The UEFA Cup is open to teams finishing "in leading positions behind the champions in their domestic top divisions", the champions themselves go into the UEFA Champions League, the winners of the national Cup competition, the winners of the League Cup competition in certain countries, the three winners of the final matches in the UEFA Intertoto Cup, and three clubs from UEFA's annual Fair Play assessment.
Certain national champion clubs which do not qualify for the UEFA Champions League in a particular season participate in the same season’s UEFA Cup. In addition, the 16 clubs eliminated from the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round switch to the UEFA Cup at the first round stage, while the eight third-placed clubs at the end of the UEFA Champions League group stage also revert to the UEFA Cup, but they enter the competition at the third round. From the 1997/98 season, the final has been played over one match at a neutral venue.
From the 2009–10 season, the competition was "rebranded" as the UEFA Europa League. As well as changing the competition's name, an extra 16 teams now qualify for the main stages of the competition. The group stage now consisting of 12 groups of four teams (playing in a in a double round robin), with the top two teams in each group progressing. The competition then proceeds in much the same way as the previously, with 4 rounds of two-legged knockout rounds and a one-off final held at a neutral ground.
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