2021–22 UEFA Europa League
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Tournament details | |
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Dates | Qualifying: 5–26 August 2021 Competition proper: 16 September 2021 – 18 May 2022 |
Teams | Competition proper: 32+8 Total: 21+37 (from 31–36 associations) |
The 2021–22 UEFA Europa League will be the 51st season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 13th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
The final will be played at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán in Seville, Spain. It was originally scheduled to be played at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest, Hungary.[1] However, due to the postponement and relocation of the 2020 final, the final hosts were shifted back a year, with Budapest instead hosting the 2023 final.[2] The winners of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League will automatically qualify for the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League group stage, and also earn the right to play against the winners of the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League in the 2022 UEFA Super Cup.
This season will be the first since 1998–99 (the last season when the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was played) where three major European club competitions (UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and the newly-created UEFA Europa Conference League) organised by UEFA are played, and the first where the Europa League (then the UEFA Cup) would be the secondary competition of the three. As a result, major changes to the format of the Europa League are made. The number of teams in the group stage are reduced from 48 to 32 teams, and the number of teams participating in qualifying are also reduced significantly. The first round of the knockout phase also now involves only the group stage runners-up and the Champions League third-placed teams, with the group winners directly advancing to the round of 16.[3]
As the title holders of the Europa League, Villarreal qualified for the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League. They will be unable to defend their title unless they finish third in the Champions League group stage and are transferred to the Europa League.
Association team allocation
A total of 58 teams from between 31 and 36 of the 55 UEFA member associations are expected to participate in the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League. Among them, 16 associations have teams directly qualifying for the Europa League, while for the other 39 associations that do not have any teams directly qualifying, between 15 and 20 of them may have teams playing after being transferred from the Champions League (the only member association which cannot have a participant is Liechtenstein, which does not organise a domestic league, and can only enter their cup winner into the Europa Conference League given their association ranking). The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[4]
- Associations 1–5 each have two teams qualify.
- Associations 6–15 each have one team qualify.
- As the UEFA Europa Conference League title holders' berth is not used this season, association 16 have one of their teams promoted from the Europa Conference League to the Europa League, so they also have one team qualify.
- Moreover, 37 teams eliminated from the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League are transferred to the Europa League.
- In future seasons, the title holders of the UEFA Europa Conference League will be given an additional entry in the Europa League. However, this berth is not used for this season as the first edition of the UEFA Europa Conference League has not been held.
Association ranking
For the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2020 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2015–16 to 2019–20.[5]
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Europa League, as noted below:
- (UCL) – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Champions League
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Distribution
The following is the access list for this season.[6] In the default access list, the title holders of the Europa Conference League qualify for the group stage. However, since this berth is not used for this season, the following changes to the access list were made:
- The cup winners of association 7 (Russia) enter the group stage instead of the play-off round.
- The cup winners of association 13 (Denmark) enter the play-off round instead of the third qualifying round.
- The cup winners of association 16 (Cyprus) enter the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round of the Europa Conference League.
Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from previous round | Teams transferred from Champions League | ||
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Third qualifying round (16 teams) |
Champions Path (10 teams) |
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Main Path (6 teams) |
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Play-off round (20 teams) |
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Group stage (32 teams) |
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Preliminary knockout round (16 teams) |
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Knockout phase (16 teams) |
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Teams
NOTE: The following list of qualified teams is provisional, subject to final confirmation by UEFA in June 2021, as each participating team must obtain a UEFA club licence. All qualified teams are included in this list as long as they have not been banned by UEFA or have not failed their final appeal with their football association on obtaining a licence. |
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
- CW: Cup winners
- 4th, 5th, etc.: League position of the previous season
- UCL: Transferred from the Champions League
- GS: Third-placed teams from the group stage
- CH/LP PO: Losers from the play-off round (Champions/League Path)
- CH/LP Q3: Losers from the third qualifying round (Champions/League Path)
- CH/LP Q2: Losers from the second qualifying round (Champions/League Path)
The third qualifying round is divided into Champions Path (CH) and Main Path (MP).
Note: Teams in italics may still qualify for the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League through domestic performance.
