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2015–16 UEFA Europa League

The 2015–16 UEFA Europa League was the 45th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the seventh season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.

The 2016 UEFA Europa League Final was played between Liverpool and Sevilla at the St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland,[1] and won by Sevilla, their fifth title (extending their own record) and third win in a row (also a tournament record).[2]

Sevilla initially started the 2015–16 European club season in the Champions League as the Europa League title holders, but qualified for the Europa League by finishing third in the Champions League group stage, and successfully defended their title. As the winners of the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League, they qualified for the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League,[3] and also earned the right to play against the winners of the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League, Real Madrid, in the 2016 UEFA Super Cup.[4]

Format changes

The UEFA Executive Committee held in May and September 2013 approved the following changes to the UEFA Europa League starting from the 2015–16 season (for the three-year cycle until the 2017–18 season):[5]

Association team allocation

A total of 191 teams from all 54 UEFA member associations participated in the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[8]

Association ranking

For the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2014 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2009–10 to 2013–14.[11][12]

Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Europa League, as noted below:

Distribution

In the default access list, Sevilla enter the group stage (as the fifth-placed team of the 2014–15 La Liga).[14][15] 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 is vacated, and the following changes to the default allocation system are made:[16][17]

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):[8]

Teams

The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:[18][19]

Notably two teams took part in the competition that were not playing in their national top-division. They were Go Ahead Eagles (2nd tier) and UCD (2nd tier).

Notes
  1. ^
    Bulgaria (BUL): Lokomotiv Sofia, the third-placed team of the 2014–15 A Group, would have qualified for the Europa League first qualifying round, but failed to obtain a UEFA licence. As a result, the berth was given to Litex Lovech, the fourth-placed team of the league.[24][25] An appeal was denied on 1 June 2015.[26]
  2. ^
    Italy (ITA): Genoa, the sixth-placed team of the 2014–15 Serie A, would have qualified for the Europa League third qualifying round, but failed to obtain a UEFA licence. As a result, the berth was given to Sampdoria, the seventh-placed team of the league. Genoa withdrew their appeal on 3 June 2015.[27]
  3. ^
    Latvia (LVA): Liepāja, the fourth-placed team of the 2014 Latvian Higher League, would have qualified for the Europa League first qualifying round, but failed to obtain a UEFA licence as they were affiliated with the Latvian Football Federation for less than three years after reforming from the dissolved Liepājas Metalurgs. As a result, the berth was given to Spartaks Jūrmala, the sixth-placed team of the league, as Daugava Daugavpils, the fifth-placed team, also failed to obtain a UEFA licence.[28]
  4. ^
    Moldova (MDA): Tiraspol, the fourth-placed team of the 2014–15 Moldovan National Division, would have qualified for the Europa League first qualifying round, but were dissolved at the end of the 2014–15 season.[29] As a result, the berth was given to Saxan, the fifth-placed team of the league.[30]
  5. ^
    Romania (ROU): CFR Cluj, the third-placed team of the 2014–15 Liga I, would have qualified for the Europa League second qualifying round, but were banned by UEFA after failing to settle overdue payables.[31] As a result, Astra Giurgiu, the fourth-placed team of the league, entered the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round, while the first qualifying round berth was given to Botoșani, the eighth-placed team of the league, as Petrolul Ploiești, Universitatea Craiova and Dinamo București, the fifth-, sixth- and seventh-placed teams of the league respectively, all failed to obtain UEFA licences.[32][33]
  6. ^
    Russia (RUS): Dynamo Moscow, the fourth-placed team of the 2014–15 Russian Premier League, would have qualified for the Europa League third qualifying round, but they were referred to the UEFA's Club Financial Control Body adjudicatory chamber on 24 April 2015 for violating the Financial Fair Play break-even requirements after the club was not able to reach the settlement with UEFA.[34] The meeting regarding the sanctions for the violation was held on 16 June 2015,[35] and on 19 June 2015, it was announced that Dynamo Moscow were excluded from the UEFA Europa League for the 2015–16 season.[36] As a result, the berth was given to Rubin Kazan, the fifth-placed team of the league.

