The Europa League is the successor tournament to the old UEFA Cup.
The Europa League is the second most important European football competition after the UEFA Champions League.
The trophy awarded to the winning team is the same as the old UEFA Cup. Shakhtar Donetsk from Ukraine were the last UEFA Cup winners before the rebranding of the competition.
Places in the Europa League are awarded to teams who finish in various runners-up places in the top European leagues and the winners of the main cup competitions and the league cup winners in both England and France. Places are also awarded to 3 teams who qualify from UEFA's Fair Play table. The previous Intertoto Cup has been discontinued.
The current format is of 12 groups (A-L) of four teams playing each other home and away after an initial qualification stage for smaller nations' teams and teams losing out in the qualification rounds for the Champions League.
The the top two teams in each group progress to two-legged knockout rounds together with eight third placed teams from the Champions League group stage.
The 2010 one-off final will be held at HSH Nordbank Arena in Hamburg, Germany.
Europa League Round of 16 Preview - Juve v Ajaz, Hamburg vs PSV are some of the ties of the round.
Shakhtar Donetsk lifted the last UEFA Cup before it becomes the Europa League next season.
Uefa Cup Final - Shakhtar Donetsk beat Werder Bremen 2-1 in Istanbul, Turkey.
Uefa Cup Final preview - Shakhtar Donetsk v Werder Bremen, Istanbul, Turkey.