FROM Barcelona to Prague and from Milan to Munich, all soccer eyes will be keenly focussed on tonight's UEFA Cup quarter final, first round ties. Even though the strength of the UEFA Cup is underlined by the fact that five previous European Champions Cup winners Barcelona, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Nottingham Forest and PSV Eindhoven are involved, the on field action and overall results may become secondary considerations.

Tonight's ties are the first to be played since the historic European Court of Justice "Bosman" ruling of last December, which effectively outlawed (at least within the European Union) both the existing transfer system and restrictions on the number of foreign players to be used by clubs both in their domestic leagues and in European club competition.

Until now, of course, all UEFA run cup competitions have applied a "three plus two" ruling which limited sides to three "foreign players plus two "assimilated" players. In the interests of sporting justice, however, all the 24 European clubs still involved in UEFA's three competitions agreed last January to stick to the now outlawed three plus two tradition, arguing that the competitions should finish with the same rules applying as when they began.

Now that the first post Bosman UEFA competitions are about to be played, an obvious question presents itself will all 24 clubs stick to this gentleman's agreement? Or will one or two of Europe's bigger clubs, in desperate need of a good result and staffed with more than three foreigners, decide to field as many foreigners as they like, secure in the knowledge that they face no sanctions from UEFA?

This question seems to have already crossed the mind of the Slavia Prague coach, Frantisek Cipro. His side, currently leading the Czech Republic league, face Italian side AS Roma in Prague tonight and Cipro has been telling reporters that he believes Roma will break the agreement by fielding four foreigners.

Perhaps Cipro is indulging in a little bit of gamesmanship, attempting to upset his Italian opponents. Perhaps, he really does believes that Roma will break the agreement.

Cipro's reasoning is logical. With Brazilian defender Aldair and Swedish midfielder Jonas Thern automatic first choice selections, Roma coach Carlo Mazzone will have to drop one of his two talented Latin American strikers, Uruguayan Daniel Fonseca or Argentinian Abel Balbo.

Given the quality of the above mentioned four, any coach would be tempted to play them all. Mazzone, however, dismissed the idea yesterday, telling reporters "I don't accept this sort of thing. We're serious people and we'll respect the agreement. We'll play three foreigners and the only one certain to play at this stage is Thern."

Watch this space. In the meantime, some fascinating European action is on the cards. The Slavia Prague Roma tie is probably the least interesting of the four UEFA ties which also see Barcelona at home to Eindhoven, Bayern Munich at home to Nottingham Forest and AC Milan at home to Bordeaux.

Undoubtedly the side most in form are runaway Italian league leaders AC Milan who underlined their well being with an easy 4-0 drubbing of Vicenza on Saturday.

Ironically, Milan are one club unlikely to field even three foreigners since Croat Zvonimir Boban is out with flu and Liberian wonder man George Weah is suspended. Despite that, Milan must be the only good bet to make it through to the semi finals, notwithstanding these words of professional caution last weekend from their star schemer Roberto Baggio "Bordeaux are probably building their whole season on the UEFA Cup and for that reason, we'll have to be careful. Bordeaux might be like the Fiorentina side I played in years ago, when we went badly in the league yet got to the UEFA Cup final."

In tomorrow night's Champions Cup, most attention will be concentrated on two ties holders Ajax Amsterdam away to Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid at home to Juventus. Ajax have had a surprisingly difficult time recently, being knocked off the top of the Dutch league by Eindhoven only last Sunday.

In recent months, too, Ajax have lost both winger Marc Overmars and striker Martijn Reuser, both out for the rest of the season with serious, injuries. Worse still, another important Ajax player, Finnish striker Jari Litmanen, has so badly lost form that he has taken a break in Finland, while Patrick Kluivert, Edgar Davids and Michael Reiziger are all in moderate form, partly because of recent car accidents.

Real Madrid versus Juventus is certainly the most glamorous tie of the week, a clash between the most successful Italian and Spanish club sides of the post war era. The fact that both clubs now appear out of the running in their league championships only adds to the fascination.

Both warmed up with 5-0 wins on Saturday against bottom of table sides, Padova and Salamanca. A good game is in prospect. In the meantime, keep a close, count on foreigners fielded.