Europa League 2024: When is the draw and who could Tottenham get?
Tottenham Hotspur are involved in Europe’s second-tier competition this season, and the draw takes place very soon. Here are all the teams taking part, and when Spurs will end up playing.
After a fifth-placed finish last season, Ange Postecoglou will lead his Tottenham team into Europe and will fancy his chances of going all the way to take part in the final next year in Bilbao.
The tournament has some changes to previous years, though. So here’s everything you need to know about the Europa League 2024.
When is the Europa League draw?
The draw for this year’s Europa League takes place on Friday, August 30, 2024, at 12 pm UK time.
However, the fixture list will be formalised and released a day later, on August 31.
How does it work?
As opposed to a group stage followed by knockout games in previous years, the Europa League will now be one big league made up of 36 teams, with 16 clubs making it to the knockout rounds.
Each team will be drawn against eight opponents for the league stage, with a combination of home and away matches being played through to the end of January.
The top eight teams in the league will automatically qualify for the last 16, while teams placed 9th to 24th will take part in a play-off to determine who advances to the knockout stage.
Who’s in the draw?
So far, Spurs are joined by Manchester United, Roma, Rangers, Lazio, Porto, Eintracht Frankfurt, Olympiacos, Lyon, Real Sociedad, AZ Alkmaar, Union Saint-Gilloise, Nice, Twente, Athletic Club, Fenerbahce, and Hoffenheim.
12 more teams will make it into the draw via the Europa League play-offs taking place on Thursday, August 28. Another seven, comprised of the losers of the Champions League play-offs, will be added, too.
Spurs are in Pot 1 with Man Utd, Roma, Rangers, Lazio, Porto, and Frankfurt. Pot 2 is Olympiacos and Lyon at the moment.
Real Sociedad, AZ Alkmaar, Union Saint-Gilloise, Nice, Twente, Athletic Club, Fenerbahce, and Hoffenheim have not been sorted into a pot yet.
A team will be pulled out of Pot 1 and will then be assigned two teams to play from each pot. Teams cannot face another team from their own country, and cannot play more than one team from any other nation.
For example, Spurs cannot play Manchester United in the league stage, and they would not be able to be drawn against both Lyon and Nice (two French sides).
Europa League 2024 fixtures
Although we don’t know who Spurs will be playing yet, we do know that Europa League matches will start on September 25, 2024 and run through to January 30, 2025.
Here’s the rundown of when games will take place:
Matchday 1: September 25-26, 2024
Matchday 2: October 3, 2024
Matchday 3: October 24, 2024
Matchday 4: November 7, 2024
Matchday 5: November 28, 2024
Matchday 6: December 12, 2024
Matchday 7: January 23, 2025
Matchday 8: January 30, 2025
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