Draft:2025–26 UEFA Europa League
 The Beşiktaş Stadium in Istanbul will host the final. | |
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | Qualifying: 10 July – 28 August 2025 Competition proper: 24 September 2025 – 20 May 2026 |
| Teams | Competition proper: 36 Total: 45+31 (from 33–42 associations) |
← 2024–25 2026–27 → | |
The 2025–26 UEFA Europa League will be 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 21 May 2025 at Beşiktaş Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey.[1]
Association team allocation
[edit]A total of 78 teams from between 33 and 40 of the 55 UEFA member associations are expected to participate in the 2024–25 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 Europa 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.
- 31 teams eliminated from the 2024–25 Champions League were transferred to the Europa League.
Association ranking
[edit]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 2024–25.[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
- (UECL) – Additional berth for UEFA Europa Conference League title holders
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Distribution
[edit]| Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from the previous round | Teams transferred from Champions League | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First qualifying round (12 teams) |
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| Second qualifying round (18 teams) |
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| Third qualifying round (26 teams) |
Champions path (12 teams) |
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| League path (14 teams) |
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| Play-off round (24 teams) |
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| League phase (36 teams) |
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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.
Teams
[edit]| NOTE: The following list of qualified teams is provisional, subject to final confirmation by UEFA in June 2024, as each participating team must obtain a UEFA club licence. All qualified teams are included in this list as long as they have not been banned by UEFA or have not failed their final appeal with their football association on obtaining a licence. |
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
- ECL: Europa Conference League title holders
- CW: Cup winners
- 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc.: League position of the previous season
- UCL: 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).
| Entry round | Teams | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| League stage |  (ECL)
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 (CW)
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(5th)
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 (CW)
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| (5th)
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 (CW)
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(5th)
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 (CW)
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| (5th)
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 (CW)
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(5th)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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(UCL CH PO)
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(UCL CH PO)
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(UCL CH PO)
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| (UCL CH PO)
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(UCL CH PO)
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(UCL LP PO)
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(UCL LP PO)
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| (UCL LP Q3)
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(UCL LP Q3)
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(UCL LP Q3)
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(UCL LP Q3)
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| Play-off round |  (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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(UCL CH Q3)
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(UCL CH Q3)
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(UCL CH Q3)
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| (UCL CH Q3)
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(UCL CH Q3)
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(UCL CH Q3)
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| Third qualifying round | CH | (UCL CH Q2)
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(UCL CH Q2)
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(UCL CH Q2)
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(UCL CH Q2)
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| (UCL CH Q2)
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(UCL CH Q2)
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(UCL CH Q2)
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(UCL CH Q2)
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| (UCL CH Q2)
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(UCL CH Q2)
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(UCL CH Q2)
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(UCL CH Q2)
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| MP |  (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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(UCL LP Q2)
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| (UCL LP Q2)
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(UCL LP Q2)
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| Second qualifying round | (4th)
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(3rd)
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(3rd)
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(3rd)
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| (3rd)
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(3rd)
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(3rd)
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| First qualifying round |  (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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 (CW)
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 Aktobe (CW)
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- ^ Russia (RUS): On 28 February 2022, Russian football clubs and national teams were suspended from FIFA and UEFA competitions due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[4] The tables reflect Russia's ongoing suspension from UEFA competitions.[5]
Schedule
[edit]The schedule of the competition is as follows.[6] 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. Compared to past seasons, one exclusive week will be introduced where both Wednesday and Thursdays are matchdays, held on September 24 and 25.[7][8][9]
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying | First qualifying round | 22 June 2025 | 10 July 2025 | 17 July 2025 |
| Second qualifying round | 23 June 2025 | 24 July 2025 | 31 July 2025 | |
| Third qualifying round | 30 June 2025 | 7 August 2025 | 14 August 2025 | |
| Play-offs | Play-off round | 4 August 2025 | 21 August 2025 | 28 August 2025 |
| League phase | Matchday 1 | 29 August 2025 | 24–25 September 2025 | |
| Matchday 2 | 2 October 2025 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 23 October 2025 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 6 November 2025 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 27 November 2025 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 11 December 2025 | |||
| Matchday 7 | 22 January 2026 | |||
| Matchday 8 | 29 January 2026 | |||
| Knockout phase | Knockout round play-offs | 30 January 2026 | 12 February 2026 | 19 February 2026 |
| Round of 16 | 20 February 2026 | 5 March 2026 | 12 March 2026 | |
| Quarter-finals | 9 April 2026 | 16 April 2026 | ||
| Semi-finals | 30 April 2026 | 7 May 2026 | ||
| Final | 20 May 2026 at Beşiktaş Stadium, Istanbul | |||
See also
[edit]- 2025–26 UEFA Champions League
- 2025–26 UEFA Conference League
- 2026 UEFA Super Cup
- 2025–26 UEFA Women's Champions League
- 2025–26 UEFA Youth League
References
[edit]- ^ "Budapest to host UEFA Champions League Final 2026". Union of European Football Associations. 22 May 2024. Retrieved 22 May 2024.
- ^ "Regulations of the UEFA Champions League, 2024/25 Season". Nyon: UEFA. 2024. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
- ^ "Association coefficients 2023/24". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
- ^ "Ukraine crisis: Fifa and Uefa suspend all Russian clubs and national teams". BBC.co.uk. British Broadcasting Corporation. 28 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- ^ "UEFA decisions for upcoming competitions relating to the ongoing suspension of Russian national teams and clubs" (Press release). Nyon: UEFA. 2 May 2022. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
- ^ "UEFA club competitions cycle 2024–27 ("Post 2024")". UEFA Circular Letter. No. 36/2023. Union of European Football Associations. 7 July 2023. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
- ^ UEFA.com (25 October 2023). "New format for Champions League post-2024: Everything you need to know | UEFA Champions League". UEFA.com. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
- ^ Sheldon, Dan. "How the new Champions League format works". The Athletic. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
- ^ Dunbar, Graham (10 July 2023). "More national derby games possible when revamped Champions League starts next year". AP News. Retrieved 11 December 2023.