Harambee Stars midfielder Timothy Ouma will brush shoulders with top European sides such as Tottenham Hotspur, AS Roma and Galatasaray in the Europa League.
Ouma’s Swedish club Elfsborg were handed a tough draw on Friday after qualifying for the group stage of Europe’s second tier club competition.
In the new format, the Europa League has been expanded to 36-teams with each side set to play eight games – four at home and four away – in the league system, against two opponents from each of the four seeding pots.
Elfsborg will therefore play four home matches against Italian giants Roma, Portuguese club Braga, Qarabag from Azerbaijan and French club Nice while they take on Premier League club Tottenham, La Liga club Athletic Bilbao, AZ Alkmaar from the Netherlands and Turkish giants Galatasaray.
Teams who finish in the top eight will qualify automatically for the last 16, while those who place ninth to 24th will compete in a two-legged knockout play-off for the chance to join them.
Whoever finishes 25th or lower will be eliminated and will not be entered into the Conference League.
The number of matches in the new format will increase from 125 to 189, each team playing a minimum of eight games – instead of six – and a maximum of 17.
Europa League action begins on 25-26 September, and with the increased number of fixtures, the league phase runs until 30 January rather than finishing before Christmas.
