UEFA Europa League

UEFA Europa League
Founded 1971 (1971)
(rebranded in 2009)
Region Europe (UEFA)
Number of teams 48 (group stage)
8 clubs join after Champions League group stage[1]
160 (total)
Qualifier for UEFA Super Cup
Related competitions UEFA Champions League
Current champions England Manchester United (1st title)
Most successful club(s) Spain Sevilla (5 titles)
Television broadcasters List of broadcasters
Website Official website
2017–18 UEFA Europa League

The UEFA Europa League is an annual football club competition organised by UEFA since 1971 for eligible European football clubs. Clubs qualify for the competition based on their performance in their national leagues and cup competitions.

Previously called the UEFA Cup, the competition has been known as the UEFA Europa League since the 2009–10 season,[2][3] following a change in format. For UEFA footballing records purposes, the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League are considered the same competition, with the change of name being simply a rebranding.[4]

In 1999, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was abolished and merged with the UEFA Cup.[5] For the 2004–05 competition a group stage was added prior to the knockout phase. The 2009 re-branding included a merge with the UEFA Intertoto Cup, producing an enlarged competition format, with an expanded group stage and changed qualifying criteria. The winner of the UEFA Europa League qualifies for the UEFA Super Cup, and from the 2014–15 season onwards the winner of the UEFA Europa League also qualifies for the next edition of the UEFA Champions League. The winner enters at least at the play-off round (assuming they do not already qualify through domestic performance), and will enter the group stage if the berth reserved for the Champions League title holders is not used.

The title has been won by 28 different clubs, 12 of which have won the title more than once. The most successful club in the competition are Sevilla with five titles and the current champions are Manchester United after defeating Ajax in the final to win the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League.

History

The UEFA Cup was preceded by the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, which was a European football competition played between 1955 and 1971. The competition grew from 11 teams during the first cup (1955–58) to 64 teams by the last cup which was played in 1970–71. It had become so important on the European football scene that in the end it was taken over by UEFA and relaunched the following season as the UEFA Cup.

The UEFA Cup was first played in the 1971–72 season, with an all-English final of Wolverhampton Wanderers versus Tottenham Hotspur, with Spurs taking the first honours. The title was retained by another English club, Liverpool in 1973, beating Borussia Mönchengladbach in the final. Borussia would win the competition in 1975 and 1979, and reach the final again in 1980. Liverpool won the competition for the second time in 1976, beating Club Brugge in the final.

During the 1980s, IFK Göteborg (1982 and 1987) and Real Madrid (1985 and 1986) won the competition twice each, with Anderlecht reaching two consecutive finals, winning in 1983 and losing to Tottenham Hotspur in 1984. 1989 saw the commencement of the Italian clubs' domination, when Maradona's Napoli beat Stuttgart. The 1990s started with two all-Italian finals, and in 1992, Torino lost the final to Ajax on the away goals rule. Juventus won the competition for a third time in 1993 and Internazionale kept the cup in Italy the following year. 1995 saw a third all-Italian final, with Parma proving their consistency, after two consecutive Cup Winners' Cup finals. The only final with no Italians during that decade was in 1996. Internazionale reached the final the following two years, losing in 1997 to Schalke 04 on penalties, and winning yet another all-Italian final in 1998, taking home the cup for the third time in only eight years. Parma won the cup in 1999, which ended the Italian club era.

Match between Lech Poznan and Deportivo La Coruña in 2008–09 season.

Liverpool won the competition for the third time in 2001 and Porto triumphed in the 2003 and 2011 tournaments, with the latter against Portuguese team Braga. In 2004, the cup returned to Spain with Valencia being victorious, and then Sevilla succeeded on two consecutive occasions in 2006 and 2007, the latter in a final against fellow Spaniards Espanyol. Either side of Sevilla's success, two Russian teams, CSKA Moscow in 2005 and Zenit Saint Petersburg in 2008, had their glory and yet another former Soviet club, Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk, won in 2009. Atlético Madrid would themselves win twice in three seasons, in 2010 and 2012, the latter in another all-Spanish final. In 2013, Chelsea would become the first Champions League holders to win the UEFA Cup/Europa League the following year. In 2014 Sevilla won their third cup in eight years after beating Benfica on penalties. Just one year later, in 2015, Sevilla won their fourth UEFA Cup/Europa League, becoming the most successful club in the competition.

