Today I will write about the way the draw for the 8th round of the Israeli Cup is held. This may not be interesting for non-Israelis but I feel that someone must write these things.

As you know the 8th round of the Israeli Cup (Gvia HaMedina) will be held on Saturday January 17, 1998. This is the round that the 16 teams from the 1st Division (leumit) enter the cup. Since there are 16 winners in the 7th round, each 1st division team is drawn against a lower division opponet. This means that there is little chance for the smaller teams to make any good progress in the cup. It also causes the cup to be very boring. Last year only one team from the 1st division lost (Ironi Rishon Lezion to Hapoel Ashkelon), and that was to the best team in the 2nd division (artzit). In 95-96 6 teams from the 1st division lost but one lost on penalties, one in overtime and none of the big teams lost, unlike in the English FA Cup. In 94-95 only 2 teams from the lower divisions progressed to the 9th round (1/8 finals). At least this year, home advantage was promised to the team from the 5th (and lowest) division against the giants from the 1st division. I hope that the heads of the IFA (Israel Football Association) will think more about fair play than money and will let the smaller teams a chance to make real progress in the cup.

Today, I will write about one of the things that bothers me the most in European Soccer. It is UEFA's total care for money and not for sporting fairness. I have much more to say that this article, but that will be in a later column.

As you know, on Sunday will be the Euro 2000 qualifying draw. The format will be exactly the same as the World Cup '98 qualifiers. There will be 5 groups of 5 teams and 4 groups of 6 teams. I do not have a problem with the format of qualification or the seeding format. My problem is with the fact that England, Germany, Spain and Italy are automatically given a 5 team group.

Why did UEFA do this? Because those countries' clubs are the most active in Europe and UEFA gave them a break so they won't have "fixture congestion". That's what UEFA says. The real reason however, is to give these countries and easier route to the Finals. Also, these countries have the most power (financially) in Europe, and UEFA will do anything to make them happy. Unfortunately, in the last few years, UEFA is giving more and more advantages to the "Big Countries" (the "Champions" League, for example) just so they can get more TV contracts and more money.

Maybe it won't be long until UEFA will hand-pick the teams in the "Champions'" League and in the European Championships. Let's hope that the smaller countries start protesting. Or maybe, UEFA doesn't care, as long as they're rich.