The 1980–81 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 5–4 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 1968–69 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, which is considered an unofficial tournament by UEFA.
According to a UEFA decision in 1979, 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.[1]
A total of 64 teams from 31 UEFA member associations participate in the 1980–81 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 1980–81 UEFA Cup, the associations are allocated places according to their 1979 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 1974–75 to 1978–79.
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 5–1 on aggregate.
3–3 on aggregate; Kaiserslautern won on away goals.
Magdeburg won 5–3 on aggregate.
AZ Alkmaar won 10–0 on aggregate.
Vorwärts Frankfurt won 4–2 on aggregate.
Dynamo Dresden won 2–0 on aggregate.
Utrecht won 2–0 on aggregate.
FC Bohemians Praha won 4–3 on aggregate.
1–1 on aggregate; Levski Sofia won on away goals.
Eintracht Frankfurt won 3–1 on aggregate.
Sochaux won 3–2 on aggregate.
Twente won 5–3 on aggregate.
Beroe Stara Zagora won 3–1 on aggregate.
Porto won 1–0 on aggregate.
Grasshopper won 8–3 on aggregate.
Hamburg won 7–5 on aggregate.
St Mirren won 2–1 on aggregate.
Ipswich Town won 6–4 on aggregate.
Köln won 10–0 on aggregate.
Juventus won 6–4 on aggregate.
Lokeren won 2–1 on aggregate.
Saint-Étienne won 14–0 on aggregate.
Radnički Niš won 6–2 on aggregate.
1–1 on aggregate; Widzew Łódź won on away goals.
PSV Eindhoven won 3–2 on aggregate.
Torino won 4–3 on aggregate.
Dundee United won 7–2 on aggregate.
Barcelona won 3–0 on aggregate.
Standard Liège won 3–2 on aggregate.
Real Sociedad won 2–1 on aggregate.
Boavista won 2–1 on aggregate.
Stuttgart won 10–1 on aggregate.
Real Sociedad won 3–2 on aggregate.
Standard Liège won 4–2 on aggregate.
1. FC Köln won 4–1 on aggregate.
1–1 on aggregate; Lokeren won on away goals
Eintracht Frankfurt won 4–3 on aggregate.
Sochaux won 3–2 on aggregate.
1–1 on aggregate; Dynamo Dresden won on away goals
Grasshoppers won 3–2 on aggregate.
Ipswich Town won 3–2 on aggregate.
Radnički Niš won 3–1 on aggregate.
AZ Alkmaar won 6–1 on aggregate.
Hamburg won 3–2 on aggregate.
Saint-Étienne won 2–0 on aggregate.
Torino won 3–2 on aggregate.
Stuttgart won 7–2 on aggregate.
4–4 on aggregate; Widzew Łódź won 4–1 on penalties.
4–4 on aggregate; Sochaux won on away goals.
3–3 on aggregate; Grasshoppers won 4–3 on penalties.
Saint-Étienne won 6–0 on aggregate.
Ipswich Town won 5–1 on aggregate.
Lokeren won 3–2 on aggregate.
AZ won 7–2 on aggregate.
Standard Liège won 5–2 on aggregate.
Köln won 5–4 on aggregate.
Ipswich Town won 7–2 on aggregate.
AZ Alkmaar won 2–1 on aggregate.
Sochaux won 2–1 on aggregate.
Köln won 3–2 on aggregate.
AZ Alkmaar won 4–3 on aggregate.
Ipswich Town won 2–0 on aggregate.
Ipswich Town won 5–4 on aggregate.