The competition was traditionally open to the runners-up of domestic leagues, but the competition was merged with UEFA's previous second-tier European competition, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, in 1999. Since then, the winners of domestic cup competitions have also entered the UEFA Cup. Also, clubs eliminated in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League and the third placed teams at the end of the group phase could go on to compete in the UEFA Cup. Winners of some selected domestic League Cup competitions are also admitted.

Since the 2009–10 season, the competition has been known as the UEFA Europa League.[2][3] At the same time, the UEFA Intertoto Cup, UEFA's third-tier competition, was discontinued and merged into the new Europa League.

Trophy

The UEFA Cup

The UEFA Cup, also known as the Coupe UEFA, is the trophy awarded annually by UEFA to the football club that wins the UEFA Europa League. Before the 2009–10 season, both the competition and the trophy were known as 'the UEFA Cup'.

Before the competition was renamed the UEFA Europa League in the 2009–10 season, the UEFA regulations stated that a club could keep the original trophy for a year before returning it to UEFA. After its return, the club could keep a four-fifths scale replica of the original trophy. Upon their third consecutive win or fifth win overall, a club could retain the trophy permanently.[6] Under the new regulations, however, the trophy remains in UEFA's keeping at all times. A full-size replica trophy is awarded to each winner of the competition. Also a club that wins three consecutive times or five times overall will receive a multiple-winner badge.[7] As of 2016–17, only Sevilla have earned the right to wear the multiple-winner badge, having achieved both prerequired feats in 2016.[8]

The trophy was designed and crafted by Bertoni for the 1972 UEFA Cup Final. It weighs 15 kg and is silver on a yellow marble plinth.[9]

Anthem

The competition's first anthem was composed by Yohann Zveig and recorded by the Paris Opera in early 2009. The theme for the re-branded UEFA Cup competition was first officially unveiled at the Grimaldi Forum on 28 August 2009 before the 2009–10 season group stage draw. The anthem is to be played before every Europa League game at a stadium hosting such an event and also before every television broadcast of a Europa League game as a musical element of the competition's opening sequence.[10]

A new anthem was composed by Michael Kadelbach and recorded in Berlin and was launched as part of the competition's rebranding at the start of the 2015–16 season.[11]

Format

Qualification

Qualification for the competition is based on UEFA coefficients, with better entrance rounds being offered to the more successful nations. In practice, each association has a standard number of three berths, except:

Usually, each country's places are awarded to teams who finish in various runners-up places in its top-flight league and the winner of the main cup competition. Typically the teams qualifying via the league are those in the highest places not eligible for the UEFA Champions League; however, the Belgian league awards one place via a playoff between First A and First B teams. A few countries have secondary cup competitions, but the only ones whose winners are currently granted a UEFA Europa League are England's and France's.

A team may qualify for European competitions through more than one route. In all cases, if a club is eligible to enter the UEFA Champions League then the Champions League place takes precedence and the club does not enter the UEFA Europa League. The UEFA Europa League place is then granted to another club. If a team qualifies for European competition through both winning a cup and league placing, the "spare" UEFA Europa League place will go to the highest placed league team which has not already qualified for European competition, depending on the rules of the national association.

The top three ranked associations may qualify for the fourth berth if both the Champions League and Europa League champions are from that association and do not qualify for European competition through their domestic performance. In that case, the fourth placed team in that association will join the Europa League instead of the Champions League, in addition to their other qualifying teams.

More recently, clubs that are knocked out of the qualifying round and the group stage of the Champions League can also join the UEFA Europa League, at different stages (see below). Formerly, the reigning champions qualified to defend their title, but since 2015 they qualify for the Champions League. From 1995 to 2015, three leagues gained one extra team via the UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking.

Background

UEFA coefficients were introduced in 1980 and, until 1999, they gave a greater number of berths in UEFA Cup to the more successful nations. Three nations had four places, five nations had three places, thirteen nations had two places, and eleven nations only one place. Since 1999, a similar system has been used for the UEFA Champions League. Before 1980, the entrance criteria of the last Fairs Cup was used.

