Europa League clubs 2023-24 – Netherlands, Scotland, Czechia, Greece

The line up for the 2023-24 Europa League has been confirmed following the completion of the final set of qualifiers, meaning we now have a firmer idea of who Brighton could face in their debut campaign in the competition.

Some giants of European football (plus Rangers) have made it into the group stage, boosting the Albion’s hopes of a glamour tie but importantly providing the opportunity to go to larger away stadiums with bigger allocations.

Here is everything you need to know about Ajax, Olympiacos, Slavia Prague and Rangers, clubs who boast over 100 league titles between them. But unlike Brighton, have never won a Sussex Senior Cup.

 

Ajax Amsterdam

The football team
One of the most famous names in world football and with good reason. Not only have Ajax dominated football in the Netherlands, but they were the second most successful European club of the 20th century.

They are one of only five teams that have earned the right to keep the European Cup and to wear a multiple-winner badge thanks to their four titles.

The Ajax academy has produced some of the greatest players ever to play the game and it was the Total Football approach pioneered by Ajax which made the Netherlands side of the 1970s one of the most exciting international teams in history.

The stadium
Ajax play at the Johan Cruyff Arena. Opened in 1996, it has a capacity of 55,865. Based on away clubs receiving a five percent allocation in the Europa League, Brighton could expect around 2,800 tickets.

The stadium features a retractable roof and was officially opened by Queen Beatrix. The Queen made a curtain fall inside the stadium, revealing the world’s largest painting sized 80 x 126 meters.

Trijntje Oosterhuis sang the hymn “De Zee”, composed for the opening ceremony by John Ewbank. An eight day torch relay with 375 runners over 1400 km through the Netherlands reached the stadium.

The first runner had been Johan Cruyff starting in Ajax’s old stadium De Meer, and the last runner was Frank Rijkaard arriving in the new stadium.

And we thought the time Dick Knight cut a giant birthday cake on the pitch at Withdean to celebrate the 100th birthday of the Albion was unnecessarily over-the-top.

The place
Amsterdam is certain to be a popular destination with Brighton fans should the Seagulls draw Ajax in the 2023-24 Europa. Relatively close, easy to get to and the chance to eat lots of lovely cake.

Its canals have been given UNESCO World Heritage Status and it has been home to some of the most famous and important people in world history, including Vincent van Gogh, Anne Frank, Rembrandt and Michel Kuipers.

Links with Brighton
Dependable Dutch defender Joel Veltman has become a firm fan favourite at Brighton since signing for a bargain £900,000 from Ajax in the summer of 2020.

In that time, Veltman has pocketed Wilfried Zaha and Jack Grealish, broken his nose on his debut and live streamed himself using nothing but a pair of oven gloves to rescue a seagull which had become stuck in the chimney of his home in Hove.

 

Rangers

The football team
Rangers finished runners up in the Scottish Pub League last season. They fell in Champions League qualifying to PSV Eindhoven, meaning they enter the Europa League for 2023-24.

This may be no bad thing given how well they got on in the Champions League in 2022-23. A record of played six, lost six, scored two, conceded 20 set the worst ever performance for a club in the group stage of the competition.

An accolade Gers fans will be far less keen to shout about then their domestic achievements. Rangers have won the Scottish League title a record 55 times, the Scottish Cup 34 times, the Scottish League Cup a record 27 times and the domestic treble on seven occasions.

Most of those successes came before the club were liquidated following a financial meltdown in 2012, resulting in them reforming in the fourth tier of Scottish football.

Having worked their way back up to the Pub League, they secured their first Scottish title in a decade which also hilariously denied arch rivals Celtic from setting a new record of 10 consecutive championships.

The stadium
Rangers play at Ibrox Stadium, one of the oldest and most historic football grounds in the United Kingdom. It opened in 1899 and its main stand which is a listed building has been in use since 1928.

A British record crowd for a domestic game of 118,567 gathered in January 1939 for a league match against Celtic. It has been the scene of two stadium disasters in 1902 and 1971, after which it was rebuilt as a modern all-seater stadium.

These days, Ibrox holds 50,987. Based on away clubs receiving a five percent allocation in the Europa League, Brighton could expect around 2,500 tickets.

The place
Glasgow is located on the banks of the River Clyde and is on a northerly latitude similar to that of Moscow. It has a proud industrial heritage and was known by the end of the 19th century as the “Second City of the British Empire”, producing more than half Britain’s tonnage of shipping and a quarter of all locomotives in the world.

This history of industrialisation runs through and continues to shape the city to this day. Which makes is somewhat surprising that Glasgow was declared the most vegan friendly place in the UK in 2013 by PETA.

Across Kemp Town, hundreds of people are spitting out their soya-based morning drink with a mixture of shock and disgust at this revelation.

Links with Brighton
Two of the Rangers side who won the Scottish Pub League title in 2021 arrived at Ibrox from Brighton. Leon Balogun will always be fondly remembered by Albion fans for scoring against Crystal Palace at the Amex in December 2018 with his first touch within seconds of coming off the bench.

Connor Goldson meanwhile deserved all the success and plaudits that came his way having battled through heart surgery during his time with the Seagulls.

