2021–22 UEFA Europa League

The **2021–22 UEFA Europa League** was 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. 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. 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.

## Association team allocation

A total of 57 teams from between 30 and 35 of the 55 UEFA member associations are expected to participate in the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League. Among them, 15 associations have teams directly qualifying for the Europa League, while for the other 40 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:

* Associations 1–5 each have two teams qualify.
* Associations 6–15 each 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.

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

### Distribution

The following is the access list for this season.

Access list for 2021–22 UEFA Europa League
 Main Path(4 teams)
 Play-off round(20 teams)
* 2 winners from the third qualifying round (Main Path)
 Group stage(32 teams)
* 1 domestic league fourth-placed team from association 5
* 4 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 1–4
* 2 teams eliminated from Champions League play-off round (League Path)
 Preliminary knockout round(16 teams)
 Knockout phase(16 teams)
* 8 winners from the preliminary knockout round

In the default access list, the title holders of the UEFA 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 are made:

* The cup winners of association 7 (Russia) enter the group stage instead of the play-off round.
* The cup winners of associations 13 (Denmark) and 14 (Scotland) enter the play-off round instead of the third qualifying round.

Changes will be made to the access list above, if any of the teams that qualify for the Europa League via their domestic competitions also qualify for the Champions League as the Champions League or Europa League title holders, or if there are fewer teams transferred from the Champions League due to changes in the Champions League access list. In any case where a spot in the Europa League is vacated, teams of the highest-ranked associations in earlier rounds will be promoted accordingly.

#### 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:

* When the domestic cup winners (considered as the "highest-placed" qualifier within the national association with the latest starting round) also qualify for the Champions League, their Europa League place is vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions qualify for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finish above them in the league moved up one "place".
* When the domestic cup winners also qualify for the Europa League through league position, their place through the league position is vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions qualify for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finish above them in the league moved up one "place" if possible.
* For associations where a Europa League place is reserved for either the League Cup or end-of-season European competition play-offs winners, they always qualify for the Europa League as the "lowest-placed" qualifier. If the League Cup winners have already qualified for European competitions through other methods, this reserved Europa League place is taken by the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions.

### Teams

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**).

*CC: 2021 UEFA club coefficients.*

## Schedule

The schedule of the competition is as follows. 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.

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.

## Qualifying rounds

Main article: 2021–22 UEFA Europa League qualifying phase and play-off round

### Third qualifying round

The draw for the third qualifying round were held on 19 July 2021, 13:30 CEST.

The winners of the ties will advance to the play-off round. The losers will be transferred to the Europa Conference League play-off round of their respective path.

Main Path

### Play-off round

The draw for the play-off round was held on 2 August 2021, 13:00 CEST. The first legs are being played on 17, 18 and 19 August, and the second legs were played on 26 August 2021.

The winners of the ties will advance to the group stage. The losers will be transferred to the Europa Conference League group stage.

## Group stage

Main article: 2021–22 UEFA Europa League group stage

The draw for the group stage was held on 27 August 2021, 12:00 CEST (13:00 TRT), in Istanbul, Turkey. The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots, each of eight teams, based on their 2021 UEFA club coefficients. Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group. Prior to the draw, UEFA formed pairings of teams from the same association, including those playing in the Europa Conference League group stage (one pairing for associations with two or three teams, two pairings for associations with four or five teams), based on television audiences, where one team was drawn into Groups A–D and another team was drawn into Groups E–H, so that the two teams would have different kick-off times.

The matches will be played on 15–16 September, 30 September, 19–21 October, 4 November, 24–25 November, and 9 December 2021. The winners of each group will advance to the round of 16, while the runners-up will advance to the knockout round play-offs. The third-placed teams will be transferred to the Europa Conference League knockout round play-offs, while the fourth-placed teams will be eliminated from European competitions for the season.

Brøndby and West Ham United made their debut appearances in the Europa League group stage (although Brøndby had previously appeared in the UEFA Cup group stage).

## Knockout phase

Main article: 2021–22 UEFA Europa League 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:

* In the draw for the knockout round play-offs, the eight group runners-up were seeded, and the eight Champions League group third-placed teams were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
* In the draw for the round of 16, the eight group winners are seeded, and the eight winners of the knockout round play-offs are unseeded. The seeded teams are drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other.
* In the draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals, there are no seedings, and teams from the same association can be drawn against each other. As the draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals are held together before the quarter-finals are played, the identity of the quarter-final winners is not known at the time of the semi-final draw. A draw is also held to determine which semi-final winner is designated as the "home" team for the final (for administrative purposes as it is played at a neutral venue).

### Knockout round play-offs

The draw for the knockout round play-offs was held on 13 December 2021, 13:00 CET. The first legs were played on 17 February, and the second legs were played on 24 February 2022.

### Round of 16

The draw for the round of 16 was held on 25 February 2022, 12:00 CET.

## Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 18 March 2022, 13:30 CET.

## Semi-finals

The draw for the semi-finals was held on 18 March 2022, 13:30 CET, after the quarter-final draw.

## Final

Main article: 2022 UEFA Europa League Final

The final will be played on 18 May 2022 at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán in Seville. A draw will be held on 18 March 2022, after the quarter-final and semi-final draws, to determine the "home" team for administrative purposes.

## Statistics

Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.

## See also

* 2021–22 UEFA Champions League
* 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League
* 2022 UEFA Super Cup
* 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League

## External links

* UEFA Europa League (official website)

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