Klockan 13:00 i morgon kommer den första och andra omgången av årets Europe League att lottas på UEFA:s Huvudkontor i Nyon, Schweiz. Jag har inte sett någon uppgift om att lottdragningen kommer att TV-sändas (förmodligen inte), men den kommer i alla fall att streamas över internet enligt informationen på UEFA:s hemsida. Helt slumpmässig verkar lottdragningen inte att bli eftersom de deltagande lagen kommer att delas in i åtta lika grupper utifrån okända kriterier. Så här skriver man hos UEFA:
Draw procedure
For the first qualifying round equal numbers of seeded and unseeded teams will be allocated to five groups of ten in accordance with rankings established at the beginning of the season. For each group, balls containing seeded teams will be placed in one bowl and unseeded teams in another. A ball from each will be placed in a large empty bowl in the middle, and the first team drawn will play its first match at home. Clubs from the same association cannot be drawn against each other.
The 80 teams involved in the second qualifying round are divided into eight groups of ten, each containing five seeded and five unseeded teams. The draw follows the same procedure as the first qualifying round, with the groupings to be confirmed after the draw for the first qualifying round.