÂ2 on aggregate.
RadniÃÂki Nià ¡ won 3âÂÂ1 on aggregate.
AZ Alkmaar won 6âÂÂ1 on aggregate.
Hamburg won 3âÂÂ2 on aggregate.
Saint-ÃÂtienne won 2âÂÂ0 on aggregate.
Torino won 3âÂÂ2 on aggregate.
Stuttgart won 7âÂÂ2 on aggregate.
4âÂÂ4 on aggregate; Widzew à Âódà º won 4âÂÂ1 on penalties.
4âÂÂ4 on aggregate; Sochaux won on away goals.
3âÂÂ3 on aggregate; Grasshoppers won 4âÂÂ3 on penalties.
Saint-ÃÂtienne won 6âÂÂ0 on aggregate.
Ipswich Town won 5âÂÂ1 on aggregate.
Lokeren won 3âÂÂ2 on aggregate.
AZ won 7âÂÂ2 on aggregate.
Standard Liège won 5âÂÂ2 on aggregate.
Köln won 5âÂÂ4 on aggregate.
Ipswich Town won 7âÂÂ2 on aggregate.
AZ Alkmaar won 2âÂÂ1 on aggregate.
Sochaux won 2âÂÂ1 on aggregate.
Köln won 3âÂÂ2 on aggregate.
AZ Alkmaar won 4âÂÂ3 on aggregate.
Ipswich Town won 2âÂÂ0 on aggregate.
Ipswich Town won 5âÂÂ4 on aggregate.