Location Europe | ||
 | ||
Dates 29 June – 24 August 2017 (qualifying)
14 September 2017 – 16 May 2018 (competition proper) Teams 48+8 (competition proper)
158+33 (expected) (total) (from 55 associations) Similar 2016–17 UEFA Europa L, 1971–72 UEFA Cup, 1976–77 UEFA Cup, 1993–94 UEFA Cup, 2016–17 Swiss Super Le | ||
The 2017–18 UEFA Europa League will be the 47th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 9th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
Contents
- Association team allocation
- Association ranking
- Distribution
- Redistribution rules
- Teams
- Round and draw dates
- Qualifying rounds
- First qualifying round
- Second qualifying round
- Third qualifying round
- Play off round
- Group stage
- Knockout phase
- References
The 2018 UEFA Europa League Final will be played at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais in Lyon, France.
The winners of the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League will automatically qualify for the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League group stage, and also earn the right to play against the winners of the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League in the 2018 UEFA Super Cup.
Association team allocation
A total of 191 teams from all 55 UEFA member associations are expected to participate in the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:
Starting from this season, Gibraltar are granted two spots instead of one in the Europa League. Kosovo, who became a UEFA member on 3 May 2016, will make their debut in the UEFA Europa League, as long as their club pass the licensing requirements.
Association ranking
For the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2016 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2011–12 to 2015–16.
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Europa League, as noted below:
Distribution
The table below shows the default access list.
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):
Teams
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
Note: Teams in italics may still qualify for the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League, either through domestic performance, or by winning the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League or the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League.
Round and draw dates
The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws are held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).
Matches in the qualifying, play-off, and knockout rounds may also be played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays instead of the regular Thursdays due to scheduling conflicts.
Qualifying rounds
In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams are divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2017 UEFA club coefficients, and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other.
First qualifying round
A total of 102 teams are expected to play in the first qualifying round.
Note: UEFA club coefficient (CC) at the end of 2016–17 season, which is used for seeding, is listed in italics.
Second qualifying round
A total of 66 teams are expected to play in the second qualifying round: 15 teams which enter in this round, and the 51 winners of the first qualifying round.
Third qualifying round
A total of 58 teams are expected to play in the third qualifying round: 25 teams which enter in this round, and the 33 winners of the second qualifying round.
Play-off round
A total of 44 teams are expected to play in the play-off round: the 29 winners of the third qualifying round, and the 15 losers of the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round.
Group stage
The 48 teams are drawn into twelve groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other. For the draw, the teams are seeded into four pots based on their 2017 UEFA club coefficients. If the title holders enter the group stage after losing in the Champions League play-off round, they are automatically seeded into Pot 1 (regulations Article 13.05).
In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 32, where they are joined by the eight third-placed teams of the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League group stage.
A total of 48 teams play in the group stage: 16 teams which enter in this stage, the 22 winners of the play-off round, and the 10 losers of the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League play-off round.
Knockout phase
In the knockout phase, teams play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows: