Tottenham receive Europa League clarity after UEFA confirm new landmark plans

Tottenham Hotspur will be gearing up for Europa League football after Ange Postecoglou’s side finished fifth in the Premier League. Spurs will embark on a historic campaign, as UEFA have confirmed the details of the upcoming campaign with a number of important changes.

The Europa League will face one of three wholesale changes from UEFA as the Champions League and Conference League embark on new journeys. Thirty-six teams will enter the competition and be drawn into a 36-team league phase. According to guidance released by the football governing body, the final ranking in the league phase determines which 24 teams advance to the knockout phase and their seeding position for the knockout phase.

The points system will remain the same, with three points per win and one point per draw. Each team will play eight games against eight different opponents – four at home and four away- in the league phase. The Europa League will follow the same model as the Champions League, where teams are seeded into four pots of nine teams by their five-year UEFA club coefficient.

Spurs are 34th in the coefficient rankings with 54,000 points and will be apart from the draw, which will see each team be drawn against two opponents from each of the four pots; they will play one of those teams at home or away. The pots are drawn with teams of similar strength to guarantee the opponents are equally balanced for all teams.

At the end of the league phase in the Europa League, teams placed one to eight in the ranking quality directly for the Round of 16. Teams finishing between ninth and 24th will compete in a two-legged playoff to reach the last-16, and those below 25th will be eliminated from the competition.

To strengthen the competition and provide more sporting incentives. The table for the knockout seeding will be formed based on the final ranking of the league position. Teams will be paired (1 and 2, 3 and 4 etc.) and split into opposite parts of the draw.

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If a club enters the knockout playoffs, those between ninth and 16th will be seeded and play against teams between 17th and 24th, with the seeded clubs having a home advantage in the second-leg.

Teams that have automatically qualified for the Round of 16 (positions one to eight) will be seeded and play the winners of each playoff, playing the second-leg at home. The Europa League knockouts will be two-legged until the final, which will be held, like normal, at a neutral venue in a one-legged match.

The conversation is currently centred on player welfare and how much football is being played. In the Europa League, matches will begin in September and end in January, with one matchday in September and December and two in October, November and January before knockouts through to May.