EUROPA LEAGUE: GUIDE BY BEN HARDIE Sunderland will play in Europe for the first time in 53 years next season. The Europa League isn’t a prospect many were expecting, even at the start of last week and especially not at the start of the season. The competition itself is not that complicated once you know how it all works, although UEFA have done their best to make it much more confusing (albeit with a trade-off of making it a lot more interesting to watch, I’d argue). We are no experts, having never been in this position before, but here's everything we know about the competition so far. There are a few things you might want to know before we play our first match in September... WHEN ARE THE GAMES? Unlike a lot of domestic competitions, we already know exactly when each one of our eight league stage matches will be, aside from the opening game which can be on one of two dates. MATCHDAY 1: 16/17 SEPTEMBER MATCHDAY 2: 15 OCTOBER MATCHDAY 3: 22 OCTOBER MATCHDAY 4: 5 NOVEMBER MATCHDAY 5: 26 NOVEMBER MATCHDAY 6: 10 DECEMBER MATCHDAY 7: 21 JANUARY MATCHAY 8: 28 JANUARY WHEN DO WE FIND OUT WHO WE PLAY? This is the biggest thing to look forward to as well as the most important logistically if you’re actually planning on travelling to any of our four away matches. The draw date is 28th August, one day after the play-off round confirms the final teams to qualify for the Europa League. At the moment, beyond speculation and a million permutations, we have no idea who we will get. The only exception is we can’t draw English teams in the league stage, so no Bournemouth or, possibly, Crystal Palace. HOW DOES THE DRAW WORK? The 36 teams will be divided into four pots of nine, based on their coefficients in Europe. You then draw two teams from each pot, including your own. As mentioned, you can’t get teams from your own country and you also can’t get a team from the same country more than twice. So we could get Real Sociedad and Celta Vigo for instance but we couldn’t then get Rayo Vallecano (if they qualify by beating Palace in the final of the Conference League), or a combination thereof. After our eight opponents are pencilled in, we then learn which ones we are playing at home or away. You cannot draw a team at home and away, there are no return legs in the league stage. For example, if we draw Marseille we’ll either play them at the Stadium of Light or in France, not both. UEFA’s algorithm tries to factor in logistics and a fair balance of home and away fixtures. Long story short though, we play four home matches and four away matches. WHAT POT WILL WE BE IN? Pot 3 or 4 most likely. WHAT WILL THE ALLOCATIONS BE LIKE? Unfortunately, UEFA rules mandate clubs only have to give 5% of their stadium to away supporters. However, it is worth noting that a club must have a stadium of at least 8,000 capacity to play at their own ground in the Europa League, or they have to play somewhere else. That means the minimum allocation will be no less than 400 no matter what. We’ll have to give away teams an allocation of somewhere between 2,300 and 2,450, depending on if they use the workable capacity of the stadium or the paper capacity of 49,000. HOW DO THE KNOCKOUT STAGES WORK? Not to get too far ahead, so I’ll keep this brief. The top eight after the league stage advance straight to the round of 16. Teams ranked ninth to 24th will play in a knockout play-off to join them. Ninth to 16th are seeded in the draw, which means they get to play the second leg of the tie, against the teams 17th to 24th, at home. All knockout ties are over two legs, except the final which is just a single game at a neutral venue. The Waldstadion in Frankfurt will host the final. “In the draw for the round of 16, the eight teams finishing the league phase in positions 1–8 are seeded, and the eight winners of the knockout phase play-offs are unseeded. In the quarter finals and semi finals, both the exact match pairings and order of legs are predetermined based on the tournament bracket. The teams with the better league phase ranking play the second leg of each round at home if they continue advancing. Should a seeded team be beaten, the team that eliminated them takes over their seeding position. The winner of semi final 1 is designated as the "home" team for the final.”- from Wikipedia (don’t shoot the messenger). The dates for the knockout stages (if you dare to think about them) are as follows: KNOCKOUT ROUND PLAY-OFFS (DRAW ON 29TH JANUARY): FEBRUARY 18 AND 25 ROUND OF 16 (DRAW ON 26TH FEBRUARY, ALONGSIDE DRAW FOR REMAINING ROUNDS): MARCH 11 AND 18 QUARTER FINAL: APRIL 8 AND 15 SEMI FINAL: APRIL 29 AND MAY 6 FINAL: MAY 26 ANYTHING ELSE? Yes, Russian clubs remain banned and Belarusian clubs aren’t banned but aren’t allowed to play in Belarus. Due to ongoing conflicts, Ukrainian and Israeli teams cannot play in their respective countries, so their ‘home’ games are played elsewhere. It is also worth clarifying that Champions League teams cannot drop down into the Europa League, except in the qualifiers. Similarly, Europa League teams can only drop into the UEFA Conference League if they're knocked out in the qualifiers. We don't have to play any qualifiers, therefore the Conference League is not possible for us. Finally, the orders and pairs for the round of 16 are pre-determined.

One more chapter to write... 'Til The End ✊

The FSA AGM takes place on Sat 6th June in central London, it's totally free, and we'd love to see you there. Read this thread for more on speakers & debates... 🔗 thefsa.org.uk/about/agm/

A great initiative to assist men's mental health. No need to book, just turn up to The Peacock on Thursday 21st for a bit of a sing-a-long (or just listen) and to have a bit general craic.

The Heaven branch’s new badge will be on sale in the Supporters association shop before kick off today! Thank you @Kevsafc22 for your ongoing support it’s the sales from these that allow us to do various things to support our fans 🥰£.4.00 each x

Noah Sadiki Matchday Graphic | Sunderland vs Man Utd 🎨 Now this, is one of my favourites. I went for quite a different style to show some variety and wanted to focus on showing ‘energy’ in this design. No better player than Sadiki for that! Any support is appreciated! #SAFC

This looks great. Congrats on the exhibition Chris.

I hope that Stadium of Light is bouncing tomorrow. Id love it to be as it was first day of the season, or the home game against Arsenal. There's absolutely no reason why we cant get a win. Get into these last 3 games of the season

Yesterday RAWA met with Tom Burwell (Interim CEO) and SAFC staff to discuss recent season ticket renewal problems and NUFC ticket cancellations. The discussion is briefly summarized below and SAFC will be taking further steps imminently;

👇🏼 Details of upcoming meetings with SAFC. Please share your thoughts in the replies or email info@redandwhitearmy.co.uk

We have asked @SunderlandAFC to pause release of unrenewed season tickets until a number of ongoing concerns with the policy / process can be fixed. If you’re experiencing any issues in relation to renewing season tickets please contact info@redandwhitearmy.co.uk Further info;

Remember, you have until noon tomorrow (Sat 11th) to renew your season ticket and follow the lads Premier League title challenge! 🟥⬜🟥⬜🟥

Under David Bruce's tenure we've seen improvements to the matchday experience, our retail offering and a greater sense of identity at the SoL. Much of this was a response to dialogue with fans. We'd like to thank David for overseeing all this and we wish him well for the future.

75% of fans oppose VAR in Premier League, says FSA bbc.in/416aTW2

Statement:

A little while back, we were concerned to hear of ticket cancellations for the nufc match. We have been engaging with the club to clarify issues, decision making and policies around away ticketing and are hoping for updates soon.

DERBY FEEDBACK We want to hear about your experiences getting to and from St James Park on Sunday. Did you account any difficulties/issues? If so please get in touch with us. info@redandwhitearmy.co.uk