The 2022–23 UEFA Europa League will be the 52nd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 14th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
 The Puskás Aréna in Budapest will host the final | |
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | Qualifying: 4–25 August 2022 Competition proper: 8 September 2022 – 31 May 2023 |
| Teams | Competition proper: 32+8 Total: 21+37 (from 31–36 associations) |
The final will be played at the Puskás Aréna in Budapest, Hungary. The winners of the tournament will automatically qualify for the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League group stage, and also earn the right to play against the winners of the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League in the 2023 UEFA Super Cup.
This season will be the second 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 UEFA Europa Conference League) organised by UEFA are played, and the second where the Europa League (then the UEFA Cup) would be the secondary competition of the three. There are 32 teams in the group stage, and the first round of the knockout phase 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.[1]
On 24 June 2021, UEFA approved the proposal to abolish the away goals rule in all UEFA club competitions, which had been used since 1965. Therefore, if in a two-legged tie, two teams score the same number of aggregate goals, the winner of tie will not be decided by the number of away goals scored by each team, but always by 30 minutes of extra time, and if the two teams score the same number of goals in extra time, the winner will be decided by a penalty shoot-out.[2]
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 2022–23 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:[3]
- The title holders of the UEFA Europa Conference League will be given an entry in the Europa League (if they do not qualify to the Champions League group stage).
- Associations 1–5 each have two teams qualify.
- Associations 6–15 each have one team qualify.
- 37 teams eliminated from the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League are transferred to the Europa League.
Association ranking
For the 2022–23 UEFA Europa League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2021 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2016–17 to 2020–21.[4]
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.[5]
| Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from previous round | Teams transferred from Champions League | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 2022, 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).
CC: 2022 UEFA club coefficients.[6]
| Entry round | Teams | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knockout round play-offs |  (UCL GS)
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(UCL GS)
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(UCL GS)
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(UCL GS)
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| (UCL GS)
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(UCL GS)
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(UCL GS)
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(UCL GS)
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| Group stage |  (CW)
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(5th)
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 (CW)
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(5th)
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 (CW)
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(5th)
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 (CW)
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(5th)
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 (CW)
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(4th)
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 (CW)
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(ECL TH)
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| (UCL CH PO)
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(UCL CH PO)
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(UCL CH PO)
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(UCL CH PO)
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| (UCL LP PO)
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(UCL LP PO)
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(UCL LP Q3)
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(UCL LP Q3)
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| (UCL LP Q3)
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(UCL LP Q3)
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| Play-off round |  (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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(UCL CH Q3)
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(UCL CH Q3)
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| (UCL CH Q3)
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(UCL CH Q3)
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(UCL CH Q3)
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(UCL CH Q3)
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| Third qualifying round | CH | (UCL CH Q2)
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(UCL CH Q2)
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(UCL CH Q2)
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(UCL CH Q2)
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| (UCL CH Q2)
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(UCL CH Q2)
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(UCL CH Q2)
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(UCL CH Q2)
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| (UCL CH Q2)
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(UCL CH Q2)
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| MP |  (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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(UCL LP Q2)
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| (UCL LP Q2)
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(UCL LP Q2)
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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 and 21:00 CEST/CET, though exceptionally can take place at 16:30 due to geographical reasons.
All draws are held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying | Third qualifying round | TBD 2022 | 4 August 2022 | 11 August 2022 |
| Play-offs | TBD 2022 | 18 August 2022 | 25 August 2022 | |
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | TBD 2022 | 8 September 2022 | |
| Matchday 2 | 15 September 2022 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 6 October 2022 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 13 October 2022 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 27 October 2022 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 3 November 2022 | |||
| Knockout phase | Knockout round play-offs | TBD 2022 | 16 February 2023 | 23 February 2023 |
| Round of 16 | TBD 2023 | 9 March 2023 | 16 March 2023 | |
| Quarter-finals | TBD 2023 | 13 April 2023 | 20 April 2023 | |
| Semi-finals | 11 May 2023 | 18 May 2023 | ||
| Final | 31 May 2023 at Puskás Aréna, Budapest | |||
See also
References
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Abolition of the away goals rule in all UEFA club competitions". UEFA.com. 24 June 2021.
- ^ "Regulations of the UEFA Europa League, 2021/22 Season". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 2021. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
- ^ "Country coefficients 2020/21". 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 2021/22". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations.
- ^ "International match calendar and access list for 2022/23". UEFA Circular Letter. No. 51/2021. Union of European Football Associations. 19 July 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2021.