Round and draw dates

The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws are held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).[14][37][38]

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 2015 UEFA club coefficients,[39][40][41] 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 and second qualifying round was held on 22 June 2015.[42][43][44] With 102 teams involved, it was UEFA's biggest ever tournament draw. The first legs were played on 30 June and 2 July, and the second legs were played on 7 and 9 July 2015.

Notes
  1. ^ a b c d e
    Order of legs reversed after original draw.

Second qualifying round

The first legs were played on 16 July, and the second legs were played on 21 and 23 July 2015.

Third qualifying round

The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 17 July 2015.[45][46] The first legs were played on 29 and 30 July, and the second legs were played on 6 August 2015.

Notes
  1. ^
    Order of legs reversed after original draw.

Play-off round

The draw for the play-off round was held on 7 August 2015.[49][50] The first legs were played on 20 August, and the second legs were played on 27 August 2015.

Notes
  1. ^ a b c
    Order of legs reversed after original draw.

Group stage

2015–16 UEFA Europa League is located in Europe
Villarreal
Athletic
Tottenham
Liverpool
Augsburg
Schalke
Dortmund
Lazio
Fiorentina
Napoli
Lisbon
Lisbon
Braga
2015–16 UEFA Europa League
Monaco
Marseille
St-Étienne
Bordeaux
Lokomotiv
Krasnodar
Rubin
AZ
AZ
Ajax
Ajax
Groningen
Dnipro
Brugge
Anderlecht
Istanbul
Istanbul
2015–16 UEFA Europa League
PAOK
PAOK
Asteras
Basel
Sion
Sion
Rapid
Plzeň
Sparta
Liberec
APOEL
Midtjylland
Lech
Lech
Legia
Din. Minsk
Celtic
Molde
Rosenborg
Partizan
Qarabağ
Gabala
Skënderbeu
Lisbon teams Belenenses Sporting CP Istanbul teams Beşiktaş Fenerbahçe
Lisbon teams
Belenenses
Sporting CP

Istanbul teams
Beşiktaş
Fenerbahçe
class=notpageimage|
Location of teams of the 2015–16 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 in Monaco on 28 August 2015.[51][52] The 48 teams were drawn into twelve groups of four, with the restriction that teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots based on their 2015 UEFA club coefficients.[39][40][41]

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 2015–16 UEFA Champions League group stage. The matchdays were 17 September, 1 October, 22 October, 5 November, 26 November, and 10 December 2015.

A total of 24 national associations were represented in the group stage. Augsburg, Belenenses, Gabala, Groningen, Midtjylland, Monaco, Sion and Skënderbeu Korçë made their debut appearances in the group stage (although Monaco have appeared in the UEFA Cup group stage). Skënderbeu Korçë were the first team from Albania to play in the group stage of any UEFA club competition.[53]

Group A

Source: Soccerway

Group B

Source: Soccerway

Group C

Source: Soccerway

Group D

Source: Soccerway

Group E

Source: Soccerway

Group F

Source: Soccerway

Group G

Source: Soccerway

Group H

Source: Soccerway

Group I

Source: Soccerway

Group J

Source: Soccerway

Group K

Source: Soccerway

Group L

Source: Soccerway

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:

Bracket

Round of 32

The draw for the round of 32 was held on 14 December 2015.[54][55] The first legs were played on 16 and 18 February, and the second legs were played on 24 and 25 February 2016.

Round of 16

The draw for the round of 16 was held on 26 February 2016.[56][57] The first legs were played on 10 March, and the second legs were played on 17 March 2016.

Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 18 March 2016.[58][59] The first legs were played on 7 April, and the second legs were played on 14 April 2016.

Semi-finals

The draw for the semi-finals was held on 15 April 2016.[60][61] The first legs were played on 28 April, and the second legs were played on 5 May 2016.