CC: 2021 UEFA club coefficients (updated after UEFA Champions/Europa League matches on 26 May 2021, coefficients which may increase marked by ≥).[7]
Entry round | Teams | ||||
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Knockout round play-offs | ![]() |
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Group stage | ![]() |
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Play-off round | ![]() |
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Third qualifying round | CH | ![]() |
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MP | ![]() |
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Schedule
The schedule of the competition is as follows.[8] Matches are scheduled for Thursdays apart from the final, which takes place on a Wednesday, though exceptionally can take place on Tuesdays or Wednesdays due to scheduling conflicts. Scheduled kick-off times starting from the group stage are 18:45 (instead of 18:55 previously) and 21:00 CEST/CET, though exceptionally can take place at 16:30 due to geographical reasons.[9]
All draws start at 13:00 (groups stage and round of 16 draws) or 13:30 (all other draws) CEST/CET, and are held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, except the group stage draw, at a venue to be confirmed.
Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
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Qualifying | Third qualifying round | 19 July 2021 | 5 August 2021 | 12 August 2021 |
Play-offs | 2 August 2021 | 19 August 2021 | 26 August 2021 | |
Group stage | Matchday 1 | 27 August 2021 | 16 September 2021 | |
Matchday 2 | 30 September 2021 | |||
Matchday 3 | 21 October 2021 | |||
Matchday 4 | 4 November 2021 | |||
Matchday 5 | 25 November 2021 | |||
Matchday 6 | 9 December 2021 | |||
Knockout phase | Knockout round play-offs | 13 December 2021 | 17 February 2022 | 24 February 2022 |
Round of 16 | 25 February 2022 | 10 March 2022 | 17 March 2022 | |
Quarter-finals | 18 March 2022 | 7 April 2022 | 14 April 2022 | |
Semi-finals | 28 April 2022 | 5 May 2022 | ||
Final | 18 May 2022 at Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Seville |
Qualifying rounds
Third qualifying round
Play-off round
The draw for the play-off round was held on 2 August 2021, 13:00 CEST.[10] The first legs were played on 17, 18 and 19 August, and the second legs were played on 26 August 2021.
The winners of the ties advanced to the group stage. The losers were transferred to the Europa Conference League group stage.
Team 1 | Agg. | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
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Randers ![]() |
2–3 | ![]() |
1–1 | 1–2 |
Rapid Wien ![]() |
6–2 | ![]() |
3–0 | 3–2 |
Celtic ![]() |
3–2 | ![]() |
2–0 | 1–2 |
Fenerbahçe ![]() |
6–2 | ![]() |
1–0 | 5–2 |
Mura ![]() |
1–5 | ![]() |
1–3 | 0–2 |
Omonia ![]() |
4–4 (2–3 p) | ![]() |
4–2 | 0–2 (a.e.t.) |
Olympiacos ![]() |
5–2 | ![]() |
3–0 | 2–2 |
Rangers ![]() |
1–0 | ![]() |
1–0 | 0–0 |
Slavia Prague ![]() |
3–4 | ![]() |
2–2 | 1–2 |
Red Star Belgrade ![]() |
6–1 | ![]() |
4–0 | 2–1 |
Group stage
Lyon CC: 76.000
Napoli CC: 74.000
Bayer Leverkusen CC: 57.000
Lazio CC: 44.000
Braga CC: 35.000
Eintracht Frankfurt CC: 33.000
Leicester City CC: 32.000
Lokomotiv Moscow CC: 31.000
- 10 winners from the play-off round
- 4 teams eliminated from Champions League play-off round (Champions Path)
- 2 teams eliminated from Champions League play-off round (League Path)
- 4 teams eliminated from Champions League third qualifying round (League Path)
Marseille CC: 28.000
West Ham United CC: 20.056
Real Sociedad CC: 19.571
Real Betis CC: 19.571
See also
- 2021–22 UEFA Champions League
- 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League
- 2022 UEFA Super Cup
- 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League
- 2021–22 UEFA Youth League
References
- ^ "UEFA competitions to resume in August". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 17 June 2020. Archived from the original on 25 August 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
- ^ "Budapest to host 2022 UEFA Europa League Final". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 2 March 2020. Archived from the original on 25 August 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
- ^ "UEFA Executive Committee approves new club competition". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 2 December 2018. Archived from the original on 13 May 2019. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
- ^ "Regulations of the UEFA Europa League, 2021/22 Season". UEFA. 2021. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
- ^ "Country coefficients 2019/20". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 2020. Archived from the original on 4 December 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
- ^ "Access list 2021–24" (PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 December 2018. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
- ^ "Club coefficients 2020/21". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations.
- ^ "2021/22 UEFA Europa League: all you need to know". UEFA. 19 January 2021. Archived from the original on 27 January 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2021.
- ^ "Format change for 2020/21 UEFA Nations League". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 24 September 2019. Archived from the original on 26 September 2019. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
- ^ "UEFA Europa League play-off round draw". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 2 August 2021.