Why Liverpool not in the Europa League draw? Play-off rules as UK sides miss out

Liverpool, Brighton, West Ham and Rangers will not be involved in Monday's Europa League play-off draw because they have already progressed to the last 16 of the tournament.

The draw for the first knockout stage of the Europa League takes place at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland. The draws for the last 16 of the Champions League and the play-off of the Europa Conference League will also be held on Monday.

The Europa League play-off draw will involve 16 teams: the eight teams who finished second in the group stage, and the eight teams who finished third in the Champions League group stage. The draw will be seeded to ensure each runner-up from the group stage is pitted against a team dropping into the tournament from the Champions League.

As Liverpool, Brighton, West Ham and Rangers all topped their group, they have automatically progressed to the last 16 of the Europa League. They will not find out their next opponents until the eight winners of the play-off round are confirmed.

Freiburg, Marseille, Sparta Prague, Sporting, Toulouse, Rennes, Roma and Qarabag are the eight Europa League teams who finished second in their group (seeded). Galatasaray, Lens, Braga, Benfica, Feyenoord, AC Milan, Young Boys and Shakhtar Donetsk are the eight Champions League teams who finished third in their group (unseeded).

Clubs from the same country cannot be drawn against each other in the play-off round. So, there is no chance of Marseille playing Lens or Roma taking on Milan.

The play-off system was introduced ahead of the 2021/22 season. Before, teams who finished top of their Europa League group would enter the last 32 of the competition along with the runners-up and those dropping into the tournament from the Champions