Final

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  • Sevilla wins third consecutive Europa League title, beating Liverpool 3-1

The final was played on 18 May 2016 at the St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland.[62] The "home" team (for administrative purposes) was determined by an additional draw held after the semi-final draw.[60]

St. Jakob-Park, Basel
Attendance: 34,429[63]
Referee: Jonas Eriksson (Sweden)

Statistics

Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.

Top goalscorers

Source:[64]

Top assists

Source:[65]

Squad of the Season

The UEFA technical study group selected the following 18 players as the squad of the tournament.[66]

See also

Note

  1. ^ UEFA awarded Legia Warsaw with a 3–0 win against Kukësi after a Legia Warsaw player was hit in the head by an object thrown from the crowd. The original match was abandoned in the 52nd minute with a 2–1 lead for Legia Warsaw.[47][48]

References

  1. ^ "Milan to host 2016 UEFA Champions League final". UEFA.org. 18 September 2014.
  2. ^ "Liverpool 1-3 Sevilla". BBC. 18 May 2016.
  3. ^ "Spain has five clubs in Champions League". UEFA.com. 18 May 2016.
  4. ^ "Real Madrid play Sevilla in UEFA Super Cup". UEFA.com. 29 May 2016.
  5. ^ "Added bonus for UEFA Europa League winners". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. 24 May 2013.
  6. ^ UEFA.com (2013-09-20). "Strategic talks in Dubrovnik". UEFA.com. Retrieved 2024-05-19.
  7. ^ UEFA.com (2014-08-29). "New approach broadens Europa League appeal | UEFA Europa League". UEFA.com. Retrieved 2024-05-19.
  8. ^ a b c "Regulations of the UEFA Europa League 2015/16 Season" (PDF). UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. 1 May 2015.
  9. ^ "Strategic talks in Dubrovnik". UEFA.org. 20 September 2013.
  10. ^ "New Respect Fair Play reward criteria". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. 16 February 2015.
  11. ^ "Country coefficients 2013/14". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations.
  12. ^ "UEFA Country Ranking 2014". Bert Kassies.
  13. ^ "Netherlands, England, Ireland get Fair Play bonus". UEFA.org. 8 May 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  14. ^ a b "Preliminary Access List 2015/16" (PDF). Bert Kassies.
  15. ^ "UEFA Europa League Access list 2015/2016". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. Archived from the original on April 29, 2015.
  16. ^ "Access list 2015/2016". Bert Kassies. Archived from the original on 10 August 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2015.
  17. ^ "Who is in Champions League and Europa League?". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. 7 June 2015.
  18. ^ "2015/16 UEFA Europa League list of participants". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. Archived from the original on 28 January 2016. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  19. ^ "Qualification for European Cup Football 2015/2016". Bert Kassies. Archived from the original on 2015-04-27.
  20. ^ "FC Twente wint ARAG Fair Play competitie, Europees ticket voor Go Ahead Eagles" (in Dutch). KNVB. Archived from the original on 2015-06-02. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  21. ^ "West Ham get UEFA Europa League place after topping Fair Play Table". Premier League. Archived from the original on 6 July 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  22. ^ "Ireland leading UEFA Fair Play League". SSE Airtricity League. 15 January 2015.
  23. ^ "UCD set for Europa League after topping Fair Play standings". Irish Times. 8 May 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  24. ^ "Съобщение на Лицензионната комисия" [Communication from the licensing committee] (in Bulgarian). Bulgarian Football Union. 20 May 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  25. ^ "Football Union Reportedly Revokes Licences of Bulgaria's CSKA, Lokomotiv Sofia". noinvite.com. 20 May 2015. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  26. ^ "Апелативната комисия потвърди решенията на Лицензионната комисия" [The appeals panel upheld the licensing committee] (in Bulgarian). Bulgarian Football Union. 1 June 2015. Archived from the original on 2 June 2015. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  27. ^ "Genoa, niente Europa: ritirato il ricorso per la licenza Uefa". Corriere della Sera. 3 June 2015.
  28. ^ "LFF Apelācijas komisija atstāj spēkā aizliegumu FK 'Liepāja' piedalīties Eirokausos". Delfi Sports. 28 May 2015.
  29. ^ "Коммюнике" (in Russian). FC Tiraspol. 26 May 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-05-26.
  30. ^ "ФК "Саксан" заменит "Тирасполь" в Лиге Европы". Newsmaker. 27 May 2015.
