2013–14 UEFA Europa League
The 2013–14 UEFA Europa League was the 43rd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the fifth season under its current title. The 2014 UEFA Europa League Final was played between Sevilla and Benfica at the Juventus Stadium in Turin, Italy, which was won by Sevilla on penalties, giving them a record-equalling third UEFA Cup/Europa League title. Chelsea could not defend their title as they automatically qualified for the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League and also reached the knockout stage. Association team allocation. A total of 194 teams from 53  of the 54 UEFA member associations participated in the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League (the exception being Gibraltar, which should start participating in the 2014–15 season after being admitted as a UEFA member in May 2013). The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association: The winners of the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League are given an additional entry as title holders if they do not qualify for the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League or Europa League through their domestic performance. However this additional entry is not necessary for this season , because the title holders qualified for European competitions through their domestic performance. Association ranking. For the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2012 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2007–08 to 2011–12. Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Europa League, as noted below: Distribution. Since the title holders (Chelsea) qualified for the Champions League through their domestic performance, the group stage spot reserved for the title holders is vacated, and the following changes to the default  allocation system are made: 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: Teams. The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round: Notably six teams that did not play in their national top-division took part in the competition. They are: Hapoel Ramat Gan (2nd tier), Hødd (2nd), Pasching (3rd), Teteks (2nd ), Vaduz (2nd) and Wigan Athletic (2nd). Round and draw dates. The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws held at 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 were divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2013 UEFA club coefficients, and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association could not be  drawn against each other. First qualifying round. The draws for the first and second qualifying rounds were held on 24 June 2013. The first legs were played on 2, 3 and 4 July, and the second legs were played on 9, 10 and 11 July 2013. Inter Turku lodged a protest after losing the second leg to Víkingur Gøta, and two match officials were later banned for life by UEFA for attempted match-fixing. Second qualifying round. The first legs were played on 16 and 18 July, and the second legs were played on 25 July 2013. Third qualifying round . The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 19 July 2013. The first legs were played on 1 August, and the second legs were played on 8 August 2013. Play-off round. The draw for the play-off round was held on 9 August 2013. The first legs were played on 22 August, and the second legs were played on 29 August 2013. Group stage. The draw for the group stage was held in Monaco on 30 August 2013. Prior to the draw, the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld UEFA's ban on Fenerbahce (which lost in  the Champions League play-off round) and Beşiktaş, meaning the two clubs were banned from the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League. UEFA decided to replace Beşiktaş in the Europa League group stage with Tromsø, who were eliminated by Beşiktaş in the play-off round, while a draw was held to select a team to replace Fenerbahçe among the teams eliminated in the play-off round, and was won by APOEL. The 48 teams were allocated into four pots based on their 2013 UEFA club coefficients. They were drawn into twelve groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same  association could not be drawn against each other. In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The matchdays were 19 September, 3 October, 24 October, 7 November, 28 November, and 12 December 2013. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the round of 32, where they were joined by the 8 third-placed teams from the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League group stage. Knockout phase. In the knockout phase, teams played 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 was as follows: Round of 32. The draw for the round of 32 and round of 16 was held on 16 December 2013. The first legs were played on 20 February, and the second legs were played on 27 February 2014. Round of 16. The first legs were played on 13 March, and the second legs were played on 20 March 2014. Quarter-finals. The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 21 March 2014. The first legs were played on 3 April, and the second legs were played on 10 April 2014. Semi -finals. The draw for the semi-finals and final (to determine the "home" team for administrative purposes) was held on 11 April 2014. The first legs were played on 24 April, and the second legs were played on 1 May 2014. Statistics. Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round. Squad of the season. The UEFA technical study group selected the following 18 players as the squad of the tournament: