UEFA Cup: First Arab team to face Magpies

MONACO (Reuters) -- Israel's Bnei Sakhnin, the first Arab side ever to play in European competition, were rewarded with a trip to English Premier League side Newcastle United in the UEFA Cup first round draw on Friday.

None of the club's representatives were on the Cote d'Azur to delight in their historic breakthrough, however, as their flight departure time after the qualifier with Partizani Tirana on Thursday meant they were unable to arrive before the draw.

Parma, UEFA Cup winners in 1995 and 1999, and Feyenoord, who won the competition in 1974, will take on Slovenia's Maribor and Odd Grenland of Norway respectively, while former European champions Benfica face Dukla Banska Bystrica of Slovakia as the seeding system prevented any major clashes.

Parma's Serie A rivals Lazio will meet Ukraine's Metalurg Donetsk, Real Zaragaoza face Czech side Sigma Olomouc and Rangers, who missed out on the Champions League after losing to CSKA Moscow in the third qualifying round, play Maritimo of Portugal.

Shelbourne of Ireland, who came close to becoming the first club to battle through from the first qualifying round of the Champions League to the competition proper before losing to Deportivo Coruna this week, were rewarded with a tie against Lille, who qualified for the UEFA Cup through the Intertoto Cup.

Millwall of the English second division, playing in Europe for the first time after reaching the FA Cup final last season, will face Ferencvaros of Hungary.

Millwall chairman Theo Paphitis said: "It is just great to be here and we are looking forward to going to Budapest, which is a beautiful city.

"Obviously, every match here is going to be a tough one. We have drawn the toughest non-seeded team in our part of the draw but we are looking forward to it enormously."

INTRIGUING MATCH

The most intriguing match of the 40 ties pits Newcastle, UEFA Cup semi-finalists last season, with Bnei Sakhnin, the first Arab side to qualify for Europe.

Sakhnin got through to the first round with a 6-1 aggregate win over Partizani Tirana on Thursday.

They won the Israeli Cup final last season and are based in the village of Ilut near Nazareth, Israel's largest Arab city with a population of about 70,000.

Their promotion of peace and co-operation has earned the respect of all Israelis and representatives of Israel's other clubs in the UEFA Cup, among them Maccabi Petah Tikva, were helping to make the arrangements with Newcastle on Sakhnin's behalf because of their absence.

Since UEFA have relaxed their ban on matches taking place in Israel the game will be played in Tel Aviv and Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd said he had no problems with that.

"In a way, it's like a qualifier for the Champions League as we must get through it to reach the group stage.

"It's important that we treat them with respect, take it very seriously and qualify. We have no problems in playing in Tel Aviv -- we will play wherever we have to, obviously, Tel Aviv, Nazareth or Cyprus."

The UEFA Cup has a new format this season with the 40 survivors from the first round advancing to a new group stage.

This comprises eight groups of five, with each club playing four matches -- two at home and two away.

The winners, runners-up and third-placed clubs from each group (24) advance to the last 32 where they are joined by the eight third-placed clubs from the UEFA Champions League.

At this point, the competition will revert to the usual knockout format before a one-off final at Sporting's Jose Alvalade stadium in Lisbon on May 18 next year.

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