The 2016–17 UEFA Europa League qualifying phase and play-off round began on 28 June and ended on 25 August 2016.
A total of 154 teams competed in the qualifying phase and play-off round to decide 22 of the 48 places in the group stage of the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League.
The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).
[1][2][3] Matches could also be played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays instead of the regular Thursdays due to scheduling conflicts.
The team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs advanced to the next round.
If the aggregate score was level, the away goals rule would be applied, i.e., the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs advanced.
If away goals were also equal, then thirty minutes of extra time would be played, divided into two fifteen-minutes halves.
The away goals rule would be again applied after extra time, i.e., if there were goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score was still level, the visiting team advanced by virtue of more away goals scored.
If no goals were scored during extra time, the tie would be decided by penalty shoot-out.
[1] In the draws for each round, teams were seeded based on their UEFA club coefficients at the beginning of the season, with the teams divided into seeded and unseeded pots.
For these draws (or in any cases where the result of a tie in the previous round was not known at the time of the draw), the seeding was carried out under the assumption that the team with the higher coefficient of an undecided tie advanced to this round, which means if the team with the lower coefficient was to advance, it simply took the seeding of its defeated opponent.
Prior to the draws, UEFA may form "groups" in accordance with the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee, but they are purely for convenience of the draw and for ensuring that teams from the same association are not drawn against each other, and do not resemble any real groupings in the sense of the competition.
The 22 winners of the play-off round advanced to the group stage to join the 16 teams which enter in the group stage and the 10 losers of the Champions League play-off round.
[1] Below are the participating teams (with their 2016 UEFA club coefficients),[11][12] grouped by their starting rounds.
[13][14] A total of 96 teams played in the first qualifying round.
Midtjylland (5) Heart of Midlothian (2) Ventspils (4) Linfield (3) Stabæk (1) Víkingur Gøta (6) Sūduva (7) Cork City (8) Infonet Tallinn (9) Connah's Quay Nomads (10)
Jeunesse Esch (6) Atlantas (9) Glenavon (8) Llandudno (10) Dinamo Minsk (3) Brøndby (2) Aberdeen (1) Shamrock Rovers (5) Nõmme Kalju (4) Fola Esch (10) RoPS (7) Valur (9) Spartaks Jūrmala (8) Trakai (6)
Shakhtyor Soligorsk (2) Odd (3) Differdange 03 (4) Breiðablik (5) Cliftonville (6) Jelgava (7) Mariehamn (8)
Bala Town (10) AEK Larnaca (1) Vojvodina (2) Dila Gori (4) Široki Brijeg (3) Domžale (5) Shirak (6) Birkirkara (8) Lusitanos (7) Bokelj (9) Folgore (10) Videoton (5) Lokomotiva Zagreb (2) Rabotnicki (3) Čukarički (4) Pyunik (1) Ordabasy (6) Budućnost Podgorica (8) Zaria Bălți (7) UE Santa Coloma (9) Europa (10) Neftçi (4) Admira Wacker Mödling (3) Beitar Jerusalem (2) Kukësi (1) Zimbru Chișinău (5) Rudar Pljevlja (10) Chikhura Sachkhere (7) Spartak Myjava (8) Sloboda Tuzla (9) Balzan (6) Maccabi Tel Aviv (4) Debrecen (2) Gabala (3) Vaduz (1) Beroe Stara Zagora (5) Gorica (6) Samtredia (8) Radnik Bijeljina (7) La Fiorita (9) Sileks (10) Omonia (4) Spartak Trnava (2) Kairat (3) Cracovia (1) Shkëndija (5) Hibernians (7) Teuta (6) Banants (8) Slovan Bratislava (4) Aktobe (2) Zagłębie Lubin (3) Dacia Chișinău (1) Kapaz (5) Slavia Sofia (6) MTK Budapest (7) Partizani (8) The first legs were played on 28 and 30 June, and the second legs were played on 5, 6 and 7 July 2016.
