Details are out on the Europa League for next year. Games will be Thursdays . We won't start until Sept 17 - which is better than havng to start in late July like asriom. Lazio are given a top seed so we will probably face the likes of Cluj, Heerenveen, Genk or the winner of the Czech domestic cup. I am very glad we don't have to play the first round - playing in the summer never does us any good. Other than Cluj, I've seen none of the others play recently - anyone have any idea of what they're like?


The final will be May 12 in Hamburg - let's hope to be there. Daje Lazio!

Genoa gets a second seed because they haven't played in Europe in 17 years. Riom gets a first seed as well.

This should be exciting, I'm really hoping we can manage to go deep.

I don't know what your worrying about them for... there's going to be much stronger teams then any mentioned in this thread already, not to mention the chance of some high quality champions league drop-outs - I can certainly see the threat of Wolfsburg and Stuttgart in the latter stages of Europa because they won't get far in the champs league I feel - and in all likelihood, either Athletico Madrid or Villareal are going to be in Europa next year, because one of them will miss out on 4th place in Spain...

As I understand it, this is what will happen.

Lazio will enter a playoff round in a bid to qualify for the group stage. It will be a two legged game. Now, presumably, there would be a seeding system for this playoff round, because participating, overall, 48 teams will qualify for the group stage. Of those 48, in Lazio's round, will be a significant number of teams who lost in the third qualifying round for the champions league

So, basically, fuck Genk and Hereenveen. There are usually some very big names who miss out in the final round of Champions league qualification. If Lazio are indeed seeded, there is an extremely good chance they will get through the group stages. I see the following teams as being seeded and therefore Lazio won't play them:

Zenit, Benfica, Ajax, 5th Placed spanish team because either Villareal or A Madrid are big enough.

I am unsure as to whether Everton and Aston Villa will be seeded - in terms of european experience, no, but they are bigger names then the likes of Guingamp, Teplice and Sion.
It's really only possible to judge what can happen, however, when seedings become official. There are, however, a lot of weak teams from the round before Lazio that they could meet.

Grossly offensive?  Please.

Obviously for the administrator of a football messageboard you are lacking. I simply quoted a standard (and non-racist/anti-semetic) set of slogans from Feyenoord ultras. Who is it offensive to? Ajax fans? By that standard I guess similar warnings should be given to every single member of this board who has spoken ill of a football club.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3eHpKPjdWM&feature=PlayList&p=56C03AC001F1E2E7&index=1
Watch from 5 minutes on.

Ajax is a Jewish club. It was founded by Jews (Amsterdam is the largest Jewish city in Netherlands). To this day, the club itself boasts itself as a Jewish club. Feyenoord, whose rivalry with Ajax is on par with Lazio and Roma, will call Ajax fans "Jews", but imply nothing anti-semitic about it. It is more so just a direct insult to the fans.

For those who did not read what I had said before it was deleted, it was this:

"Kanker joden! Neuk op Mokum!"

Let me dissect this now. For those who know nothing about Dutch: a large portion of dutch profanity actually comes from disease names. "Kanker joden" literally translates to "Cancer Jews", but should be considered as meaning "Fucking Jews" (again, Jews being Ajax fans/players). "Neuk op" would literally mean "Bother off", but it is held in a harsher, moreso vulgar regard in dutch (similar to Fuck off). Mokum is simply the Yiddish name for Amsterdam.