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 :
The title holders of the UEFA Europa League will qualify for the UEFA Champions League, and therefore no Europa League berth will be reserved for them.
All associations will have a maximum of three teams entering the Europa League ; previously associations 7–9 each had four entrants.
The number of teams directly qualifying for the group stage will be increased to 16 teams ; previously six teams directly qualified for the group stage.
Should the domestic cup winners qualify for the Champions League, the cup runners-up will no longer be granted a spot in the Europa League, and the spot will be given to the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions.
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:
Associations 1–51 each have three teams qualify.
* As the winners of the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League, Sevilla qualified for the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League; the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League berth they would otherwise have earned for finishing 5th in the 2014–15 La Liga was vacated and not passed to another Spanish team.
Associations 52–53 each have two teams qualify.
Liechtenstein and Gibraltar each have one team qualify.
Moreover, 33 teams eliminated from the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League are transferred to the Europa League.
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. Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Europa League, as noted below:
– Additional teams transferred from Champions League
– Vacated berth due to Europa League title holders playing in Champions League
Distribution
In the default access list, Sevilla enter the group stage. 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:
The domestic cup winners of association 13 are promoted from the third qualifying round to the group stage.
The domestic cup winners of association 18 are promoted from the second qualifying round to the third qualifying round.
The domestic cup winners of associations 24 and 25 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
29 domestic cup winners from associations 26–54
35 domestic league runners-up from associations 18–53
35 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 16–51
3 teams which qualified via Fair Play ranking
Second qualifying round
7 domestic cup winners from associations 19–25
2 domestic league runners-up from associations 16–17
6 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 10–15
51 winners from first qualifying round
Third qualifying round
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
3 domestic league sixth-placed teams from associations 1–3
33 winners from second qualifying round
Play-off round
29 winners from third qualifying round
15 losers from Champions League third qualifying round
Group stage
13 domestic cup winners from associations 1–13
1 domestic league fourth-placed team from association 4
3 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 1–3
−1 Europa League title holders
22 winners from play-off round
10 losers from Champions League play-off round
Knockout phase
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 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 :
When the domestic cup winners also qualify for the Champions League, their Europa League place is vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions qualify for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finish above them in the league moved up one "place".
When the domestic cup winners also qualify for the Europa League through league position, their place through the league position is vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions qualify for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finish above them in the league moved up one "place" if possible.
For associations where a Europa League place is reserved for the League Cup winners, they always qualify for the Europa League as the "lowest-placed" qualifier. If the League Cup winners have already qualified for European competitions through other methods, this reserved Europa League place is taken by the highest-placed team in the league which have not yet qualified for European competitions.
A Fair Play place is taken by the highest-ranked team in the domestic Fair Play table which have not yet qualified for European competitions.
Teams
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
TH: Title holders
CW: Cup winners
2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc.: League position
LC: League Cup winners
PW: End-of-season Europa League play-off winners
FP: Fair Play
CL: Transferred from Champions League
*GS: Third-placed teams from group stage
*PO: Losers from play-off round
*Q3: Losers from third qualifying round
Notably two teams took part in the competition that were not playing in their national top-division. They were Go Ahead Eagles and UCD. ;Notes
Round and draw dates
The schedule of the competition is as follows. 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, 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. 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.
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. The first legs were played on 29 and 30 July, and the second legs were played on 6 August 2015.
Play-off round
The draw for the play-off round was held on 7 August 2015. The first legs were played on 20 August, and the second legs were played on 27 August 2015.
Group stage
The draw for the group stage was held in Monaco on 28 August 2015. 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. 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. Skënderbeu Korçë were the first team from Albania to play in the group stage of any UEFA club competition.
Tiebreakers
The teams are ranked according to points. If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied in the order given to determine the rankings :
higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question;
higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question;
if, after having applied criteria 1 to 4, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 4 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 6 to 12 apply;
superior goal difference in all group matches;
higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
higher number of away goals scored in all group matches;
higher number of wins in all group matches;
higher number of away wins in all group matches;
lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in all group matches ;
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.
Bracket
Round of 32
The draw for the round of 32 was held on 14 December 2015. 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. 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. 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. The first legs were played on 28 April, and the second legs were played on 5 May 2016.
Final
The final was played on 18 May 2016 at the St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland. The "home" team was determined by an additional draw held after the semi-final draw.
Statistics
Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.
Top goalscorers
Top assists
Squad of the Season
The UEFA technical study group selected the following 18 players as the squad of the tournament.
David Soria
Manchester United
Toby Alderweireld
Mats Hummels
Adil Rami
Mariano
Darijo Srna
Shakhtar Donetsk
Éver Banega
Grzegorz Krychowiak
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Cédric Bakambu