2–2 on aggregate; St Patrick's Athletic won on away goals.
Slovan Bratislava won on walkover after Partizani were promoted to the Champions League.
Partizan (5) Maccabi Haifa (4) Dinamo Minsk[†] (3) Vojvodina[†] (1) Spartak Trnava[†] (2) Shirak[†] (6) St Patrick's Athletic[†] (10) Zagłębie Lubin[†] (7) Connah's Quay Nomads[†] (8) Nõmme Kalju[†] (9) Austria Wien (5)
MTK Budapest[†] (1) Shakhtyor Soligorsk[†] (3) Brøndby[†] (2) Gabala[†] (8) Kukësi[†] (7) Hibernian (6) Beroe Stara Zagora[†] (9) Domžale[†] (10) Midtjylland[†] (1) Grasshopper (5) Neftçi[†] (3) Osmanlıspor (4) Lokomotiva Zagreb[†] (2)
Vaduz[†] (8) RoPS[†] (6) Shkëndija[†] (10) Zimbru Chișinău[†] (9) Maribor (6) Omonia[†] (5) Slovan Bratislava[†] (3) IFK Göteborg[†] (4) Heart of Midlothian[†] (2) PAS Giannina (1) Odd[†] (7) Piast Gliwice (9) Levski Sofia (11) Beitar Jerusalem[†] (10) Jelgava[†] (8) Birkirkara[†] (12) Maccabi Tel Aviv[†] (4) Hajduk Split (5) Debrecen[†] (3) Admira Wacker Mödling[†] (1) Ventspils[†] (2) BK Häcken (6) Aberdeen[†] (12) CSM Politehnica Iași (10) Kairat[†] (9) Cork City[†] (11) Kapaz[†] (7) Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino (8) Genk (3) AEK Larnaca[†] (2)
Videoton[†] (1) Strømsgodset (5) Slavia Prague (4) Budućnost Podgorica[†] (8) Cliftonville[†] (12) Čukarički[†] (7) Levadia Tallinn[†] (9) Europa[†] (11) SønderjyskE (10) The first legs were played on 14 July, and the second legs were played on 20 and 21 July 2016.
Saint-Étienne (1) Maccabi Tel Aviv[†] (2) Spartak Moscow (3) Vorskla Poltava (4) Dinamo Minsk[†] (5) AEK Larnaca[†] (6) AEK Athens (7) Vojvodina[†] (8) Pandurii Târgu Jiu (9) Lokomotiva Zagreb[†] (10)
Krasnodar (2) Zagłębie Lubin[†] (3) Sassuolo (4) Rio Ave (5) Beitar Jerusalem[†] (6) Jelgava[†] (7) Luzern (8) SønderjyskE[†] (9) Slavia Prague[†] (10) Birkirkara[†] (11) PAS Giannina[†] (12) Lille (1) Maribor[†] (2) Austria Wien[†] (3) Panathinaikos (4) Nõmme Kalju[†] (5) Hajduk Split[†] (6) Oleksandriya (7)
Spartak Trnava[†] (9) Osmanlıspor[†] (10) Aberdeen[†] (11) Gabala[†] (12) Genk[†] (1) Rapid Wien (2) Hertha BSC (3) Rijeka (4) Arouca (5) Mladá Boleslav (6) Shkëndija[†] (7) İstanbul Başakşehir (8) Brøndby[†] (9) Heracles Almelo (10) Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino[†] (11) Cork City[†] (12) Gent (1) Slovan Liberec (2) West Ham United (3) Midtjylland[†] (4)
Apollon Limassol (6) Grasshopper[†] (7) Videoton[†] (8) Domžale[†] (9) IFK Göteborg[†] (10) Admira Wacker Mödling[†] (11) Viitorul Constanța (12) The first legs were played on 28 July, and the second legs were played on 3 and 4 August 2016.
3–3 on aggregate; Maccabi Tel Aviv won 4–3 on penalties.