The UEFA Europa League is the second most prestigious European annual club tournament. The 1st competition took place in 1971. Before the 2008/09 season it was called the “UEFA Cup”. Note, that national cups winners didn’t participate in the UEFA Cup before the 1998/99 season, as far as the UEFA Cup Winners Cup existed at that time being the second competition in order of importance after the Champions League. Later these two tournaments merged to form the UEFA Cup, being called the UEFA Europa League since the 2009/10 season. The tournament regulations were also changed to remind those of the Champions League.
It’s deemed that the European Fairs Cup is the Europa League predecessor, however, this tournament is not officially recognized by UEFA and its results are not taken into account by the UEFA Cup statistics. “Tottenham” was the 1st winner of the tournament. The Europa League obtains the right to compete for the UEFA Super Cup. Since the 2015/16 season the Europa League winner participates in the Champions League in the next season, even if this club doesn’t acquire this right on the completion of the domestic championship.
Clubs from the strongest European championships often put the Europa League in the background and apply fundamental force to the domestic championship. This is due to the modest prize fund for participation. UEFA pays 640 thousand euros for participation in the group round, plus 120 thousand for every win and 60 thousand for a draw. The tournament winner receives 3 million euros. For comparison, the team participating in the Champions League group stage receives 3.9 million euros. To enhance the popularity of the tournament, it was decided to grant a ticket to the Champions League to the Europa League winner.
The most award-winning clubs are “Juventus”, “Inter”, “Liverpool” and “Sevilla”, which won the Europa League three times.
The Europa League has been won by 26 clubs over its history, only 11 of them won more than once.
For the first 25 years of the tournament existence the winner was determined after considering results of two matches. Only since 1998, the one-match final on a neutral field has appeared.
The first winner of the renewed UEFA Europa League is “Atlético Madrid”.
The anthem of the Europa League was recorded by the Paris Opera in 2009. It sounds before each tournament game up to now.
The UEFA Europa League trophy is a silver cup weighing 15 kilograms.
“Tottenham” and “Red Bull Salzburg” managed to go through the group stage without losing points twice.
“Benfica” is the biggest loser of the tournament. The team lost the tournament finals three times.
The biggest win of the Europa League: “Ajax” 14 – 0 “Differdange”
The longest championship winning streaks belong to “Real” and “Sevilla”, which managed to win twice in succession.
