'Second-class' UEFA Cup set for rebrand to mirror Champions League

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The planned rebranding was revealed by Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the acting chairman of the new European Clubs Association, whose organisation was presented with the proposal on Monday.

New spin on old competition: Karl-Heinz Rummenigge

'The hope is that a refreshment of the name and brand can help achieve better results than we've seen in the UEFA Cup in the past,' Rummenigge later told a media conference at UEFA's Swiss headquarters.

'There has been a general impression that it has become a second-class competition and that we should get back to how it was ten or 15 years ago.'

A senior UEFA source confirmed that UEFA's executive committee would vote on the name change when it meets in Bordeaux in September.

He said the new name was meant to better reflect the new group stage system being used in the competition from the 2009-10 season, in a direct copy of UEFA's much more successful Champions League competition.

UEFA announced in December that it was revamping the UEFA Cup's format, dropping the unpopular five-team groups in which teams play each opponent just once either home or away in favour of a simpler home and away system.

From 2009 UEFA will also be marketing the competition centrally, in another lesson learned from the lucrative Champions League, and hopes that the new name will help distinguish it from the previous UEFA Cup format.