The 2015–16 UEFA Europa League group stage was played from 17 September to 10 December 2015.
A total of 48 teams competed in the group stage to decide 24 of the 32 places in the knockout phase of the 2015–16 UEFA Europa League.
There are other restrictions: for example, teams from the same city (e.g., Sporting CP and Belenenses, Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş) in general do not play at home on the same matchday (UEFA tries to avoid teams from the same city playing at home on the same day, due to logistics and crowd control), and teams in certain countries (e.g., Belarus, Russia) do not play at home on the last matchday (due to cold weather and simultaneous kick-off times).
On 17 July 2014, the UEFA emergency panel ruled that Ukrainian and Russian clubs would not be drawn against each other "until further notice" due to the political unrest between the countries.
If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria were applied in the order given to determine the rankings (regulations Article 16.01):[1] The matchdays were 17 September, 1 October, 22 October, 5 November, 26 November, and 10 December 2015.