The 1983–84 UEFA Cup was the 13th season of the UEFA Cup, the third-tier club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The final was played over two legs at the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium, Brussels, Belgium, and at White Hart Lane, London, England. Tottenham Hotspur of England defeated title holders Anderlecht of Belgium, on penalties, after the final finished 2–2 on aggregate, to win the competition for the second time.
A total of 64 teams from 31 UEFA member associations participated in the 1982–83 UEFA Cup, all entering from the first round over six knock-out rounds. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:
For the 1983–84 UEFA Cup, the associations are allocated places according to their 1982 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 1977–78 to 1981–82.
The labels in parentheses show how each team qualified for competition:
The schedule of the competition was as follows. Matches were scheduled for Wednesdays, though some matches exceptionally took place on Tuesdays or Sundays.
Inter Bratislava won 16–0 on aggregate.
Radnički Niš won 5–1 on aggregate.
Royal Antwerp won 8–3 on aggregate.
Budapest Honvéd won 3–2 on aggregate.
Lokomotive Leipzig won 7–2 on aggregate.
Sparta Rotterdam won 5–1 on aggregate.
Spartak Moscow won 7–0 on aggregate.
Verona won 4–2 on aggregate.
1–1 on aggregate; Hajduk Split won 3–1 on penalties.
Nottingham Forest won 3–0 on aggregate.
Baník Ostrava won 6–1 on aggregate.
PSV Eindhoven won 6–2 on aggregate.
Austria Memphis won 15–0 on aggregate.
PAOK won 5–2 on aggregate.
Werder Bremen won 3–2 on aggregate.
2–2 on aggregate; Widzew Łódź won on away goals.
Celtic won 5–1 on aggregate.
Sturm Graz won 2–1 on aggregate.
Levski Sofia won 2–1 on aggregate.
Bayern Munich won 11–0 on aggregate.
Groningen won 4–2 on aggregate.
Anderlecht won 4–1 on aggregate.
Laval won 1–0 on aggregate.
Carl Zeiss Jena won 3–0 on aggregate.
Lens won 3–2 on aggregate.
Feyenoord won 3–0 on aggregate.
Watford won 4–3 on aggregate.
Tottenham Hotspur won 14–0 on aggregate.
Internazionale won 2–1 on aggregate.
Aston Villa won 5–1 on aggregate.
Sparta Prague won 4–3 on aggregate.
Sporting CP won 4–3 on aggregate.
Sparta Prague won 3–1 on aggregate.
Hajduk Split won 5–3 on aggregate.
Anderlecht won 4–2 on aggregate.
Radnički Niš won 6–3 on aggregate.
Sparta Rotterdam won 4–3 on aggregate.
Watford won 4–2 on aggregate.
2–2 on aggregate; Sturm Graz won on away goals.
Austria Memphis won 5–3 on aggregate.
Lokomotive Leipzig won 2–1 on aggregate.
0–0 on aggregate; Bayern Munich won 9–8 on penalties.
Lens won 5–4 on aggregate.
Tottenham Hotspur won 6–2 on aggregate.
Internazionale won 5–3 on aggregate.
Spartak Moscow won 4–3 on aggregate.
Nottingham Forest won 3–1 on aggregate.
Celtic won 5–2 on aggregate.
Sturm Graz won 2–1 on aggregate.
Hajduk Split won 4–0 on aggregate.
Sparta Prague won 7–2 on aggregate.
Anderlecht won 2–1 on aggregate.
Austria Memphis won 3–2 on aggregate.
Nottingham Forest won 2–1 on aggregate.
Tottenham Hotspur won 2–1 on aggregate.
Spartak Moscow won 3–1 on aggregate.
Hajduk Split won 2–1 on aggregate.
Nottingham Forest won 2–1 on aggregate.
Tottenham Hotspur won 4–2 on aggregate.
Anderlecht won 4–3 on aggregate.
In 1997, it was revealed that the Anderlecht chairman Constant Vanden Stock had paid a £27,000 bribe to the referee Emilio Guruceta Muro in exchange for help fixing their semi-final second leg match versus Nottingham Forest.[1] During the match, Anderlecht were awarded a dubious penalty, and a last minute Nottingham Forest goal – that would have won them the tie on the away goals rule – was disallowed.[2] In 2016, it emerged that UEFA had known about the bribe since 1993 but had taken no action until the information was made public in 1997,[3] when UEFA suspended Anderlecht from the next European tournament for which they qualified.[1] On qualifying for the 1998–99 UEFA Cup, Anderlecht appealed the suspension in the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which overturned the ban on the grounds that it was made by UEFA's executive committee, which did not have the authority to issue the ban.[4]
The match featured an infamous incident that saw a Hajduk fan (later identified as Ante Baraba, a resident of Paljuv settlement within the Novigrad village) run onto the pitch before the start of the second half with a live rooster – in reference to Tottenham's club symbol, the cockerel – and, while standing at the centre circle, kill the animal by snapping its neck.[5][6] The contest took place as scheduled, however, as a result of the incident, Hajduk were fined CHF3,000 and ordered to play their next European tie at least 300 km away from their home stadium. That tie turned out to be their 1984–85 European Cup Winners' Cup first round match against Dynamo Moscow.
Anderlecht won 3–2 on aggregate.
2–2 on aggregate; Tottenham Hotspur won on away goals.
2–2 on aggregate; Tottenham Hotspur won 4–3 on penalties.