The 2012–13 UEFA Europa League was the 42nd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 4th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.
The final was played at the Amsterdam Arena in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was contested on 15 May 2013 between Portuguese club Benfica and English club Chelsea, who entered the competition at the Round of 32 after they finished in third place in the group stage of the 2012–13 Champions League. Chelsea won the final 2–1 for their first Europa League title, making them the fourth club – after Juventus, Ajax and Bayern Munich – and the first English club to have won all three major European trophies (UEFA Champions League, Europa League, and the Cup Winners' Cup).
For the 2012–13 edition, the following changes were made from the 2011–12 edition: The cup winners of the six top-ranked associations had direct access to the UEFA Europa League group stage. This allocation of slots has a direct impact on the qualification path, and adaptations were made to the access list in order to accommodate these changes. Matchdays 5 and 6 were no longer held on exclusive weeks, but instead were played on the same weeks as Matchdays 5 and 6 of the UEFA Champions League.
Atlético Madrid were the defending champions, but were eliminated by Rubin Kazan in the Round of 32.
Association team allocation
A total of 193 teams from 53 UEFA member associations participate in the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association: Associations 1–6 each have three teams qualify Associations 7–9 each have four teams qualify Associations 10–51 (except Liechtenstein) each have three teams qualify Associations 52–53 each have two teams qualify Liechtenstein has one team qualify (as it organises only a domestic cup and no domestic league) The top three associations of the 2011–12 UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking each gain an additional berth Moreover, 32 teams eliminated from the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League are transferred to the Europa League (this is one fewer than usual as Tottenham Hotspur did not participate in the UEFA Champions League non-champions qualifying path due to Chelsea winning the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League) The winners of the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League are given an additional entry as title holders if they do not qualify for the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League or Europa League through their domestic performance. However, this additional entry is not necessary for this season since the title holders qualified for European competitions through their domestic performance.
Association ranking
For the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2011 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2006–07 to 2010–11.
Notes
FP: Additional berth via Fair Play ranking (Norway, Finland, Netherlands) UCL: Additional teams transferred from the Champions League
Distribution
Due to the following reasons, changes to the default allocation system had to be made: The title holders, Atlético Madrid, were guaranteed a place in the Europa League group stage, since they did not qualify for the Champions League. However, they also qualified for the group stage through their domestic performance, as they finished fifth in the 2011–12 La Liga and Champions League-qualified Barcelona won the 2011–12 Copa del Rey. As a result, this spot in the group stage was vacated. Only 14 losers (instead of the default 15) from the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round entered the Europa League play-off round. The following changes to the default allocation system were made to compensate for these vacated spots: The domestic cup winners of association 7 (Russia) were promoted from the play-off round to the group stage. The domestic cup winners of associations 16 and 17 (Switzerland and Israel) were promoted from the third qualifying round to the play-off round. The domestic cup winners of associations 19 and 20 (Austria and Cyprus) were promoted from the second qualifying round to the third qualifying round. The domestic cup winners of associations 33, 34, 35 and 36 (Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia and Georgia) were promoted from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.