2025–26 UEFA Europa League

The 2025–26 UEFA Europa League is the 55th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 17th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.

The final will be played on 20 May 2026 at Beşiktaş Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey.^[1]

This is the second season played under a new format, which replaced the 32-team group stage with a 36-team league phase.

Tottenham Hotspur are the reigning champions, but will not be able to defend their title as the winner of the Europa League automatically qualifies for the Champions League league phase, and the new format does not allow clubs to transfer from the Champions League into the Europa League from the league phase onwards.

A total of 77 teams from between 33 and 40 of the 55 UEFA member associations are expected to participate in the 2025–26 UEFA Europa League. Among them, 33 associations have teams directly qualifying for the Europa League, while for the other 12 associations that do not have any teams directly qualifying may have teams playing after being transferred from the Champions League. The association ranking based on the UEFA association coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:^[2]

• The title holders of the UEFA Conference League were given an entry in the Europa League (if they did not qualify for the Champions League or Europa League via league position).
• Associations 1–12 each have two teams.
• Associations 13–33 (except Russia^{[Note RUS]}) each have one team.
• 32 teams eliminated from the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League qualifying phase and play-off round will be transferred to the Europa League.

For the 2025–26 UEFA Europa League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2024 UEFA association coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2019–20 to 2023–24.^[3]

Apart from the allocation based on the association coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Europa League, as noted below:

• (UCL) – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Champions League
• (CON) – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Conference League

The information here reflects the ongoing suspension of Russia in European football, and so the following changes to the default access list have been made:

• The cup winners of association 16 (Denmark) will enter the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round.

As the Conference League title holders (Chelsea) qualified for the Champions League league phase via their domestic league's standard berth allocation, the following changes to the default access list have been made:

• Dinamo Zagreb, as the club with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have entered the qualifying phase or play-off round, will enter the league phase instead of the first qualifying round.
• The cup winners of association 34 (Finland) will enter the first qualifying round, instead of the Conference League second qualifying round.

The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:

• CON: Conference League title holders
• CW: Cup winners
• 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.: League position of the previous season
• RL: Winners of the regular league phase
• CL: Transferred from the Champions League
  • CH/LP PO: Losers from the play-off round (Champions/League Path)
  • CH/LP Q3: Losers from the third qualifying round (Champions/League Path)
  • CH/LP Q2: Losers from the second qualifying round (Champions/League Path)

The third qualifying round is divided into Champions Path (CH) and Main Path (MP).

Notes

The schedule of the competition is as follows.^[9] Matches are scheduled for Thursdays, apart from the final, which takes place on a Wednesday, though exceptionally can take place on Tuesdays or Wednesdays due to scheduling conflicts. One exclusive week will be held where both Wednesday and Thursdays are matchdays, on 24 and 25 September.^[10]

The draw for the first qualifying round was held on 17 June 2025. The first legs were played on 10 July, and the second legs were played on 17 July 2025.

The winners of the ties advanced to the second qualifying round. The losers were transferred to the Conference League Main Path second qualifying round.

The draw for the second qualifying round was held on 18 June 2025. The first legs were played on 24 July and the second legs were played on 31 July 2025.

The winners of the ties advanced to the Main Path third qualifying round. The losers were transferred to the Conference League Main Path third qualifying round.

The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 21 July 2025. The first legs were played on 5, 6 and 7 August, and the second legs were played on 12 and 14 August 2025.

The winners of the ties advanced to the play-off round. The losers were transferred to the Conference League play-off round.

The draw for the play-off round was held on 4 August 2025. The first legs were played on 21 August, and the second legs will be played on 27 and 28 August 2025.

The winners of the ties will advance to the league phase. The losers will be transferred to the Conference League league phase.

The league phase draw for the 2025–26 UEFA Europa League took place on 29 August 2025. The 36 teams were divided into four pots of nine teams each, based on their UEFA club coefficient.

The draw ceremony was held along with the league phase draw for the 2025–26 UEFA Conference League, as a change from the previous season. When the 36 teams were manually drawn one at a time, the draw was entirely computer generated with all 36 teams' opponents and home/away locations drawn at once, but revealed pot by pot.^[11] Each team will face two opponents from each of the four pots, one at home and one away. Teams cannot face opponents from their own association, and could only be drawn against a maximum of two sides from the same association.^[12][13]

Aston Villa, Bologna, Brann, Go Ahead Eagles and Nottingham Forest made their debut appearances since the introduction of the group stage (although Aston Villa and Brann had previously appeared in the UEFA Cup group stage). Go Ahead Eagles and Nottingham Forest made their debut appearances in a major UEFA competition group or league phase.

A total of 23 national associations was represented in the league phase.

The top eight ranked teams will receive a bye to the round of 16. The teams ranked from 9th to 24th will contest the knockout phase play-offs, with the teams ranked from 9th to 16th seeded for the draw. Teams ranked from 25th to 36th will be eliminated from European competition.

In the knockout phase, teams will play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The bracket structure for the knockout phase was partially fixed in advance using seeding, with teams' positions in the bracket determined by the final standings in the league phase. In the knockout phase, there was no country protection, with teams from the same association able to face each other in any round. Teams could also face opponents they played during the league phase.

The mechanism of the draws for each round was as follows:^[2]

• In the draw for the knockout phase play-offs, the eight teams finishing the league phase in positions 9–16 were seeded, and the eight teams finishing the league phase in positions 17–24 were unseeded. The draw was split into four sections based on the predetermined bracket, with the seeded teams in each section drawn against one of their two possible unseeded opponents. The seeded teams hosted the second leg.
• In the draw for the round of 16, the eight teams finishing the league phase in positions 1–8 were seeded, and the eight winners of the knockout phase play-offs were unseeded. Again, the draw was split into four sections based on the predetermined bracket, with the seeded teams in each section drawn against one of their two possible unseeded opponents. The seeded teams hosted the second leg.
• Teams finishing first to fourth at the end of the league phase will play the second leg of the quarter-final stages at home. Furthermore, for the semi-final, teams ranked one and two will also play the second leg at home if they progress to that stage. If a seeded team is beaten in either round, the team that eliminates them takes over their seeding position.

The draw for the knockout phase play-offs will be held on 30 January 2026, 13:00 CET. The first legs will be played on 19 February, and the second legs on 26 February 2026.

The draw for the round of 16 will be held on 27 February 2026, 13:00 CET. The first legs will be played on 12 March, and the second legs on 19 March 2026.

Teams finishing first to fourth at the end of the league phase will play the second leg of the quarter-final stages at home. If a seeded team is beaten, the team that eliminates them takes over their seeding position. The first legs will be played on 9 April, and the second legs on 16 April 2026.

Teams seeded one and two will play the second leg at home if they progress to this stage. If a seeded team is beaten, the team that eliminates them takes over their seeding position. The first legs will be played on 30 April, and the second legs on 7 May 2026.

The final will be on 20 May 2026 at the Beşiktaş Stadium in Istanbul. The winner of semi-final 1 will be designated as the "home" team for administrative purposes.

Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.

Table correct as of 11 December 2025.

• 2025–26 UEFA Champions League
• 2025–26 UEFA Conference League
• 2026 UEFA Super Cup
• 2025–26 UEFA Women's Champions League
• 2025–26 UEFA Women's Europa Cup
• 2025–26 UEFA Youth League

• Official website