2017–18 UEFA Europa League qualifying phase and play-off round
The 2017–18 UEFA Europa League qualifying phase and play-off round began on 29 June and will end on 24 August 2017. A total of 156 teams compete in the qualifying phase and play-off round to decide 22 of the 48 places in the group stage of the 2017–18 UEFA Europa League.
The schedule of the qualifying phase and play-off round is as follows (all draws are held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland).
Matches may also be played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays instead of the regular Thursdays due to scheduling conflicts.
In the qualifying phase and play-off round, each tie is played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The team that scores more goals on aggregate over the two legs advances to the next round. If the aggregate score is level, the away goals rule is applied, i.e. the team that scores more goals away from home over the two legs advances. If away goals are also equal, then 30 minutes of extra time is played. The away goals rule is again applied after extra time, i.e. if there are goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score is still level, the visiting team advances by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals are scored during extra time, the tie is decided by penalty shoot-out.
In the draws for each round, teams are seeded based on their UEFA club coefficients at the beginning of the season, with the teams divided into seeded and unseeded pots. A seeded team is drawn against an unseeded team, with the order of legs in each tie decided by draw. Due to the limited time between matches, the draws for the second and third qualifying rounds take place before the results of the previous round are known. For these draws (or in any cases where the result of a tie in the previous round is not known at the time of the draw), the seeding is carried out under the assumption that the team with the higher coefficient of an undecided tie advances to this round, which means if the team with the lower coefficient is to advance, it simply takes the seeding of its defeated opponent. Prior to the draws, UEFA may form "groups" in accordance with the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee, but they are purely for convenience of the draw and for ensuring that teams from the same association (or associations with political conflicts) are not drawn against each other, and do not resemble any real groupings in the sense of the competition.
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