The 2017–18 UEFA Europa League was 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.
As winners, Atlético Madrid earned the right to play against the winners of the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League, Real Madrid, in the 2018 UEFA Super Cup. Moreover, they would also have been automatically qualified for the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League group stage,[3] but since they had already qualified through their league performance, the berth reserved was given to the third-placed team of the 2017–18 Ligue 1, the fifth-ranked association according to next season's access list.[4]
A total of 190 teams from all 55 UEFA member associations participated in the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League.[6] The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[7]
Associations 1–51 (except Liechtenstein) each had three teams qualify.
Liechtenstein and Kosovo (association 55) each had one team qualify (Liechtenstein organised only a domestic cup and no domestic league; Kosovo as per decision by the UEFA Executive Committee).[8]
Moreover, 33 teams eliminated from the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League were transferred to the Europa League.
Starting from this season, Gibraltar were granted two spots instead of one in the Europa League.[9]Kosovo, who became a UEFA member on 3 May 2016, made their debut in the UEFA Europa League.[8][10]
Association ranking
For the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2016 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2011–12 to 2015–16.[11][12]
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Europa League, as noted below:
(UCL) – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Champions League
(UEL) – Vacated berth due to UEFA Europa League title holders playing in UEFA Champions League
In the default access list, Manchester United entered the group stage (as the sixth-placed team of the 2016–17 Premier League).[10] However, since they qualified for the Champions League as the Europa League title holders, the spot which they qualified for in the Europa League group stage was vacated, and the following changes to the default allocation system were made:[13][14][15][16]
The domestic cup winners of association 13 (Czech Republic) are promoted from the third qualifying round to the group stage.
The domestic cup winners of association 18 (Poland) are promoted from the second qualifying round to the third qualifying round.
The domestic cup winners of associations 25 (Scotland) and 26 (Azerbaijan) are promoted from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.
Teams entering in this round
Teams advancing from previous round
Teams transferred from Champions League
First qualifying round (100 teams)
29 domestic cup winners from associations 27–55
36 domestic league runners-up from associations 18–54 (except Liechtenstein)
35 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 16–51 (except Liechtenstein)
Second qualifying round (66 teams)
8 domestic cup winners from associations 19–26
2 domestic league runners-up from associations 16–17
6 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 10–15
50 winners from first qualifying round
Third qualifying round (58 teams)
5 domestic cup winners from associations 14–18
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)
13 domestic cup winners from associations 1–13
1 domestic league fourth-placed team from association 4
2 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 1–3 (except Europa League title holders)
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
Redistribution rules
A Europa League place was vacated when a team qualified for both the Champions League and the Europa League, or qualified for the Europa League by more than one method. When a place was vacated, it was redistributed within the national association by the following rules (regulations Articles 3.03 and 3.04):[7]
When the domestic cup winners (considered as the "highest-placed" qualifier within the national association with the latest starting round) also qualified for the Champions League, their Europa League place was vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which had not yet qualified for European competitions qualified for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finished above them in the league moving up one "place".
When the domestic cup winners also qualified for the Europa League through league position, their place through the league position was vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which had not yet qualified for European competitions qualified for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finished above them in the league moving up one "place" if possible.
For associations where a Europa League place was reserved for either the League Cup or end-of-season European competition play-offs winners, they always qualified for the Europa League as the "lowest-placed" qualifier. If the League Cup winners had already qualified for European competitions through other methods, this reserved Europa League place was taken by the highest-placed team in the league which had not yet qualified for European competitions.
Teams
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:[17][18]
CW: Cup winners
2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc.: League position
LC: League Cup winners
RW: Regular season winners
PW: End-of-season European competition play-offs winners
Notably two teams took part in the competition that were not playing in their national top division, Tirana (2nd tier) and Vaduz (representing Liechtenstein, playing in Swiss second tier).
Bulgaria (BUL): On 29 May 2017 a UEFA letter to the Bulgarian Football Union declared that CSKA Sofia, the runners-up of the 2016–17 First Professional Football League, were not allowed to compete in the Europa League as they were considered to have been re-formed as a new club and thus did not pass the "three-year rule".[19] As this decision was appealed by CSKA Sofia, the Bulgarian Football Union granted a license to them subject to legal proceedings.[20][21][22] A few hours prior to the Europa League first qualifying round draw, UEFA replaced them with Dunav Ruse, the fourth-placed team of the league.[23]
Malta (MLT):Birkirkara would have qualified for the Europa League first qualifying round as the third-placed team of the 2016–17 Maltese Premier League, but failed to obtain a UEFA licence.[25] As a result, the berth was given to the fourth-placed team of the league, Valletta.
