The draw for the first and second qualification rounds of the UEFA Europa League will be made today at the headquarters of the European Football Union (UEFA). This will not affect Borussia Dortmund. BVB will not join in until the third qualification round and they will be one of the seeded teams. This round will be drawn on the 17th July.

West Ham United, Borussia Dortmund’s opponent in the semi-final of the European Cup Winner’s Cup 1966 and Rosenborg Trondheim, their opponent in the UEFA Champions League 16 years ago are by far the most prominent teams in the first round – and they will not be potential Black Yellow opponents in the third round, because – providing they get that far – they will also be amongst the seeded teams, even if they only just qualify to be seeded.

Borussia Dortmund leads the list of seeded teams within the qualification rounds with a coefficient of 99883 points. Possible opponents in round three will be the unseeded teams FC Thun from Switzerland (10375) or Vitesse Arnheim (10195 Netherlands) at the top of the list and Tirgu Mures from Romania (5259) and SCR Altach from Austria (5135) at the way bottom of the list.

The draw for the third round will entail 58 teams that will be split up into five groups with five seeded teams and six unseeded teams. Because the competition regulations from 2012 to 2015 do not apply anymore and the new regulations have not been published yet, no statement can be made yet about the way the “groups” have been split up. One year ago 1.FSV Mainz played against Asteras Tripolis and two years ago VfB Stuttgart faced Botev Plovdiv at this stage.

After the third qualification round, that will be a “knock-out” round just like the two previous rounds, there will the “play-offs” (fourth qualification round). Borussia Dortmund would be the first seeded team in this round.

The group phase could then turn into a real renaissance of Black Yellow European Cup history. Lazio Roma, RSC Anderlecht and FC Liverpool will be in pot 2 (providing the clubs with the higher coefficients get through the qualification rounds without any exceptions), Sparta Prague, Fenerbahce Istanbul, Lokomotiv Moscow would be in pot 3 and Sampdoria Genoa or Slovan Liberec could also be possible opponents. (br)