The 2013–14 UEFA Europa League was the 43rd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the fifth season under its current title.
The 2014 UEFA Europa League Final was played between Sevilla and Benfica at the Juventus Stadium in Turin, Italy, which was won by Sevilla on penalties, giving them a record-equalling third UEFA Cup/Europa League title. Chelsea could not defend their title as they automatically qualified for the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League and also reached the knockout stage.
Association team allocation
A total of 194 teams from 53 of the 54 UEFA member associations participated in the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League (the exception being Gibraltar, which should start participating in the 2014–15 season after being admitted as a UEFA member in May 2013). 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 2012–13 UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking each gain an additional berth. Moreover, 33 teams eliminated from the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League are transferred to the Europa League. The winners of the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League are given an additional entry as title holders if they do not qualify for the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League or Europa League through their domestic performance. However this additional entry is not necessary for this season, because the title holders qualified for European competitions through their domestic performance.
Association ranking
For the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2012 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2007–08 to 2011–12.
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Europa League, as noted below: – Additional berth via Fair Play ranking (Sweden, Norway, Finland) – Additional teams transferred from the Champions League
Distribution
Since the title holders (Chelsea) qualified for the Champions League through their domestic performance, the group stage spot reserved for the title holders is vacated, and the following changes to the default allocation system are made: The domestic cup winners of association 7 (Russia) are promoted from the play-off round to the group stage. The domestic cup winners of association 16 (Cyprus) are promoted from the third qualifying round to the play-off round. The domestic cup winners of association 19 (Czech Republic) are promoted from the second qualifying round to the third qualifying round. The domestic cup winners of associations 33 (Republic of Ireland) and 34 (Slovenia) are promoted from the first qualifying round to the second qualifying round.