Champions League qualifying

But while Mogren of Montenegro celebrate their victory over Hibernians of Malta in the first qualifying round last week, spare a thought for those famous European sides who are unlikely to grace the competition even in a qualifying tie, let alone the group stage.

I live in London and there's at least one good example right here. With Martin Jol at the helm, Tottenham Hotspur missed out on fourth spot in the Premier League (and a Champions League qualifying place) in the 2005/06 season by virtue of a defeat by local rivals West Ham United on the final day of the season.

Fans will always blame that on a virus that floored several first team players, but that's another story...

They finished fifth again the following season but weren't ever really in with a chance of coming fourth and since then they have reverted to their normal role of mid-table underachievers.

The future promises more of the same: too big to go down, too small to mix it with the big boys in the top four.

Tottenham's billionaire owner Joe Lewis has the money -- £2.5 billion according to Four Four two magazine's latest annual Rich List (which puts him fourth behind the owners of Manchester City, Queen's Park Rangers and Chelsea in British football) -- but not the inclination to lavish hundreds of millions on transfers every season to bring in the world's top players.

The club once snatched former England midfielder Paul Gascoigne from under the nose of Alex Ferguson's Manchester United but it is inconceivable that a player of his class would choose White Hart Lane over Old Trafford today.

Without big-name signings Tottenham are unlikely to ever break into the top four. Finishing sixth to 10th seems their best hope.

There are a lot of other clubs in the same boat, too -- not just in the Premier League but around Europe.  Sampdoria and Athletic Bilbao are examples in Italy and Spain. 

Playing in the Champions League itself probably still feels a long way away for Mogren, but for Tottenham and the like it's even further.

Twice UEFA Cup winners Tottenham Hotspur are most likely heading out of the competition after a 2-0 first-leg defeat at Shakhtar Donetsk in the first knockout round on Thursday.

The fact they fielded a 'B' team was not surprising. Manager Harry Redknapp had already stated several times that Premier League survival and the League Cup were his priorities. After the game Redknapp said: "I had a 17-year-old playing tonight and I will probably have four playing next week."
 
The reason they will play with an under-strength team in the return leg next Thursday is that it comes three days after a crunch league match at Hull City and three days before their League Cup final against Manchester United.

Spurs have already lost to the Old Trafford side in the FA Cup fourth round after selecting a weakened team so it will be a welcome change for their fans that the starting lineup for the Wembley final will be the strongest they can muster.
 
The irony is that it was their surprise victory over Chelsea in last year's League Cup final that got Spurs into the UEFA Cup in the first place. The delight that the supporters took in qualifying for a European campaign has been soured by the fact that it was not a priority to try to win the competition.

Fans spent their hard-earned money stumping up for tickets for the group stage matches only to find that the competition has almost turned into an irrelevance.
 
Of course, if Spurs were not struggling near the foot of the Premier League, cups would be more important but it is a sad indictment of the UEFA Cup's standing that a team with a proud European history have had to relegate the competition to an irritant.

There will be a 48-team group stage in the competition next season when it is renamed the Europa League. I doubt Harry will be relishing the prospect.

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PHOTO: Shakhtar Donetsk's Yevgen Seleznov scores against Tottenham Hotspur during their UEFA Cup match in Ukraine. Feb 19, 2009. REUTERS/Valery Belokryl

I am the proud holder of this record, which I set in the 1994-95 season. In The Guinness Book of Records it is called 'most peripatetic supporter'.

For the uninitiated 'peripatetic' means 'travelling about', which I certainly did a lot of when I watched a league match at 93 football grounds in record time.

My mark stands at 237 days and broke the record set in 1992 by Edward Wood of Derby by six days. Before that Michael Jones and Bob Wilson (not the former Arsenal goalkeeper!) held the record of 264 days, which they achieved in 1969.

Postponements due to bad weather and the rescheduling of fixtures brought about by the arrival of live football on Sky Sports helped my quest. Nevertheless, watching all those matches takes some doing in terms of planning. I travelled almost 20,000 miles starting at Carlisle in September and finishing at Everton in May.

The 93rd ground, by the way, belongs to Berwick Rangers who play in the Scottish league but whose ground is just over the border in England and so, according to Guinness, must be visited to break the record for league grounds in England and Wales.

As well as a train timetable, plenty of money, a dogged determination and endless patience, you must get each visit verified by a club official to qualify for the record.

I wrote a book about my adventures that season called Football Fanatic which was book of the week in The Independent and made it No. 4 on the sports books bestseller list.

It now ranks 1,204,306 on Amazon -- still in the top 2 million some 12 years after it was written!

The book recounts the high points of my trip -- such as meeting Juergen Klinsmann -- plus the low points, like a cold, rainy night in Rotherham when after 65 matches I almost could not bear to suffer another dreadful game.

I made it, and my journey remains a record, but come on -- somebody out there must want to break it...

Ken Ferris is a chief sub-editor on the Reuters sports desk in London

Chelsea's much maligned Ukraine striker lit up Monday night's FA Cup quarter-final replay against Tottenham Hotspur with a goal of sheer brilliance.

"What can you say if they score a great goal like Sheva's?," said Spurs manager Martin Jol after a bitter 2-1 defeat by their rivals from across London. "That's what he's there for."

Local pride was at stake when Tottenham met the champions at White Hart Lane on Monday, 40 years after the first all-London final.

Spurs ran out 2-1 winners to lift the trophy that day at Wembley but Chelsea have had the upper hand in recent years and visiting fans packed into the Park Lane end anticipating victory.

The Chelsea players, many wearing an odd combination of short sleeved shirts and woollen gloves, stroked the ball around with metronomic precision, their rhythm occasionally upset by Tottenham's harrying.

Goalless at halftime, the match came alive in the second half as the atmosphere built into a crescendo with attacks from both sides.

Then in a flash Shevchenko -- the 30 million pound man -- turned the ball on to his left foot near the right touchline and curled it majestically into the top corner.

"One of the goals of the season that is -- top drawer," said the radio commentator behind me in the overcrowded press box. "The Chelsea fans are in ecstasy."

A mass of leaping, hugging, shouting Blues fans were dancing with delight and singing: "Que Sera, Sera, whatever will be, will be, we're going to Wemberlee, Que Sera, Sera."

"A special goal from Andriy Shevchenko," said another radio analyst shivering in the cold night air. "It was always going to take something a bit special to decide this one," he added.

Seven minutes later Chelsea's Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba chested the ball down for Shaun Wright-Phillips to smash home a second goal for the visitors. Spurs hearts were broken.

Jol turned towards his bench and gave a wry smile. He knew class when he saw it -- even if it was wearing royal blue rather than white.

At the end, a delighted Mourinho ran on to the pitch with his arms outstretched to celebrate victory with his players while a frustrated Spurs fan took a swing at captain Frank Lampard.

The England midfielder ducked and, like most of Tottenham's efforts on the night, the fan missed.

"We don't want that," said Jol before adding, "You can understand the frustration."

Ken Ferris is a chief sub-editor on the sports desk