Brighton, Liverpool, West Ham already know their fate of what groups they might be in for the Europa League. While the Europa League qualifiers are currently in progress, the Seagulls have already secured their qualification. They achieved this feat by attaining a sixth-place finish in the Premier League during the previous season. Under the leadership of Roberto De Zerbi, his team successfully entered UEFA’s secondary continental club competition for the first time. Presently, they are eagerly anticipating the announcement of their inaugural opponents.
The Premier League will be represented by Brighton, Liverpool, and West Ham in the upcoming Europa League. West Ham clinched victory in the previous year’s Europa Conference League. These three teams will be among the 32 contenders for the draw, organized into eight groups of four. Throughout the stages, each team will engage in home and away matches against the other group members. As the competition unfolds, the top two teams from each group will advance to the knockout rounds. Notably, to ensure diversity, teams from the same country will be across separate groups during this phase.
The arrangement of the group stage draw hinges upon the allocation of teams to specific pots, determined by their respective club coefficient ratings. These ratings are reflective of points earned from European performances over the past five seasons. Notably, Brighton’s points tally stands at zero due to their limited European history. However, clubs have the opportunity to receive their own coefficient total, or 20 percent of their league’s coefficient total, whichever figure is higher. In the case of Brighton, they benefit from the 21,914 points attributed to the Premier League. Currently positioned among the lower-seeded teams, Brighton finds themselves in the company of only Freiburg (16,496) and Toulouse (12,232) in terms of fewer points within the pots.
Which pot might Liverpool and other clubs get in Europa?
Due to their triumph in the Europa Conference League, West Ham (50,000) have secured an automatic placement in pot one. Meanwhile, Liverpool (123,000) holds the distinction of possessing the highest club coefficients among all the teams featured in the pots.
The current composition of the draw’s pots is as follows, although the confirmation of the Champions League qualifying losers, who will also become part of the draw, is still pending.
Pot 1 comprises West Ham, Liverpool, Roma, Villarreal, Bayer Leverkusen, and Atalanta. Teams potentially falling into either Pot 1 or 2 include Sporting CP and Rennes.
Teams could potentially be placed in Pots 1, 2, 3, or 4 as follows:
- Four teams eliminated from the Champions League third qualifying round.
- Four teams defeated in the Champions League play-off round.
- Two teams that didn’t advance from the Champions League play-off round.
- Additionally, 10 teams that emerged victorious from the play-off round.
Real Betis could find themselves in Pot 2 or 3. On the other hand, Brighton, Freiburg, and Toulouse have the potential to be placed in Pot 2, 3, or 4.
The draw has a schedule for Friday, September 1, and will occur at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.
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