Initially, the tournament ended with a single champion, who received the Intertoto Cup.

Thommen, who had set up football betting pools in Switzerland in 1932, had a major interest in having purposeful matches played in the summer break.

Initially the Cup had a group stage, which led to knock-out matches culminating in a final.

By 1967, it had become difficult to organize the games,[5] and so the knock-out rounds and the final were scrapped, leaving the tournament without a single winner.

By 1995, UEFA had reconsidered their opinion, took official control of the tournament and changed its format.

In particular, following its 1995 relaunch, clubs in England were sceptical about the competition; after initially being offered three places in the cup, all English top division teams rejected the chance to take part.

"[7] In following years, UEFA made it possible for nations to forfeit Intertoto places.

[5] In December 2007, following the election of new UEFA president Michel Platini, it was announced that the Intertoto Cup would be abolished as of 2009.

The UEFA Europa Conference League was introduced in 2021 as a third-tier European tournament.

Listed are each year's three teams (two in 1995) that won the final matches, qualifying them for the UEFA Cup.

The outright winners (determined by the best performance in the UEFA Cup) are marked in bold.

The clubs which progressed furthest in the UEFA Cup were awarded with a trophy (plaque).