2009–10 UEFA Europa League
39th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA
The 2009–10 UEFA Europa League was the first season of the UEFA Europa League, Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA. The competition was previously known as the UEFA Cup, which had been in existence for 38 years.
Spain's Atlético Madrid won the tournament for the first time, beating Fulham – who were playing in their first European final – at the Volksparkstadion, home ground of Hamburger SV, in Hamburg, Germany.
Shakhtar Donetsk were the defending champions, but were eliminated by eventual finalists Fulham in the round of 32.
Association team allocation
A total of 192 teams from 53 UEFA associations participated in the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League. Associations were allocated places according to their 2008 UEFA country coefficient, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2003–04 to 2007–08.
Below is the qualification scheme for the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League:
Associations 1–6 each entered three teams
Associations 7–9 each entered four teams
Associations 10–51 each entered three teams, except Liechtenstein (it organised only a domestic cup competition and no domestic league competition)
Associations 52–53 plus Liechtenstein each entered one team
The top three associations of the 2008–09 UEFA Fair Play ranking each gained an additional berth
Moreover, 33 teams eliminated from the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League were transferred to the Europa League
Association ranking
Notes
(FP): Additional fair play berth (Norway, Denmark, Scotland)
(UCL): Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Champions League
Distribution
Since the winners of the 2008–09 UEFA Cup, Shakhtar Donetsk, qualified for the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League through domestic performance, the title holder spot reserved for them in the group stage was vacated. As this was the first edition of the Europa League, it was initially unknown whether UEFA would simply disregard the vacant title holder spot and rearrange entries so that one more team would qualify from the play-off round, or replace the title holders' group stage place with that of the top-ranked association's cup winner and move teams from lower rounds appropriately, as the regulations were unclear on this matter. The former set-up was confirmed by UEFA's official list of participants, published on 16 June 2009. As a result, the following changes to the default allocation system were made to compensate for the vacant title holder spot in the group stage:
The domestic cup winners of associations 16 and 17 (Switzerland and Bulgaria) were promoted from the third qualifying round to the play-off round.
The domestic cup winners of associations 28 and 29 (Cyprus and Slovenia) were promoted from the second qualifying round to the third qualifying round.
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