Historical formats

The competition was traditionally a pure knockout tournament. All ties were two-legged, including the final. Starting with the 1997–98 season, the final became a one-off match, but all other ties remained two-legged.

Before the 2004–05 season, the tournament consisted of one qualifying round, followed by a series of knockout rounds. The sixteen non-qualifiers from the final qualifying round of the Champions League entered at the first round proper; later in the tournament, the survivors were joined by third-place finishers from the (first) group phase of the Champions League.

From the 2004–05 season, the competition started with two knockout qualifying rounds held in July and August. Participants from associations ranked 18 and lower entered the first qualifying round with those from associations ranked 9–18 joining them in the second qualifying round. In addition, three places in the first qualifying round were reserved for the UEFA Fair Play ranking winners (until 2015–16), and eleven places in the second qualifying round for the UEFA Intertoto Cup winners.

Winners of the qualifying rounds then joined teams from the associations ranked 1–13 in the first round proper. In addition, non-qualifiers in the third qualifying round of the Champions League also joined the competition at this point along with the current title-holders (unless they had qualified for the Champions League via their national league), for a total of 80 teams in the first round.

After the first knockout round, the 40 survivors entered a group phase, with the clubs being drawn into eight groups of five each. Unlike the Champions League group phase, the UEFA Cup group phase was played in a single round-robin format, with each club playing two home and two away games. The top three teams in each of the eight groups qualified for the main knockout round along with the eight third-placed teams in the Champions League group phase. From then on a series of two-legged knockout ties were played before a single-legged final, traditionally held on a Wednesday in May, exactly one week before the Champions League final.

Current format

From the 2009–10 season, the competition has been rebranded as the UEFA Europa League in a bid to increase the competition's profile.[2] As well as changing the competition's name, an extra 8 teams now qualify for the main stages of the competition, with the group stage consisting of 12 groups of four teams (in a double round robin), with the top two placed teams in each group progressing. The competition then progresses in much the same way as the previous format, with 4 rounds of two-legged knockout rounds and a one-off final held at a neutral ground meeting UEFA's Category Four stadium criteria. The final is played in May, on the Wednesday ten days before the Champions League final.

Qualification has changed significantly. Associations ranked 7–9 in the UEFA coefficients sent the Cup winner and three (two since 2015–16 season) other teams to the UEFA Europa League qualification, all other nations sent a Cup winner and two other teams, except Andorra and San Marino, who sent only a Cup winner and a runner-up, and Liechtenstein, who sent only a Cup winner. Since Gibraltar was accepted as a full UEFA member at the UEFA congress held in London on 24 May 2013, their Cup winner is also sent. Usually, the other teams will be the next highest ranked clubs in each domestic league after those qualifying for the UEFA Champions League, however France and England will continue to use one spot for their League Cup winner. With the scrapping of the Intertoto Cup there will no longer be spaces reserved in the qualifying rounds for teams qualifying through that route. Generally, the higher an association is ranked in the UEFA coefficients, the later its clubs start in the qualification, however, every team except for the title-holder (up to 2014–15 season) and the highest ranked teams (usually the cup winner and/or the best UEFA Europa League qualified team) from the top (six in 2012–15 seasons, 12 since 2015–16 season) associations had to play at least one qualification round.

Apart from the teams mentioned, an additional 15 teams from the Champions League third qualifying round are transferred to the UEFA Europa League play-off round, and the ten losers of the Champions League play-off round are transferred to the UEFA Europa League group stage. The 12 winners and the 12 runners-up in the group stage advanced to the first knock out round, together with eight third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage.

From 2015–16, the distribution was changed to broaden the appeal of the competition, namely through giving the Europa League champions a Champions League qualification berth, an expansion in teams qualifying for the group stage and mandating that places go to league teams if cup winners qualify for European competition, meaning that cup runners-up can no longer qualify through that particular route.[12]

Distribution (from 2015–16)

Teams entering in this round Teams advancing from previous round Teams transferred from Champions League
First qualifying round
(104 teams)
  • 31 domestic cup winners from associations 24–54
  • 35 domestic league runners-up from associations 18–53 (except Liechtenstein)
  • 35 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 16–51 (except Liechtenstein)
  • 3 teams which qualified via Fair Play ranking
Second qualifying round
(66 teams)
  • 6 domestic cup winners from associations 18–23
  • 2 domestic league runners-up from associations 16–17
  • 6 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 10–15
  • 52 winners from first qualifying round
Third qualifying round
(58 teams)
  • 5 domestic cup winners from associations 13–17
  • 9 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 7–15
  • 5 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 5–9
  • 3 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 4–6 (League Cup winners for France)
  • 3 domestic league sixth-placed teams from associations 1–3 (League Cup winners for England)
  • 33 winners from second qualifying round
Play-off round
(44 teams)
  • 29 winners from third qualifying round
  • 15 losers from Champions League third qualifying round
Group stage
(48 teams)
  • 12 domestic cup winners from associations 1–12
  • 1 domestic league fourth-placed team from association 4
  • 3 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 1–3
  • 22 winners from play-off round
  • 10 losers from Champions League play-off round
Knockout phase
(32 teams)
  • 12 group winners from group stage
  • 12 group runners-up from group stage
  • 8 third-placed teams from Champions League group stage

The access list above is provisional, as changes will need to be made in the following cases:

Redistribution rules

A Europa League place is vacated when a team qualifies for both the Champions League and the Europa League, or qualifies for the Europa League by more than one method. When a place is vacated, it is redistributed within the national association by the following rules (regulations Articles 3.03 and 3.04):

Format changes (from 2018–19)

Beginning with the 2018–19 tournament, all domestic champions eliminated in the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Champions League will transfer to the Europa League, rather than just teams that are eliminated in the third-qualifying and play-off rounds. Europa League qualifying will also provide a separate champions route for these teams, allowing more opportunities for domestic league champions to compete against each other.[16]

Referees

The Europa League have implemented the extra officials rule since September 2009. Under the rule, there are a total of six officials: the main referee, two assistant referees, fourth official of the sideline, and two extra assistants (one alongside each goal).

Prize money

Similar to the UEFA Champions League, the prize money received by the clubs is divided into fixed payments based on participation and results, and variable amounts that depend of the value of their TV market.[17]

For the 2016/2017 season, group stage participation in the Europa League awarded a base fee of €2.6 million. A victory in the group pays €360,000 and a draw €120,000. Also, each group winner earns €600,000 and each runner-up €300,000. Reaching the knock-out stage triggers additional bonuses: €500,000 for the round of 32, €750,000 for the round of 16, €1 million for the quarter-finals and €1.6 million for the semi-finals. The losing finalists receive €3.5 million and the champions receive €6.5 million.[18]

Sponsorship

The UEFA Europa League is sponsored by five multinational corporations; the current tournament sponsors are:

Adidas is a secondary sponsor and supplies the official match ball, as it does for all other UEFA competitions. Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer is also a secondary sponsor as the official Europa League video game.

Since the inception of Europa League brand, the tournament has used its own hoardings (in that year it debuted in the round of 32) like UEFA Champions League. LED hoardings made their debut in the 2012–13 final and will appear in 2015–16 season from the round of 16; in the same season, from the group stage, teams are not allowed to show their sponsors.[24]

Individual clubs may wear jerseys with advertising, even if such sponsors conflict with those of the Europa League. However, only one sponsorship is permitted per jersey unless it is a non profit sponsor (plus that of the manufacturer), and if clubs play a match in a country where the relevant sponsorship category is restricted (such as alcohol in the case of France), then they must remove that logo from their jerseys.

Records and statistics

The UEFA Cup finals were played over two legs until 1997. The first final was played on 3 May 1972 in Wolverhampton and 17 May 1972 in London. The first leg between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur was won 2–1 by the away side. The second leg finished as a 1–1 draw, meaning that Tottenham Hotspur became the first UEFA Cup winners.

The one-match finals in pre-selected venues were introduced in 1998. A venue must meet or exceed UEFA Category three standards to host UEFA Cup finals. On two occasions, the final was played at a finalist's home ground: Feyenoord defeated Borussia Dortmund at De Kuip, Rotterdam, in 2002, and Sporting CP lost to CSKA Moscow at their own Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon, in 2005.