A special mention too for Fran Sandaza, who joined Rangers a few seasons after leaving Brighton. Scored some vital goals in the 2010-11 League One title winning campaign, looked like a horse and once slipped into WAB’s Twitter DM with the simple yet effective message of “F**K YOU” after said resemblance to a horse was pointed out.

 

Slavia Prague

The football team
Slavia Prague were founded in 1892 by a group of medical students for the purpose of increasing sporting activity amongst their peers.

Their red and white colours were chosen as standing for the heart and blood, reflecting the club’s link to medicine.

Since the Czech Republic gained independence in 1993, they are the country’s second most successful team with seven league titles. They are in the Europa League for 2023-24 having won the Czech Cup and beaten Ukrainian side Dnipro-1 in qualifying.

Slavia have an impressive pedigree in the competition. They went all the way to the semi finals in the 1994-95 season and reached the last eight in both 2018-19 and 2020-21.

The stadium
Fortuna Arena is the most modern and biggest stadium in the Czech Republic with a capacity of 19,370. Based on away clubs receiving a five percent allocation in the Europa League, Brighton could expect around 985 tickets.

It opened in 2008 and again, the club’s roots in education were reflected with Slavia taking on Oxford University in the first game played at the ground.

Fortuna Arena hosted last season’s Europa Conference League final, when Jarrod Bowen struck late in the day as West Ham defeated Fiorentina to win their first trophy in over 40 years.

The place
Who would not love an away trip to Prague? The city is a political, cultural, and economic hub of central Europe, with a rich history and Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture.

From Prague Castle to the Charles Bridge to the astronomical clock, it is one of the most beautiful places on the continent. Little wonder it is the fifth most visited European city after London, Paris, Rome, and Istanbul.

Then there is the beer, which as regular WAB readers will know is very important around these parts. Cracking pilsners which go down a treat and even in a day and age where the pound is weaker than Adam Webster defending against Michail Antonio, can still be found for under £1.50 a pint.

Links with Brighton
Brighton signed striker Abdallah Sima from Slavia on summer transfer window deadline day in 2021 for £7 million… and subsequently loaned him straight to Stoke City.

It was hard not to feel sorry for the Senegalese forward. Imagine swapping living in Prague and everything which comes with it for a year spent next to junction 15 of the M6 and bottles of Fosters in a nightclub called Gossip instead of cool glasses of Staropramen. Ouch.

 

Olympiacos

The football team
The completion of the qualifying round brings a third Greek team into the 2023-24 Europa League. Olympiacos join AEK Athens and Panathinaikos, who we looked at in a previous guide to clubs Brighton might face in the competition.

Founded on 10 March 1925, Olympiacos is the most successful club in Greek football history. They have won 47 league titles, 28 Greek Cups and four Super Cups, all records.

Founded in 1925, the initial aim of Olympiacos was stated in the club statutes – the systematic cultivation and development of its athletes’ possibilities for participation in athletic competitions.

The club wanted to spread the Olympic athletic ideal and promote sportsmanship and fan ship among the youth according to egalitarian principles, by stressing a healthy, ethical and social basis as its foundation.

A far cry from the Albion, who were formed in the Seven Stars pub in Brighton after several light ales had been consumed.

The stadium
Olympiacos play at the Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus, a port city around eight kilometres away from Athens. The ground is named after Georgios Karaiskakis, a military commander during the Greek War of Independence considered a national hero and who was mortally wounded in the area.

Karaiskakis Stadium has a capacity of 33,334. Based on away clubs receiving a five percent allocation in the Europa League, Brighton could expect around 1,666 tickets.

The original Karaiskakis Stadium was used during the Athens 1896 Summer Olympics as the Neo Phaliron Velodrome, where Frenchman Paul Masson took the three track cycling gold medals.

Ahead of the 2004 Olympics, the original ground was totally demolished and built again from scratch with the pitch turned 90 degrees.

This complete reconstruction took a record time of only 14 months, finishing just in time for the start of the games. Proof that contrary to popular opinion, the Greeks can get something done quickly if they want to.

The place
Piraeus has a long recorded history, dating back to ancient Greece. The city was founded in the early fifth century BC, when plans to make it the new port of Athens were implemented.

It continues to fulfil that role to this day. Piraeus is the chief port of Greece, the fifth largest in Europe and the 24th largest passenger port in the world serving about 4.37 million passengers annually.

The nightlife of the city is vibrant, with numerous bars and nightclubs. Restaurants unsurprisingly specialise in seafood and Piraeus also has a rich archaeological history.

Four bronze statues were discovered during construction work at a site in the city in 1959, thought to have been buried in the first century BC. The discovery was so important to modern Greek archaeology that it is still remembered by an entire generation to this day.

Links with Brighton
Gaetan Bong played for Olympiacos two seasons before his long and glorious Brighton career began in the summer of 2015.

Michal Karbownik spent the 2021-22 campaign on loan at Karaiskakis Stadium whilst Colin Kazim-Richards also had a temporary spell with Olympiacos from Blackburn Rovers.

No idea what the loan fee was for Kazim-Richards, but presumably it was not paid with money won by a Olympiacos supporter in a competition organised by Coca Cola.