Europa League 2025-26

[Somniloquism]

I know no-one was doing it really, the paper were just making up a story that their readers will swallow on why Israeli teams are still in the competition. As they were stating initially that the Qatari's had bought FIFA and using their influence there to pressure UEFA, I was wondering what bollocks they imagined the Americans were bringing to counter Qatari's money.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Pro-Palestinian protesters, most of them PAOK fans, gather ahead of a Europa League soccer match between PAOK and Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv in the port city of Thessaloniki, northern Greece, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025.

[Somniloquism]

Seems Sky is the first other news source to cover it. Although most seems to be gathering thoughts from different people rather then anything concrete.

https://news.sky.com/story/high-level-talks-in-european-football-about-whether-to-ban-israel-from-international-competitions-13437606

https://news.sky.com/story/trump-administration-will-work-to-prevent-banning-israel-from-international-football-13437794

[Somniloquism]

After the first round of matches, England are fourth in the 5th place CL coefficient with our rivals main rivals between 0.5 and 1.0 below us. The three teams above us will soon drop down as they are smaller nations won't go far but have fluked a win.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

What will happens points wise for us if the Tel Aviv match is cancelled.

Regulation 29.03 states...

"If a club is disqualified or for any reason withdraws from the competition before all its matches in the league phase have been played, the results of all its matches played until that moment remain valid. A calculation of points will need to take place upon completion of the league phase to take the cancelled matches into account. Any club that has not been able to play its scheduled match against a disqualified/withdrawn club is awarded the average number of points earned by all clubs in its same seeding pot against the clubs in the same pot as that disqualified/withdrawn club in home matches, if the affected club was due to play at home, or in away matches if the affected club was due to play away. The league phase points of all matches that have been played, including the points obtained by clubs in matches involving the disqualified/withdrawn club before their disqualification/withdrawal are not adjusted in any way, and all taken into account for the average points calculation."

https://documents.uefa.com/r/Regulations-of-the-UEFA-Europa-League-2025/26/Article-29-Refusal-to-play-and-similar-cases-Online

[Somniloquism]

So, it would be better to play them and win (assuming we can win) rather then not play them and rely on others from Pot1.

A reminder of the current pots.
Roma, Porto, Rangers,Feyenoord,Lille,GNK Dinamo, Real Betis, Salzburg, Us.

Fenerbache, Braga, Crvena Zvezda, Lyon, Paok, Plzen, Fenecvaros, Celtic, Maccabi,

In the two matches so far between the teams in the two pots, it is 1-1. (Braga beat Feynoord. GNK beat Fenerbache)

[cdbearsfan]

It's just games where pot 1 is at home to pot 2, isn't it? So ignore the Braga game. Played one, won one so far.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

As complicated as coefficients. My super dooper back of a fag packet opta computer prediction says if they were chucked out next week we would need 15.654321 points to finish top 8. 

[cdbearsfan]

If it does happen, and assuming points aren't rounded up or down, it basically means that goal difference doesn't matter. Because chances are loads of teams will finish on 15.327 points or something like that, quite unlikely to finish level. You'd be dividing by seven, I think, which isn't a great number for divisions.

[Somniloquism]

At the moment the average points is three isn't it then.

If they are banned before we play them, then the matches to watch out for {Pot1 home v Pot2 away}

Dinamo Zagreb v Fenerbache (Matchweek 1) 3 points.
Porto v Red Star  (Matchweek 2)
Rangers V Braga     (Matchweek 5)
Feyenoord v Celtic  (Matchweek 5)
Lille v POAK  (Matchweek 3)
Betis v Lyon  (Matchday 4)
Red Bull Salzburg v (Robbie Keane's) Ferencvaros

If they are banned after we play them then we get whatever points we accrued that night. No mention of goal difference adjustments either.

[cdbearsfan]

Not having goal difference adjustments seems a bit mad, though probably won't make a difference unless the seven teams get a nice divisible number of points, eg 7 or 14.

[Somniloquism]

FT: Feyenoord 0-2 Aston Villa

Since they returned to major European competition in 2023-24, only Real Madrid (19), Paris St-Germain (18) and Bayern Munich (17) have won more games in those competitions than Aston Villa (16): six in the Conference League, eight in the Champions League and two in the Europa League.

[cdbearsfan]

Good stat.

[Brazilian Villain]

Full points from 2 of our more difficult games. Wins against Go Ahead Eagles and Maccabi Tel Aviv would put us in a strong position to finish top 8.

[Somniloquism]

Full points from 2 of our more difficult games. Wins against Go Ahead Eagles and Maccabi Tel Aviv would put us in a strong position to finish top 8.

In theory our two toughest games are now the last two. Do enough in the next four and we could rest players at the end, especially as one is our furthest away trip.