The 2014–15 UEFA Europa League was the 44th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the sixth season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
The final was played at the National Stadium in Warsaw, Poland, with Spanish side and title holders Sevilla defeating Ukrainian side Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk 3–2 to win a record-breaking 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.
On 17 July 2014, the UEFA emergency panel ruled that Ukrainian and Russian clubs would not be drawn against each other "until further notice" due to the political unrest between the countries. Another ruling centred in regional instability was also made where Israeli teams were prohibited from hosting any UEFA competitions due to the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict (whilst the ruling ended a short time after the war, all the country's sides were eliminated before it ended). The rules regarding suspension due to yellow card accumulation were also changed such that all bookings expired on completion of the quarter-finals and were not carried forward to the semi-finals. Moreover, this was the first season in which vanishing spray was used.
Association team allocation A total of 195 teams from all 54 UEFA member associations participated in the 2014–15 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 1–6 each had three teams qualify. Associations 7–9 each had four teams qualify. Associations 10–51 (except Liechtenstein) each had three teams qualify. Associations 52–53 each had two teams qualify. Liechtenstein and Gibraltar each had one team qualify (Liechtenstein organised only a domestic cup and no domestic league; Gibraltar as per decision by the UEFA Executive Committee). The top three associations of the 2013–14 UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking each gained an additional berth. Moreover, 33 teams eliminated from the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League were transferred to the Europa League. The winners of the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League were given an additional entry as title holders if they did not qualify for the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League or Europa League through their domestic performance. However, this additional entry was not necessary for this season since the title holders qualified for European competitions through their domestic performance.
Association ranking For the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2013 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2008–09 to 2012–13.
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Europa League, as noted below: – Additional berth via Fair Play ranking (Norway, Sweden, Finland) – Additional teams transferred from the Champions League
RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes188.0253282.963379.614464.147559.168659.000749.7584846.332944.7291034.50031134.4001234.0001328.9251426.8331525.7001625.3751723.7251823.024RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes1922.87532020.8752120.7502219.5832315.6252415.1912514.6252614.2082714.1752812.2502911.750309.708319.166328.541338.508347.833357.666367.375RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes376.5003385.958395.791405.416415.250425.250434.166443.958453.5001463.3753473.083482.583492.208501.750511.583520.6662530.500540.0001
Distribution Since title holders Sevilla qualified for the Europa League through their domestic performance, the spot which they qualified for in the group stage (as the fifth-placed team of the 2013–14 La Liga) is vacated, and the following changes to the default allocation system were made: The domestic cup winners of association 7 (Ukraine) were promoted from the play-off round to the group stage. The domestic cup winners of association 16 (Austria) were promoted from the third qualifying round to the play-off round. The domestic cup winners of association 19 (Israel) were promoted from the second qualifying round to the third qualifying round. The domestic cup winners of associations 33 and 34 (Finland and Bosnia and Herzegovina) were promoted from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.
Teams entering in this roundTeams advancing from previous roundTeams transferred from Champions LeagueFirst qualifying round(78 teams)20 domestic cup winners from associations 35–54 26 domestic league runners-up from associations 27–53 (except Liechtenstein) 29 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 22–51 (except Liechtenstein) 3 teams which qualified via Fair Play rankingSecond qualifying round(80 teams)15 domestic cup winners from associations 20–34 11 domestic league runners-up from associations 16–26 6 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 16–21 6 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 10–15 3 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 7–939 winners from the first qualifying roundThird qualifying round(58 teams)3 domestic cup winners from associations 17–19 6 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 10–15 3 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 7–9 3 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 4–6 (League Cup winners for France) 3 domestic league sixth-placed teams from associations 1–3 (League Cup winners for England)40 winners from the second qualifying roundPlay-off round(62 teams)9 domestic cup winners from associations 8–16 3 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 7–9 3 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 4–6 3 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 1–329 winners from the third qualifying round15 losers from the Champions League third qualifying roundGroup stage(48 teams)Title holders 6 domestic cup winners from associations 2–731 winners from the play-off round10 losers from the Champions League play-off roundKnockout phase(32 teams)12 group winners from the group stage 12 group runners-up from the group stage8 third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage
Redistribution rules A Europa League place was vacated when a team qualified for both the Champions League and the Europa League, or qualified for the Europa League by more than one method. When a place was vacated, it was redistributed within the national association by the following rules: When the domestic cup winners (considered as the "highest-placed" qualifier within the national association with the latest starting round) also qualified for the Champions League, their Europa League place was vacated. As a result, either of the following teams qualified for the Europa League: The domestic cup runners-up, provided they had not yet qualified for European competitions, qualified for the Europa League as the "lowest-placed" qualifier (with the earliest starting round), with the other Europa League qualifiers moved up one "place" (the 2014–15 season was the last with this particular arrangement). Otherwise, the highest-placed team in the league which had not yet qualified for European competitions qualified for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finished above them in the league moved up one "place". When the domestic cup winners also qualified for the Europa League through league position, their place through the league position was vacated. As a result, the highest-placed team in the league which had not yet qualified for European competitions qualified for the Europa League, with the Europa League qualifiers which finished above them in the league moved up one "place" if possible. For associations where a Europa League place was reserved for the League Cup winners, they always qualified for the Europa League as the "lowest-placed" qualifier (or as the second "lowest-placed" qualifier in cases where the cup runners-up qualified as stated above). If the League Cup winners had already qualified for European competitions through other methods, this reserved Europa League place was taken by the highest-placed team in the league which had not yet qualified for European competitions. A Fair Play place was taken by the highest-ranked team in the domestic Fair Play table which had 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 CR: Cup runners-up LC: League Cup winners 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc.: League position P-W: End-of-season European competition play-offs winners FP: Fair Play UCL: Transferred from the Champions League GS: Third-placed teams from the group stage PO: Losers from the play-off round Q3: Losers from the third qualifying round