The2022–23 UEFA Europa League was the 52nd season of Europe's secondary clubfootball tournament organised byUEFA, and the 14th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to theUEFA Europa League.
A total of 57 teams from 33 of the 55UEFA member associations participated in the 2022–23 UEFA Europa League. Among them, 15 associations had teams directly qualifying for the Europa League, while for the other 40 associations that did not have any teams directly qualifying, 18 of them had teams playing after being transferred from the Champions League (the only member associations which could not have a participant wereRussia andLiechtenstein, which did not organise a domestic league, and could only enter their cup winner into theUEFA Europa Conference League given their association ranking). The association ranking based on theUEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[5]
The title holders of the UEFA Europa Conference League were given an entry in the Europa League (as they did not qualify for the Champions League group stage).
Associations 1–5 each had two teams qualify.
Associations 6–7 and 9–15 each had one team qualify.
36 teams eliminated from the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League were transferred to the Europa League.
For the 2022–23 UEFA Europa League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2021UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2016–17 to 2020–21.[6]
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have had additional teams participating in the Europa League, as noted below:
(UCL) – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Champions League
(UECL) – Additional berth for UEFA Europa Conference League title holders
Association ranking for 2022–23 UEFA Europa League
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:
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 moved 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 moved 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.
Russia (RUS): On 28 February 2022, Russian football clubs and national teams were suspended from FIFA and UEFA competitions due to theRussian invasion of Ukraine.[8] On 2 May 2022, UEFA confirmed that Russian clubs would be excluded from the 2022–23 UEFA competitions.[9]
The schedule of the competition was as follows. Matches were scheduled for Thursdays apart from the final, which took place on a Wednesday, though exceptionally could take place on Tuesdays or Wednesdays due to scheduling conflicts. Scheduled kick-off times starting from the group stage were 18:45 and 21:00 CEST/CET, though exceptionally could take place at 16:30 due to geographical reasons.
As the2022 FIFA World Cup took place in Qatar between 20 November and 18 December 2022, the group stage commenced in the first week of September 2022 and concluded in the first week of November 2022 to make way for the World Cup.
The draws for the qualifying round were held at the UEFA headquarters inNyon, Switzerland.[10] The group stage draw took place inIstanbul, Turkey.[11]
The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 18 July 2022.The first legs were played on 4 August, and the second legs were played on 9 and 11 August 2022.
Location of teams of the2022–23 UEFA Europa League group stage. Brown: Group A; Red: Group B; Orange: Group C; Yellow: Group D; Green: Group E; Blue: Group F; Purple: Group G; Pink: Group H.
The draw for the group stage was held on 26 August 2022. 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 their2022 UEFA club coefficients.[14] Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.
^abcdTied on head-to-head results. Overall goal difference is used as the tiebreaker. Between Feyenoord and Midtjylland, overall goals scored is used as the tiebreaker.
In theknockout phase, teams played against each other overtwo 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 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 were seeded, and the eight winners of the knockout round play-offs were unseeded. Again, 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 draws for the quarter-finals onwards, there were no seedings, and teams from the same association could be drawn against each other. As the draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals were held together before the quarter-finals were played, the identity of the quarter-final winners was not known at the time of the semi-final draw. A draw was also held to determine which semi-final winner would be designated as the "home" team for the final (for administrative purposes as it was played at a neutral venue).
The draw for the knockout round play-offs was held on 7 November 2022, 13:00CET.[15]The first legs were played on 16 February, and the second legs were played on 23 February 2023.
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 24 February 2023, 12:00CET.[16]The first legs were played on 9 March, and the second legs were played on 16 March 2023.
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 17 March 2023, 13:00CET.[17]The first legs were played on 13 April, and the second legs were played on 20 April 2023.
The draw for the semi-finals was held on 17 March 2023, 13:00CET, after the quarter-final draw.[17]The first legs were played on 11 May, and the second legs were played on 18 May 2023.
The final was played on 31 May 2023 at thePuskás Aréna inBudapest. A draw was held on 17 March 2023, after the quarter-final and semi-final draws, to determine the "home" team for administrative purposes.[17]
^"Access list 2021–24"(PDF).UEFA. Union of European Football Associations.Archived(PDF) from the original on 4 December 2018. Retrieved16 February 2020.