2009–10 UEFA Europa League
HSH Nordbank Arena, Hamburg hosted the final.
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| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 17 September 2009 – 12 May 2010 (competition proper) 2 July – 27 August 2009 (qualifying) |
| Teams | 48+8 (competition proper) 159+33 (total) (from 53 associations) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |
 Atlético Madrid (1st title)
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| Runners-up |
 Fulham
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| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 205 |
| Goals scored | 539 (2.63 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
 Claudio Pizarro Óscar Cardozo(9 goals) |
The 2009–10 UEFA Europa League was the first season of the UEFA Europa League, Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA. The competition was previously known as the UEFA Cup, which had been in existence for 38 years.
Spain's Atlético Madrid won the tournament for the first time, beating Fulham – who were playing in their first European final – at the HSH Nordbank Arena, home ground of Hamburger SV, in Hamburg, Germany.
A total of 192 teams from 53 UEFA associations participated in the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League. Associations are allocated places according to their 2008 UEFA country coefficient, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2003–04 to 2007–08.
Below is the qualification scheme for the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League:
Since the winners of the 2008–09 UEFA Cup, Shakhtar Donetsk, qualified for the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League through domestic performance, the title holder spot reserved for them in the group stage was vacated. As this was the first edition of the Europa League, it was initially unknown whether UEFA would simply disregard the vacant title holder spot and rearrange entries so that one more team would qualify from the play-off round, or replace the title holders' group stage place with that of the top-ranked association's cup winner and move teams from lower rounds appropriately, as the regulations are unclear on this matter. The former set-up was confirmed by UEFA's official list of participants, published on 16 June 2009. As a result, the following changes to the default allocation system were made to compensate for the vacant title holder spot in the group stage:
A Europa League place is vacated when a team qualify for both the Champions League and the Europa League, or qualify for the Europa League by more than one method. When a place is vacated, it is redistributed within the national association by the following rules:
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