UEFA Champions League draw nears

Draws for the first two qualifying rounds of the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League will be held at 12.00CET on Tuesday with Rangers FC set for an early return to European action.

Arduous season
Beaten by FC Zenit St. Petersburg in the UEFA Cup final and pipped to the Scottish title by Celtic FC less than two months ago, Walter Smith's side are already gearing up for another mammoth season as they prepare for action in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League. They will learn their fate, along with the 28 sides competing in the first qualifying round and the 13 others who will join the competition in the second qualifying round, after the draw takes place at UEFA Headquarters in Nyon.

Special treatment
The clubs in the first qualifying round have been divided into seeded and unseeded bowls in line with their club rankings for the draw. A ball will be taken from each bowl and placed in a large empty bowl in the middle, where they will be shuffled. The first team drawn will play its first match at home, against the second team drawn. However, given that both NK Dinamo Zagreb and FC Artmedia Petržalka have high enough club coefficients to be seeded in the second qualifying round, they will receive special treatment in the initial draw.

Important dates
Dinamo Zagreb will be the first side drawn for match 1 with the winner of their first qualifying round game becoming one of the seeded sides in the second qualifying round. Artmedia will then be drawn in match 2 with the winner of that game also seeded for the next round. The remaining games, all scheduled for 15/16 and 22/23 July, will be drawn in the conventional style. After the first round selections are concluded, a similar draw will decide the pairings for the second qualifying round games which will be played on 29/30 July and 5/6 August. This season's final will be played at Rome's Stadio Olimpico on 27 May 2009.