The 2023–24 UEFA Europa League was the 53rd season of Europe's secondary club

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

tournament organised by

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

, and the 15th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

. The

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

was played at

Aviva Stadium Aviva Stadium, also known as Lansdowne Road (, ) or Dublin Arena (during UEFA competitions), is a List of stadiums in Ireland by capacity, sports stadium located in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with a capacity for 51,711 spectators ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Republic of Ireland, with Italian club

Atalanta Atalanta (; ) is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...

defeating German club

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It competes in the B ...

3–0 to win their first European title. Atalanta became the first Italian team to win the competition since

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

. Their win also denied Leverkusen's bid to win a

continental treble A treble in association football is achieved when a club team wins three trophies in a single season. A continental treble involves winning the club's top-level domestic league competition, main domestic cup competition, and main continental tro ...

and complete the entire season unbeaten across all competitions. As winners of the tournament, Atalanta automatically qualified for the

2024–25 UEFA Champions League The 2024–25 UEFA Champions League was the 70th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 33rd season since it was rebranded from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. This was the ...

league stage and also earned the right to play against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

, the winners of the

2023–24 UEFA Champions League The 2023–24 UEFA Champions League was the 69th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 32nd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. Real Madrid CF ...

, in the

2024 UEFA Super Cup The 2024 UEFA Super Cup was the 49th edition of the UEFA Super Cup, an annual football match organised by UEFA and contested by the reigning champions of the top two European club competitions, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League ...

. This edition was the final season with the format of 32 teams participating in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

, after UEFA announced that a brand new format would be introduced for the

following ''Following'' is a 1998 British independent neo-noir crime thriller film written, produced, directed, photographed, and edited by Christopher Nolan in his feature film directorial debut. It tells the story of a young man who follows strange ...

edition. Due to the format change, no clubs can be transferred from the Champions League group stage to the UEFA Europa League under the Swiss format, and this edition's winners onwards will no longer be able to defend the title.

Sevilla Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville ...

were the defending champions, but could not defend their title after being eliminated in the

of the

Association team allocation

A total of 57 teams from 34 of the 55

member associations participated in the 2023–24 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, 19 of them have teams playing after being transferred from the Champions League (the only member association which could not have a participant was

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...

, which did not organise a domestic league, and could only enter their cup winner into the Europa Conference League given their association ranking). The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association: *The title holders of the UEFA Europa Conference League were given an entry in the Europa League (if they did not qualify for the Champions League through league performance). *Associations 1–5 each had two teams qualify. *Associations 6–16 (except

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

) each had one team qualify. *36 teams eliminated from the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League were transferred to the Europa League.

Association ranking

For the 2023–24 UEFA Europa League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2022 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2017–18 to 2021–22. Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Europa League, as noted below: * – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Champions League * – Additional berth for UEFA Europa Conference League title holders

Distribution

The following is the access list for this season. Due to the suspension of Russia for the 2023–24 European season, the following changes to the access list were made: * The cup winners of associations 13 (Belgium) and 14 (Switzerland) entered the play-off round instead of the third qualifying round. * The cup winners of association 16 (Czech Republic) entered the third qualifying round instead of the Europa Conference League second qualifying round.

Teams

The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round: *ECL: Europa Conference League title holders *CW: Cup winners *3rd, 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 was divided into Champions Path (CH) and Main Path (MP). Notes

Round and draw dates

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.

Third qualifying round

Play-off round

Group stage

The draw for the group stage was held on 1 September 2023, 13:00 CEST, in

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

. 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 their club coefficients. As the winners of the

2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League The 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League was the second season of the UEFA Europa Conference League, Europe's tertiary club football tournament organised by UEFA. The final was played at Fortuna Arena in Prague, Czech Republic. It was won ...

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

entered Pot 1 regardless of their club coefficient (CC). Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.

Aris Limassol Aris Limassol (Greek: ''Άρης Λεμεσού'') is a professional Cypriot football club based in Limassol and one of the founder members of Cyprus Football Association. The club's colours are green, black and white, and their home is the A ...

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gr ...

BK Häcken Bollklubben Häcken, more commonly known as BK Häcken or simply Häcken (), is a Swedish professional association football, football club based in Gothenburg (Hisingen). It currently plays in Allsvenskan, the top tier of Swedish football. Forme ...

Raków Częstochowa Robotniczy Klub Sportowy Raków Częstochowa Spółka Akcyjna (commonly referred to as Raków Częstochowa, or simply Raków) is a Polish professional football club, based in Częstochowa, that competes in the Ekstraklasa, the top tier of natio ...

, Servette and TSC made their debut appearances in the group stage and their debut appearances in a UEFA competition group stage. Furthermore, Brighton & Hove Albion qualified for European football for the first time in their history. A total of 21 national associations were represented in the group stage.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Knockout phase

In the

knockout phase A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final.

Bracket

Knockout round play-offs

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Statistics

Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.

Top goalscorers

Team of the Season

The UEFA technical study group selected the following players as the team of the tournament.

Player of the Season

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Pierre-Emerick Emiliano François Aubameyang (born 18 June 1989) is a professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for Saudi Pro League club Al Qadsiah FC, Al-Qadsiah and Captain (associat ...

(

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

)

Young Player of the Season

* Florian Wirtz (

)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Uefa Europa League 2023-24 2 2 Sports events affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...