The 2001–02 UEFA Cup was won by Feyenoord at their home ground in the final against Borussia Dortmund.

Liverpool could not defend their title as they automatically qualified for the 2001–02 UEFA Champions League and also reached the knockout stage.

Associations are allocated places according to their 2000 UEFA league coefficient.

When a place is vacated, it is redistributed within the national association by the following rules: The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round: The schedule of the competition was as follows.

[4][3][5] Most of the postponed fixtures were rescheduled for 20 September,[6] with all matches observing a moment of silence.