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Djair Parfitt-Williams and his West Ham United teammates 2016/17 European quest begins on Friday when the draw for the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round is held.
The Hammers join the likes of AZ Alkmaar, Lille, Saint-Etienne and Hertha Berlin in entering the competition at this stage.
The draw will be streamed live on uefa.com and takes place at UEFA HQ in Nyon, Switzerland at 12pm BST on Friday, when all eyes will be on the process to decide who the Hammers’ first opponents in competitive action of the 2016/17 season will be.
33 clubs will qualify for the third qualifying round from the second qualifying round ties being played this week and next, and they will be joined by the 25 sides who enter at this stage.
West Ham will be one of 29 seeded teams in the draw, which means their highest ranked potential opponent is Grasshoppers of Switzerland.
For the draw, the teams are split into five groups containing an equal number of seeded and unseeded teams. Each seeded club will meet an unseeded club from within the same group.
The Hammers therefore potentially face a trip as far afield as Azerbaijan or Armenia, but opponents closer to home such as Scotland's Aberdeen and Hibs also lay in wait.
Ties will be played on Thursday July 28th and Thursday August 4th.
The Hammers will be embarking upon their eighth European campaign, with victory in the 1964/65 European Cup Winners Cup ranking as one of the finest moments in the Club’s history.
They also reached the final of the same competition in 1975/76 and have more recently competed in the UEFA Cup or Europa League in 1999/2000, 2006/07 and 2014/15.
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