  31. ^ "CFR 1907 Cluj – CFCB adjudicatory chamber decision – March 2015" (PDF). UEFA.org. 30 March 2015.
  32. ^ "SANCȚIUNILE DICTATE DE COMISIA DE LICENȚIERE - INSTANȚA DE FOND". FEDERAȚIA ROMÂNĂ DE FOTBAL. 18 May 2015. Archived from the original on 21 May 2015.
  33. ^ "FC Botoșani cap de serie în turul întâi preliminar al Ligii Europa" (in Romanian). Monitorul de Botoșani. Archived from the original on 2015-06-22. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  34. ^ "FC Dinamo Moskva referred to Adjudicatory Chamber for break-even requirement breach". UEFA. 24 April 2015.
  35. ^ "Динамо" изложило УЕФА свою позицию по нарушениям правил финансового fair play (in Russian). Russian News Agency "TASS". 16 June 2015.
  36. ^ УЕФА отстранил "Динамо" от участия в ЛЕ-2015/16 за нарушение финансового fair play (in Russian). Rossiya Segodnya. 19 June 2015.
  37. ^ "2015/16 Europa League: All you need to know". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations.
  38. ^ "UEFA European Football Calendar 2015/2016". Bert Kassies. Archived from the original on 2014-12-21.
  39. ^ a b "Club coefficients 2014/15". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations.
  40. ^ a b "UEFA Team Ranking 2015". Bert Kassies.
  41. ^ a b "Seeding in the Europa League 2015/2016". Bert Kassies. Archived from the original on 2015-07-09. Retrieved 2015-05-16.
  42. ^ "Draws — First qualifying round". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  43. ^ "Draws — Second qualifying round". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  44. ^ "Largest draw starts new UEFA Europa League season". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. 22 June 2015. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  45. ^ "Draws — Third qualifying round". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  46. ^ "UEFA Europa League third qualifying round draw". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. 17 July 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
  47. ^ "Kukës v Legia decision". uefa.com. UEFA. 4 August 2015. Retrieved 4 August 2015.
  48. ^ "Europa League: Kukesi v Legia Warsaw abandoned after crowd trouble". The Guardian. 30 July 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  49. ^ "Draws — Play-off round". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  50. ^ "UEFA Europa League play-off draw results". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. 7 August 2015. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  51. ^ "Draws — Group stage". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  52. ^ "Full UEFA Europa League group stage draw". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. 28 August 2015. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  53. ^ "Europa League group stage number crunching". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. 28 August 2015.
  54. ^ "Draws — Round of 32". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  55. ^ "UEFA Europa League round of 32 draw". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. 14 December 2015. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
  56. ^ "Draws — Round of 16". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. Archived from the original on 2 February 2016. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  57. ^ "Europa League draw: Liverpool-United, Basel-Sevilla". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. 26 February 2016. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  58. ^ "Draws — Quarter-finals". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. Archived from the original on 10 May 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
  59. ^ "UEFA Europa League quarter-final draw". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. 18 March 2016.
  60. ^ a b "Draws — Semi-finals". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  61. ^ "UEFA Europa League semi-final draw". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. 15 April 2016.
  62. ^ "2016 final: St. Jakob-Park, Basel". UEFA.com.
  63. ^ "Full Time Report Final – Liverpool v Sevilla" (PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 18 May 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  64. ^ "Statistics — Tournament phase — Player statistics — Goals". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  65. ^ "Statistics — Tournament phase — Player statistics — Assists". UEFA.org. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  66. ^ "UEFA Europa League Squad of the Season". UEFA. 20 May 2016.

External links

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