2015–16 UEFA Europa League

The 2015–16 UEFA Europa League is the 45th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 7th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.

The 2016 UEFA Europa League Final will be played at the St. Jakob-Park in Basel, Switzerland.

Sevilla won the two most recent tournaments. They automatically qualified for the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League group stage as the Europa League title holders, but qualified for Europa League by finishing third in the Champions League group stage and therefore having the possibility to defend their titles.

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):

2014–15 UEFA Europa League

The 2014–15 UEFA Europa League was the 44th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 6th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.

The 2015 UEFA Europa League Final was played at the Stadion Narodowy in Warsaw, with Spanish side and title holders Sevilla defeating Ukrainian side Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 3–2 to win a record fourth title.

This season was the first where clubs must comply with UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations in order to participate. Moreover, this season was the first where a club from Gibraltar competed in the tournament, after the Gibraltar Football Association was accepted as the 54th UEFA member at the UEFA Congress in May 2013. They were granted one spot in the Europa League, which was taken by College Europa, the runners-up of the 2014 Rock Cup.

Starting from this edition, the UEFA Europa League winners automatically qualify for the subsequent UEFA Champions League season even if they do not qualify for the Champions League through their domestic performance. Therefore, the winners of this tournament qualify for the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League. They are guaranteed to enter at least the play-off round, and since the group stage berth reserved for the Champions League title holders will not be used (the winners of the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League are guaranteed to qualify for the group stage through domestic performance), they will be elevated to enter the group stage via this berth.

2012–13 UEFA Europa League

The 2012–13 UEFA Europa League was the 42nd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 4th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.

The final was played at the Amsterdam Arena in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was contested on 15 May 2013 between Portuguese club Benfica and English club Chelsea, who entered the competition at the Round of 32 after they finished in third place in the group stage of the 2012–13 Champions League. Chelsea won the final 2–1 for their first Europa League title, making them the fourth club – after Juventus, Ajax and Bayern Munich – to have won the three major UEFA club titles (Champions League, Europa League and Cup Winners' Cup).

For the 2012–13 edition, the following changes were made from the 2011–12 edition: