The draw for the European League playoff competition, which was drawn today, Monday, at the European Union headquarters in the Swiss city of Nyon, resulted in exciting matches, most notably the confrontation between Dutch Feyenoord and Italian Roma.
Eight clubs that ranked first in the group stage qualified directly to the round of 16 of the Europa League competition. For football, they are: the English trio: West Ham, Brighton and Liverpool, in addition to the Scottish Glasgow Rangers, the Italian Atalanta, the Spanish Villarreal, the German Bayer Leverkusen, and the Czech Slavia Prague.
While the European League play-off stage brings together eight teams that ranked runner-up during the group stage of the competition, and 8 teams that ranked third in the Champions League, and it takes place in a home-and-away system.
The European League play-off competitions will be played by:
Toulouse, Rennes, Marseille, Freiburg, Sparta Prague, Czech Republic, Sporting Lisbon, Portugal, Roma, and Karabakh, Azerbaijan.
As for the third-place teams in the Champions League, they are:
Feyenoord of the Netherlands, Young Boys of Switzerland, Galatasaray of Turkey, Lens of France, Braga and Benfica of Portugal, Milan of Italy and Shakhtar of Ukraine.
The draw stipulates that the teams that are runners-up in the European League will play the return round at their home stadiums, and the draw also prevents teams from the same country from facing each other.
The playoff draw resulted in the following results:
Feyenoord (Netherlands) – Roma (Italy)
Milan (Italy) – Rennes (France)
Lens (France) – Freiburg (Germany)
Young Boys (Switzerland) - Sporting Lisbon (Portugal)
Benfica (Portugal) – Toulouse (France)
Sporting Braga (Portugal) – Qarabag (Azerbaijan)
Galatasaray (Türkiye) - Sparta Prague (Czech Republic)
Shakhtyor (Ukraine) - Marseille (France).
The first-leg matches for the European League play-off round will be held on February 15th, with the return round matches taking place on the 22nd of the same month.
Abu Dhabi hosts the Chess Olympiad
The International Chess Federation announced on Sunday that the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, will host the 2028 Chess Olympiad.
During a meeting held yesterday, Sunday, the General Assembly of the International Chess Federation determined the location of the 2028 Chess Olympiad.
The delegates decided that Abu Dhabi would host this event, and Abu Dhabi received 96 votes, beating the Italian Genoa bid, which received 60 votes.
Last May, the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, through the UAE Chess Federation, submitted a request to host the Olympics, during the General Assembly meeting.
Hosting is a distinguished administrative victory for UAE sports, and for the game, as it includes the best players in the world.
The issue of visas played a major role in the success of the Emirati file, because during the meeting, members of many countries touched on the issue of the difficulty of obtaining entry visas for European countries, while the Emirates said that the possibility of obtaining entry visas is through electronic platforms, and stressed the full support of government institutions, in addition to the country’s experience. In organizing international events, especially sports.
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