Man United to play at José Mourinho-coached Fenerbahce in new Europa League format

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MONACO (AP) — Manchester United will face former coach José Mourinho’s new club Fenerbahce among its eight opponents drawn Friday in the new format of the Europa League.

Mourinho led Man United to win the Europa League in 2017 during his 2 1/2 years at Old Trafford, and took the Fenerbahce job in the offseason.

“Obviously he’s an outstanding coach, it is always going to be a tough place to go and we know that team will be well coached,” Man United sporting director Dan Ashworth said.

The date of the game in Istanbul will be confirmed by UEFA on Saturday. The competition starts on Sept. 25, one week after the Champions League opens.

As in the Champions League, the traditional group stage of the Europa League has been abolished and replaced with an expanded league phase with all 36 teams competing in a single standings. Clubs wanted UEFA to provide more revenue from more games against a wider range of higher-profile opponents.

Each Europa League team will play eight games against eight different opponents through Jan. 30.

Man United will host Rangers, PAOK, Bodo/Glimt and Twente, and also travel to Porto, Viktoria Plzen and FCSB, the club known as Steaua Bucharest when it won the 1986 European Cup. Man United avoided being paired with Ajax, the former club of its coach Erik ten Hag and the team it beat in the 2017 final.

Fenerbahce and Mourinho also will host Lyon and Athletic Bilbao, but avoided the two previous clubs he coached, Tottenham and Roma.

Tottenham’s eight games include hosting Roma, traveling to Glasgow to face Rangers and to Istanbul to face Galatasaray.

Rangers, the 2022 Europa League beaten finalist, gets two Scotland-England rivalry games and a trip to face Nice, Man United’s sibling club in France.

Man United’s minority investor Jim Ratcliffe owns chemicals giant Ineos, which had to put its ownership of Nice into a blind trust this season to comply with UEFA integrity rules.

Eintracht Frankfurt, the 2022 Europa League winner, is away to Roma and Lyon, and must travel to Istanbul to face Besiktas.

The Europa League had been played since the 2008-09 season as a 48-team group stage, leading to a 32-team knockout phase.

The top eight in the standings in January go directly to the round of 16 in March. Teams ranked ninth to 24th go into the knockout playoffs in February. The bottom 12 teams are eliminated.

The final is on May 21 at Athletic Bilbao’s stadium. The title holder gets direct entry to the next Champions League.

The Europa League prize fund is 565 million euros ($626 million), less than 25% of the Champions League total of about 2.5 billion euros ($2.77 billion).

Each team gets a basic 4.3 million euros ($4.77 million) with group-stage bonuses of 450,000 euros ($500,000) per win and 150,000 euros ($166,000) for a draw. Bonuses rise for advancing through each knockout round.

More money is allocated based on each team’s historical record in European competitions and the value of global and national broadcast deals.

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