User:The C of E/Millwall

Millwall F.C. is an English association football club based in South Bermondsey, London. They were founded in 1885 and first joined The Football League in 1920. Their first and only season playing in a major European cup competition was in 2004 when they qualified for the 2004-05 UEFA Cup.

2004-05 UEFA Cup
Millwall qualified for their first UEFA competition by reaching the final of the 2003-04 FA Cup. As their opponents Manchester United had already qualified for the UEFA Champions League by virtue of their placing in the 2003-04 Premier League, it was guaranteed that Millwall would play in the UEFA Cup, despite losing the final 3-0. In the first round they were drawn against Hungarian side Ferencvárosi TC. Millwall drew the first leg 1-1 at home at The New Den with Dennis Wise scoring Millwall's first European goal. Prior to the second leg, there was violence between the two sets of supporters, likely owing to Millwall's reputation for football hooliganism. Two Millwall fans were stabbed in the violence. Millwall brought 3,000 fans to Budapest for the return leg however they lost 3-1 at Stadion Albert Flórián and went out 4-2 on aggregate. Fenrencvaros were later charged by UEFA for the violence and racist abuse during the second leg. There were reports that Millwall hooligans would be travelling up to Edinburgh when Ferencvaros were due to play Heart of Midlothian in later rounds however Millwall sent up their security expert and stated it was unlikely to happen due to the risk of being arrested and spending Christmas in a Scottish prison.

Future
Since then, Millwall have been playing below the Premier League. In 2013, Millwall reached the semi-finals of the 2012-13 FA Cup. As the other finalists Manchester City had already qualified for Europe, the winner of the semi-final would have entered the 2013-14 UEFA Europa League. However, Millwall lost 2-0 to Wigan Athletic at Wembley Stadium and changes to UEFA qualifying criteria later meant that runners-up of the FA Cup would no longer enter the UEFA Europa League if the winners had already qualified for Europe. Thus the only way Millwall can qualify for Europe again is either by winning the FA Cup or Football League Cup or through finishing in the European qualifying places in the Premier League.