1984–85 UEFA Cup

The 1984–85 UEFA Cup was the 14th 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 Sóstói Stadion, Székesfehérvár, Hungary, and at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid, Spain. The competition was won by Real Madrid of Spain, who defeated Videoton of Hungary by an aggregate result of 3–1 to claim their first UEFA Cup title.

Real Madrid became the first Spanish side to win the UEFA Cup since its foundation in 1971. Three Spanish teams had won the predecessor tournament, the Inter-Cities Fairs' Cup, but UEFA does not recognise it as an official competition within its records. The last Spanish title at this level was achieved 18 years before, by long-time rivals Barcelona in 1966.

Association team allocation

A total of 64 teams from 31 UEFA member associations participated in the 1984–85 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:

Associations 1–3 each have four teams qualify.
Associations 4–8 each have three teams qualify.
Associations 9–21 each have two teams qualify.
Associations 22–33 each have one team qualify.

Association ranking

For the 1984–85 UEFA Cup, the associations are allocated places according to their 1983 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 1978–79 to 1982–83.

Wales: There was no national league in Wales before 1992 and the only competition organised by the Football Association of Wales was the Welsh Cup so Wales had just a single participant in European competitions, the winner (or best placed Welsh team as several English teams also competed) of the Welsh Cup which competed in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. Its virtual ranking is only an original research, because the UEFA country ranking was only used to allocate the UEFA Cup spots at time, so Wales was not included.

Albania: Until 1985, Albania frequently withdrew their allocated place in the UEFA Cup due to political reasons. 17 Nëntori would have qualified by league position. This additional place went to title holders Tottenham Hotspur, who hadn't qualified for European competition in England.

Teams

The labels in parentheses show how each team qualified for competition:

TH: Title holders
CW: Cup winners
CR: Cup runners-up
LC: League Cup winners
2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc.: League position
P-W: End-of-season European competition play-offs winners

Notes

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Bulgaria: At the end of the 1983-84 A Group season, Sliven qualified for the UEFA Cup by finishing 3rd in the standings, after the Bulgarian Football Union nullified the result of a previous loss due to Botev Vratsa fielding an ineligible player, awarding Sliven a 3-0 win by forfeit. In 2000, Spartak Varna appealed the result on the grounds that the team could have fought for the bronze medals if the decision had been made before the final matchday. The decision was overturned, and Sliven was credited with a 7th place finish in the 1984 standings.

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows. Matches were scheduled for Wednesdays, though some matches exceptionally took place on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

First round

First leg

12 September 1984