UEFA CUP: Blackburn chief executive John Williams declared Rovers' UEFA Cup second round draw against Celtic yesterday as "absolutely fantastic".

The Premiership side were pitted against the Scottish champions in a second-round game which is already being billed as the 'Battle of Britain'.

Adding to the tie is the fact that Rovers are managed by former Rangers boss Graeme Souness - and that ex-Rovers striker Chris Sutton is now at Celtic Park.

And Williams said: "It is an absolutely fantastic draw, especially with all the connections between the clubs. It is obviously going to be built up as the big British European game and it should create a lot of interest.

"There is no travelling abroad so that is good for administration and good for the fans. It couldn't be a better draw."

Souness, who initiated a decade of dominance for Rangers in Scottish football, will return to Celtic Park for the first time since resigning as Ibrox manager in 1991.

Celtic's wing-back Jackie McNamara said the Souness connection would add spice to an already intriguing tie. "It won't be just Celtic and Blackburn either, the whole of Britain will be looking forward to it," he said.

Celtic's general director Ronni Hawthorne said: "It's an extremely tough draw, but at the same time a great derby fixture to play Blackburn. We haven't been lucky, but it should be a great match."

Leeds United might have to wait until the end of the week to discover when and where they will play the Israeli club Hapoel Tel-Aviv but the Premiership team's manager Terry Venables believes there is one place the game should definitely not be played and that is in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

Hapoel, who beat Chelsea in last season's competition, are not allowed to play games in Israel because of the uncertain political situation in the region and have been playing their home games at Levski Sofia's ground.

But Venables said: "We know from Blackburn officials that they were very disturbed by the violence of some of the CSKA Sofia fans, so that is a venue we would prefer to avoid.

"Obviously UEFA will have to ratify the venue but surely it would make sense to avoid Sofia until a full review into crowd-control problems has been undertaken."

Leeds will play the first leg at Elland Road but the Israelis must decide where to stage the second leg. Sofia play their second leg against Sturm Graz on November 14th when Leeds are scheduled to play Hapoel.

Hapoel can suggest an alternative venue, propose switching the legs or ask UEFA to bring the home leg forward to Tuesday, November 12th, 48 hours before the scheduled kick-off. "Tel-Aviv have until Friday to propose a venue," said a UEFA spokesman.

The Ipswich manager George Burley, whose team face Slovan Liberec, believes his team will benefit from a prolonged UEFA Cup run.

"We enjoyed our time in Europe last season it was a great experience."

Burley added: "They beat Dinamo Tbilisi in the last round and the Czech Republic are a good footballing nation. It's a tricky tie for for us. It will be very tough."

When asked whether another good run in Europe will hinder their promotion push, Burley said: "It's a difficult one. The number of games we play can make it more difficult for the league programme, but we are not going to throw away European games."

Fulham, conquerors of Hajduk Split, were drawn against another Croatian side, Dinamo Zagreb.

The assistant manager Christian Damiano said: "We will come across the same problems with Zagreb, so we will need to have the same attitude."

- Guardian Service