Newcastle United will avoid some of Europe's big names in this morning's Uefa Cup draw after being named among the competition's top seeds. The Magpies will not face holders Seville, Panathinaikos, Parma, Ajax, Bayer Leverkusen, Feyenoord or Auxerre. They will also avoid Blackburn Rovers and Tottenham Hotspur because clubs from the same country cannot be drawn together in the group stage of the competition. But there are still some illustrious names they could face in the shape of La Liga pair Celta Vigo and Espanyol and French side Paris-Saint Germain. They could also be drawn with Rangers because for Uefa purposes the Glasgow side are classed as Scottish, not British. While Seville have made an impressive start to the Spanish season, winning four of their first five matches, Celta and Espanyol have struggled. Both sides have won one and drawn one of their initial five league games. PSG, one of French football's traditional heavyweights, have also made a disappointing start to the new season. The Parisian club, whose star player is prolific Portuguese striker Pauletta, are currently 14th in the 20-team Ligue 1 with eight points from as many matches. There will be 40 teams in the draw, which takes place at noon today in Nyon, Switzerland (11am UK time). The clubs are divided into five pots of eight, with one team from each pot per group. Teams will play each other only once, with two matches at home and two away. The group stage runs from October 19 to December 14, with games played on Wednesday and Thursday nights. The three top teams in each group go through to the last 32, where they will be joined by the eight third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage. With three teams going through to the knockout stages, the Magpies should be hopeful of progressing irrespective of who they draw. Manager Glenn Roeder has repeatedly stated his determination not to waste the opportunity his team earned for themselves by qualifying for the Intertoto Cup with a last-day victory over Chelsea, then for the Uefa Cup by beating Estonian side FK Ventspils over two legs. United have not won a major European trophy since lifting the Fairs Cup in 1969. Newcastle owe their seeding to the recent performances of English teams in Europe and to their own exploits in the competitions. United were Uefa Cup semi- finalists in 2003-4 and quarter- finalists the following year. They have also appeared in the Champions League three times in the last nine years. England are second only to Spain in Uefa's club coefficient, which measures the performances of teams in various competitions. Fellow Premiership teams Blackburn and Tottenham fared less well in the seedings, however. Mark Hughes' side are in pot four, while Martin Jol's men are in pot five, leaving them open to an extremely tough draw. The reason Spurs are ranked below Blackburn, despite having finished above them in last season's Premiership, is that they have not played European football since the 1999-2000 campaign. Blackburn played in the Uefa Cup in 2002-03 and 2003-04. The bookmakers do not share Uefa's judgement. Despite a disappointing start to the new season Spurs are second favourites, whereas Newcastle are a best-priced 22-1 (Coral) - making them fifth favourites. --------------------------------------------------------- Uefa draw line-up POT 1
Seville (Spain)
Newcastle (England)
Panathinaikos (Greece)
Parma (Italy)
Ajax (Netherlands)
Bayer Leverkusen (Germany)
Feyenoord (Netherlands)
Auxerre (France) POT 2
Brugge (Belgium)
Basel (Switzerland)
Alkmaar (Netherlands)
Sparta Prague (Czech Republic)
Rangers (Scotland)
Celta Vigo (Spain)
Paris-SG (France)
RC Lens (France) POT 3
Besiktas (Turkey)
Palermo (Italy)
Espanyol (Spain)
Heerenveen (Netherlands)
Partizan Belgrade (Serbia)
Rapid Bucharest (Romania)
Wisla Krakow (Poland)
Slovan Liberec (Czech Republic) POT 4
Fenerbahçe (Turkey)
Hapoel Tel-Aviv (Israel)
Austria Vienna (Austria)
Osasuna (Spain)
Blackburn Rovers (England)
Grasshopper-Club Zürich (Switzerland)
Dinamo Bucharest (Romania)
Livorno (Italy) POT 5
Tottenham Hotspur (England)
Maccabi Haifa (Israel)
Sporting Braga (Portugal)
AS Nancy-Lorraine (France)
Eintracht Frankfurt (Germany)
Zulte Waregem (Belgium)
Mladá Boleslav (Czech Republic)
OB Odense (Denmark) Group Stage Dates October 19: Matchday 1
November 2: Matchday 2
November 23: Matchday 3
November 29 & 30: Matchday 4
December 13 & 14: Matchday 5. | 