The winner of the last UEFA Cup final (prior to the competition being rebranded as the UEFA Europa League) was Shakhtar Donetsk on 20 May 2009. The Ukrainian team beat Werder Bremen of Germany 2–1 at Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, Istanbul.

The first ever winner of the rebranded Europa League was Atlético Madrid, beating Premier League side Fulham 2–1 after extra time.

Winners

Club Winners Runners-up Years won Years runners-up
Spain Sevilla502006, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2016
Italy Juventus*311977, 1990, 19931995
Italy Internazionale311991, 1994, 19981997
England Liverpool311973, 1976, 20012016
Germany Borussia Mönchengladbach221975, 19791973, 1980
England Tottenham Hotspur211972, 19841974
Spain Real Madrid201985, 1986
Sweden IFK Göteborg201982, 1987
Italy Parma201995, 1999
Netherlands Feyenoord201974, 2002
Portugal Porto202003, 2011
Spain Atlético Madrid202010, 2012
Belgium Anderlecht1119831984
Netherlands Ajax*1119922017
Netherlands PSV Eindhoven101978
Germany Eintracht Frankfurt101980
England Ipswich Town101981
Germany Bayer Leverkusen101988
Italy Napoli101989
Germany Bayern Munich*101996
Germany Schalke 04101997
Turkey Galatasaray102000
Spain Valencia102004
Russia CSKA Moscow102005
Russia Zenit St. Petersburg102008
Ukraine Shakhtar Donetsk102009
England Chelsea*102013
England Manchester United*102017

* Club has won all three major UEFA competitions

References

  1. ↑ The top two teams in each group advance to the round of 32, where they are joined by the eight third-place teams in the Champions League group phase.
  2. 1 2 3 "UEFA Cup gets new name in revamp". BBC Sport (British Broadcasting Corporation). 26 September 2008. Retrieved 26 September 2008.
  3. 1 2 "UEFA Cup to become UEFA Europa League". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 26 September 2008. Archived from the original on 19 December 2008. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  4. ↑ "New format provides fresh impetus". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 15 May 2010.
  5. ↑ "UEFA Europa League History". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
  6. ↑ "Regulations of the UEFA Cup 2007/08, page 6, II Cup and Medals, Article 4, Cup" (PDF). Union of European Football Associations. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 June 2006. Retrieved 1 August 2009.
  7. ↑ "Regulations of the UEFA Europa League 2009/10, page 7, III Trophies and medals, Article 5, Trophy" (PDF). Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 1 August 2009.
  8. ↑ "Sevilla make it three in row at Liverpool's expense". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 27 May 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  9. ↑ "UEFA Europa League History". Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 1 August 2009.
  10. ↑ "UEFA Europa League anthem makes debut". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 28 August 2009. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  11. ↑ "UEFA Europa League anthem". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 1 September 2015. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  12. ↑ "New approach broadens Europa League appeal". UEFA. 29 August 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
  13. ↑ "Distribution details". UEFA.org. 23 March 2015.
  14. ↑ "UEFA Access List 2015/18 with explanations" (PDF). Bert Kassies.
  15. ↑ "How the Europa League winners will enter the Champions League". UEFA.com. 27 February 2015.
  16. ↑ "UEFA club competitions rights sales process for 2018-21 cycle kicks off". UEFA.com. 12 December 2016.
  17. ↑ uefadirect 7/09 p.7
  18. ↑ "2016/17 Europa League revenue distribution". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 26 August 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
  19. ↑ "Enterprise Rent-A-Car becomes an official partner of the UEFA Europa League". UEFA.org. UEFA. 9 June 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
  20. ↑ "FedEx to become Main Sponsor of the UEFA Europa League". UEFA. UEFA.com. 15 May 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  21. ↑ "Hankook renews official sponsor status for the UEFA Europa League". UEFA.org. UEFA. 16 June 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
  22. ↑ "Amstel Brand". The Heineken Company. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  23. ↑ "UniCredit renews and expands with Uefa". SportsProMedia.com. SportsPro. 5 May 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
  24. ↑ http://it.uefa.org/MultimediaFiles/Download/Regulations/uefaorg/Regulations/02/23/69/59/2236959_DOWNLOAD.pdf (Page 53)
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