Atletico was drawn with Italy’s Udinese, France’s Rennes and, for now, Switzerland’s FC Sion which faces disqualification for apparently fielding ineligible players in its playoff victory against Celtic.
“It’s very important for us to know what is the situation in this case. At the moment it’s a legal situation,” Atletico director Clemente Villaverde told The Associated Press.
Elsewhere in the 48-team draw, Tottenham will face Shamrock Rovers, the first Irish club to reach the group stage of a UEFA competition. Their group includes Rubin Kazan of Russia and PAOK of Greece.
Paris Saint-Germain, under big-spending Qatari ownership, was drawn with Spain’s Athletic Bilbao, Austria’s Salzburg and Slovakia’s Slovan Bratislava.
Hours before the draw, UEFA President Michel Platini indicated Sion faced exclusion for selecting players which it signed this offseason despite a one-year transfer ban imposed by FIFA which took effect in January.
“It signed players and then played these players in clear violation of the ban,” Platini said.
Sion’s three-year legal battle with FIFA has seen the club lose verdicts at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and Swiss supreme court.
However, the case was complicated this month when the six newly signed players won a local civil court’s provisional ruling that forced Swiss football authorities to register them.
“I think the civil court will look at it again but our competition must go on,” UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino said before Sion went into the draw with an asterisk beside its name.
Infantino said UEFA’s disciplinary panel is set to consider Celtic’s official protest — the first step toward possible reinstatement — before the Europa League begins on Sept. 15. UEFA decisions can also be appealed at CAS.
Atletico will begin its six-match program on that date at home to Sion — or maybe Celtic. The Spanish side will travel to Switzerland — or Scotland — on Nov. 30.
“It is totally different,” Villaverde said. “Celtic is a great stadium and supporters making a lot of noise.”
Shamrock knows it will travel to London to face Tottenham on Sept. 29 and host the Premier League side on Dec. 15.
“Obviously it’s the big glamor tie,” Rovers chairman Jonathan Roche said on arriving sleeplessly at UEFA’s venue minutes after the draw.
Roche said he learned of the club’s opponents in a Monaco taxi, having caught a delayed morning flight from Munich, following the team’s playoff win in Belgrade against Partizan on Thursday night.
“It shows people we are a very good standard. We’ve been knocking on the door for the last five years now,” Roche said.
Shamrock will consider hosting Spurs at Dublin’s 51,000-capacity Lansdowne Road, which staged the Europa League final last May.
Braga, which was the beaten finalist then against FC Porto, was drawn in a group with FC Bruges of Belgium, Birmingham City of the English second division and Slovenia’s Maribor.
Schalke, which reached the Champions League semifinals last season, will face Israel’s Maccabi Haifa, Cyprus’ AEK Larnaca and Steaua Bucharest.
The Romanian capital will stage the final next May.
The top two in each of the 12 groups drawn on Friday will advance to a last-32 knockout phase alongside the eight third-placed teams from the Champions League groups.
