UEFA Europa League

The UEFA Europa League in all forms and has been around since 1971 and in its most current form since 2009. The Europa League format took over from the old UEFA Cup to ensure more games for clubs competing that make it through to the group stages.
The Tournament is open to European league competitors that finish outside the champions league positions in their respective leagues and also the winners of some domestic cup competitions.
Following a 1999 merger with the European Cup Winners Cup the competition formally known as the UEFA Cup underwent further rebranding and merged with the Intertoto Cup to grow to 160 clubs competing from the start every year.

Most successful teams

The most successful club to compete in the UEFA Cup is current holders Sevilla who have five wins in total with the last three coming in 2015/16, 2014/15,2013/14.

Coverage

Though not as popular as the Champions League the UEFA Europa League still attracts interest and is shown around the world. The money from TV rights as well as sponsorship go towards the running of the tournament and prize money distributed to the teams that compete.

Prize Money

Prize money for the UEFA Europa League is divided based on appearances and performance and the breakdown for the 2016/17 competition goes as follows;

First qualifying round: €215,000
Second qualifying round: €225,000
Third qualifying round: €235,000
Play-off round elimination: €245,000
Base fee for group stage: €2,600,000
Group match victory: €360,000
Group match draw: €120,000
Group winners: €600,000
Group runners-up: €300,000
Round of 32: €500,000
Round of 16: €750,000
Quarter-finals: €1,000,000
Semi-finals: €1,600,000
Losing finalist: €3,500,000
Winners: €6,500,000

Team Records

Some club records held in the UEFA Europa League include Tottenham’s attendance against Genk of 80,465 as the highest in the competition. The biggest win went to Ajax when the defeated Red Boys Differdange 14-0. The highest aggregate win was 21-0 when Feyenoord beat Rumelange 9-0 at home and 0-12 away.

Players Records

The highest number of appearances in the UEFA Europa League (remember this includes the old UEFA Cup format) is held by Former Inter Milan defender Giuseppe Bergomi who played 96 games. He is followed by Frank Rost in second place who played 87 games and Walter Zenga in third place who played 69 times in the competition.
The top goal scorer in the competition is Henrik Larsson who has 40 goals however Jupp Heynckes goal per game ratio of 1.095 is the best in the Europa League’s history.
The player to have scored the most in any one UEFA Europa League campaign is Radamel Falcao who managed to score 17 times in the one competition, he is followed by Jurgen Klinsmann in second place on 15 and Geertruida Maria Geels and John Wark on 14.