CITY have been handed a major boost in their quest to make significant progress in next season's UEFA Cup.

The Blues will be ranked above FA Cup winners Portsmouth and seeded all the way through to the group stage.

That should ensure the Fair Play League's nominee a smooth passage through the two congested qualifying rounds and even the first round proper when the likes of Everton, Portsmouth and Spurs enter the fray.

Despite only one appearance in a European competition in more than a quarter of a century, City have a high enough UEFA co-efficient - the complicated mathematical formula on which seedings are based - to be considered one of the top sides in the early ranking.

When they kick off in the Northern Section in the third week of July, City will be graded the number one side which should help them overcome the potential problem of playing their home leg in Yorkshire as Eastlands is put back together after a summer concert from American band Bon Jovi. It seems certain that City's latest Fair Play league adventure, following the 2003 escapade under Kevin Keegan that ended at the third hurdle at the hands of Polish side KS Groclin- Dyskobolia, will kick-off at the Galpharm Stadium in Huddersfield where the Giants are playing Super League.

In all there are 73 teams alongside City in the first qualifying round which is split, for ease of travelling and on economic grounds, into three sections, Northern, Central-East and Southern-Mediterranean.

Draw

When the draw is made in Nyon on June 27, the Blues now know that they will face a team from Lithuania, Estonia, Iceland, Luxembourg, Faroe Islands, the Republic of Ireland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

The draw throws up the possibility of a repeat of five years ago when City's first foray back into European competition saw them play Total Network Solutions from Wales. Now renamed the The New Saints they are one of the 14 teams in the opposite half of the draw. So, too, are Cork City, St Patrick's Athletic, Glentoran, and Cliftonville as well as Welsh side Bangor City.

The others that City could face are now confirmed as Flora Tallin and TVMK Tallin from Estonia, Akranes from Iceland, EB Streymour or B36 Torshavn from the Faro Islands, Vetra Vilnius from Lithuania and finally Racing FC from Luxembourg or that country's recently crowned cup winners CS Grevenmacher.

Should City, as expected, leap over the first hurdle they then join the likes of CSKA Moscow, Besiktas, AEK Athens and Scotland's Queen of the South in the second qualifying round.

Again that round is split into three sections with the Blues current co-efficient of 30.996 making them the top ranked of the 22 sides in the North group ahead of Germans Hertha BSC.

They can be thankful, though, that they are not in the Southern region second qualifying round that features the likes of Besiktas, Levski Sofia and AEK Athens who are all in possession of a higher co-efficient that the Blues.

When it comes to the first round proper, there will be 80 teams still left in the competition half of whom will go out before the group stage.

AC Milan are easily the top rated team by UEFA followed by Sevilla, Valencia, Benfica, CSKA Moscow, Spurs, Hamburg and Ajax, but if all goes to plan City will be seeded in the top 30 below Everton, though above Pompey and will not have to face another English side.

Once the 80 teams have been halved they are drawn into the eight groups from which 24 will qualify for the knockout stage where they will be joined by eight sides eliminated from the Champions League at the group level.

Planning for next season's UEFA Cup final is well advanced with the decider destined for the Sukru Saracoghu Stadium the home of Turkish side Fenerbahce on May 20, 2009.

A total of 122 clubs will start the competition which is set for some streamlining next season.

How far do you think City will get in the UEFA Cup? Have your say.