Republic of Ireland (IRL):Derry City are a club based in Northern Ireland, but participate in the Europa League through one of the berths for the Republic of Ireland (any coefficient points they earn count toward Republic of Ireland and not Northern Ireland).
Romania (ROU):Voluntari would have qualified for the Europa League third qualifying round as the winners of 2016–17 Cupa României, and CFR Cluj would have qualified for the second qualifying round as the fourth-placed team of the 2016–17 Liga I, but both failed to obtain a UEFA licence.[26] As a result, the third qualifying round berth was given to the fifth-placed team of the league, Universitatea Craiova, and the second qualifying round berth was given to the sixth-placed team of the league, Astra Giurgiu.
Round and draw dates
The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).[10][27][28]
Matches in the qualifying, play-off, and knockout rounds could also be played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays instead of the regular Thursdays due to scheduling conflicts.
In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams are divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2017 UEFA club coefficients,[29][30][31] and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other.
First qualifying round
The draw for the first qualifying round was held on 19 June 2017, 13:00 CEST.[32]
The first legs were played on 29 June, and the second legs were played on 4 and 6 July 2017.
The draw for the second qualifying round was held on 19 June 2017, 14:30 CEST (after the completion of the first qualifying round draw).[32]
The first legs were played on 12 and 13 July, and the second legs were played on 20 July 2017.
The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 14 July 2017, 13:00 CEST.[33]
The first legs were played on 27 July, and the second legs were played on 2 and 3 August 2017.
The draw for the play-off round was held on 4 August 2017, 13:00 CEST.[34]
The first legs were played on 16 and 17 August, and the second legs were played on 24 August 2017.
Location of teams of the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League group stage. Red: Group A; Yellow: Group B; Green: Group C; Dark Green: Group D; Purple: Group E; Pink: Group F; Blue: Group G; Orange: Group H; Brown: Group I; Deep pink: Group J; Cyan: Group K; Spring green: Group L.
The draw for the group stage was held on 25 August 2017, 13:00 CEST, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.[35] The 48 teams were 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 were seeded into four pots based on their 2017 UEFA club coefficients.[29][30][31]
In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the round of 32, where they were joined by the eight third-placed teams of the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League group stage. The matchdays were 14 September, 28 September, 19 October, 2 November, 23 November, and 7 December 2017.
Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 16.01):[7]
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Away goals scored in all group matches;
Wins in all group matches;
Away wins in all group matches;
Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
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:
In the draw for the round of 32, the twelve group winners and the four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage with the better group records were seeded, and the twelve group runners-up and the other four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association could not be drawn against each other.
In the draws for the round of 16 onwards, there were no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association could be drawn against each other.
The draw for the round of 32 was held on 11 December 2017, 13:00 CET.[37]
The first legs were played on 13 and 15 February, and the second legs were played on 21 and 22 February 2018.
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 23 February 2018, 13:00 CET.[38]
The first legs were played on 8 March, and the second legs were played on 15 March 2018.
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 16 March 2018, 13:00 CET.[39]
The first legs were played on 5 April, and the second legs were played on 12 April 2018.
The draw for the semi-finals was held on 13 April 2018, 12:00 CEST.[40]
The first legs were played on 26 April, and the second legs were played on 3 May 2018.
The final was played at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais in Décines-Charpieu on 16 May 2018. The "home" team (for administrative purposes) was determined by an additional draw held after the semi-final draw.[40]
Votes were cast by coaches of the 48 teams in the group stage, together with 55 journalists selected by the European Sports Media (ESM) group, representing each of UEFA's member associations. The coaches were not allowed to vote for players from their own teams. Jury members selected their top three players, with the first receiving five points, the second three and the third one. The shortlist of the top three players was announced on 9 August 2018.[44] The award winner was announced during the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League group stage draw in Monaco on 31 August 2018.
