Blackburn Rovers are one of 124 teams who will contest this season's UEFA Cup.

The majority of the sides in the hat have qualified either by winning their domestic cup competition (like Rovers) or by virtue of the fact they have finished in the top handful of places in their domestic league.

In addition, three first round places are also on offer to the 'winners' of the UEFA Intertoto Cup, as well as to the winners of the 2001/02 UEFA Cup -- should they have failed to qualify for the UEFA Champions League.

Three further sides (including Ipswich Town) have also benefited from the award of a 'Fair Play' spot which will see them enter the competition at the qualifying round stage.

Rovers are among a group of 39 clubs, which also features European Super-powers like Lazio, Parma, Porto, Paris St Germain, and Deportivo, who will enter the competition at the first round stage.

The rest, such as Ipswich, Aberdeen and Hapoel Tel Aviv, must first compete in a qualfying round, the draw for which took place in Geneva on Friday June 21.

Those matches, which will be contested over two legs, are set to take place on August 15 and 29.

Then, once the winners of those ties are known, they will enter the draw for the first round proper, at which point UEFA will decide upon seedings with a view to keeping the more-fancied sides apart in the early rounds.

That first round draw will take place at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on Friday August 30 -- some 24 hours after the draw for the UEFA Champions League first group stage.

UEFA Cup first-round matches will then be played on September 19 and October 3 respectively, with the second-round draw following at UEFA's Nyon headquarters on Tuesday, 8 October 2002.

If Rovers were to progress through those early rounds then the action will start to hot-up in December when the draw for both the fourth round and quarter finals is scheduled for the 13th.

After that, the semi-final draw will be made on Friday, March 21, with the final itself set to take place on May 21 at the Olimpico Stadium in Seville.

Provisional list of UEFA Cup entrants:

CLUBS participating in the UEFA Cup Qualifying Round (games set to take place on August 15 and 29)

Ipswich Town (Eng), Hapoel Tel-Aviv (Isr), FC K'benhavn (Den), Servette FC (Sui), NK Varteks (Cro), TS Wisla Krakuw (Pol), FC Crvena Zvezda (Yug), SK Sigma Olomouc (Cze), IFK Gothenborg (Swe), KS Amica Wronki (Pol), Maccabi Tel-Aviv (Isr), FC Zenit St Petersburg (Rus), PFC CSKA Sofia (Bul), PFC Litex Lovech (Bul), FK Viktoria Zizkov (Cze), Leixies SC (Por), SK Brann (Nor), HNK Hajduk Split (Cro), Aberdeen (Sco), Livingston (Sco), FC Metalurh Zaporizhzhya (Ukr), R Excelsior Mouscron (Bel), Stabek IF (Nor).

FC Kornten (Aut), AlK Solna (Swe), FC Lugano (Sui), HJK Helsinki (Fin), FC Rapid Bucuresti (Rom), Ferencv'rosi TC (Hun), NK Primorje (Slo), aKM P'chov (Svk), KP Polonia Warszawa (Pol), Odense BK (Den), FC Midtjylland (Den), DjurgArdens IF FF (Swe), FK Sartid (Yug), Ijpesti TE (Hun), FK VTJ KOBA Senec (Svk), Anorthosis Famagusta FC (Cyp), FC National Bucuresti (Rom), FC Dinamo Tbilisi (Geo), NK Gorica (Slo), AEL Limassol (Cyp), FHK Liepajas Metalurgs (Lat), Myllykosken Pallo-47 (Fin), FK Ventspils (Lat), FC Zimbru Chisinau (Mol), FC Lokomotiv Tbilisi (Geo).

FC Nistru Otaci (Mol), Fylkir (Isl), OBV VestmannEyjar (Isl), Birkirkara FC (Mlt), FC Gomel (Bls), FC Dinamo Minsk (Bls), FK Suduva (Lit), FC Atlantas (Lit), Dundalk (Irl), Sharmock Rovers (Irl), FC Pobeda (Mkd), FC Belasica GC (Mkd), Sliema Wanderers (Mlt), Bangor City (Wal), TNS Llansantfraid (Wal), FC Levadia Tallinn (Est), TVMK Tallinn (Est), FC Spartak Yerevan (Arm), FC Avartnots AAL (Arm), FC Sarajevo (Bhz), NK airoki Brijeg (Bhz), Linfield (Nir).

Glentoran FC (Nir), Go G'tu (Far), KO Klaksvlk (Far), SK Tirana (Alb), KS Partizani (Alb), FC Vaduz (Lie), FC Avenir Beggen (Lux), CS Grevenmacher (Lux), FC Encamp (And), SP Domagnano (Smr), Kairat Almaty (Khz), FK Atyrau (Khz).

TEAMS who will enter the competition at the first round stage: (which begins week commencing September 16)

SS Lazio (Ita), Parma AC (Ita), Chelsea (Eng), Leeds United (Eng), RC Celta de Vigo (Esp), FC Porto (Por), FC Girondins de Bordeaux (Fra), Panathinaikos FC (Gre), Deportivo Alaves (Esp), Hertha BSC Berlin (Ger), Paris Saint-Germain (Fra), Real Betis Balompie (Esp), SK Slavia Praha (Cze), FC Schalke 04 (Ger), SV Werder Bremen (Ger), Rangers (Sco), FC PAOK Thessaloniki (Gre), RSC Anderlecht (Bel), NK Dinamo Zagreb (Cro).

SBV Vitesse (Hol), AC Chievo Verona (Ita), Grasshopper Club (Sui), Blackburn Rovers (Eng), SC Heerenveen (Hol), Besiktas JK (Tur), Iraklis FC (Gre), FC Lorient (Fra), FC Utrecht (Hol), Kocaelispor (Tur), Xanthi FC (Gre), Viking FK (Nor), MKE Ankarag (Tur), CSKA Moscow (Rus), Denizlispor (Tur), FC Metalurh Donetsk (Ukr), FC Austria Wien (Aut) Plus three teams from the UEFA Intertoto Cup.

The seedings will be determined once all first round participants are known.