The 2025–26 UEFA Europa League was 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. This was the second season played under a new format, which replaced the 32-team group stage with a 36-team league phase.
The final was played on 20 May 2026 at Beşiktaş Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey, with Aston Villa being crowned champions for the first time after defeating SC Freiburg 3–0 in the final.
As the reigning champions, Tottenham Hotspur automatically qualified for the Champions League league phase, and were unable to defend their title as the new format did not allow clubs to transfer from the Champions League into the Europa League from the league phase onwards.
Association team allocation A total of 77 teams from 41 of the 55 UEFA member associations participated in the 2025–26 UEFA Europa League. Among them, 32 associations had teams directly qualifying for the Europa League, while for the other 23 associations that did not have any teams directly qualifying, 9 of them had teams playing after being transferred from the Champions League. The association ranking based on the UEFA association coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association: 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 had two teams. Associations 13–33 (except Russia) each had one team. 32 teams eliminated from the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League qualifying phase and play-off round were transferred to the Europa League.
Association ranking For the 2025–26 UEFA Europa League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2024 UEFA association coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2019–20 to 2023–24.
Apart from the allocation based on the association coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Europa League, as noted below: – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Champions League – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Conference League
+Association ranking for 2025–26 UEFA Europa LeagueRankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes1104.3032290.2843 89.489486.624566.831661.300756.316848.800938.6001036.0501136.0501232.9751332.60011431.6251531.5251631.4501731.1251828.0001927.775RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes2025.52512125.3752222.96502322.10012421.8752521.5002621.3752720.3752820.1252919.6253013.2503113.1253211.5413311.5003411.12503510.8753610.6253710.625RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes3810.37503910.0004010.000419.583429.208438.625448.500458.250467.625477.375487.207496.625506.000515.998525.791535.708544.957551.832
Distribution Teams entering in this roundTeams advancing from the previous roundTeams transferred from Champions LeagueFirst qualifying round (16 teams) 16 domestic cup winners from associations 17–34 (except Russia and Croatia)Second qualifying round (16 teams) 1 domestic cup winner from association 16 6 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 7–12 1 domestic league fourth-placed team from association 6 8 winners from the first qualifying roundThird qualifying round (26 teams)Champions Path (12 teams) 12 losers from Champions League second qualifying round (Champions Path)League Path (14 teams) 3 domestic cup winners from associations 13–15 8 winners from second qualifying round 3 losers from Champions League second qualifying round (League Path)Play-off round(24 teams) 5 domestic cup winners from associations 8–12 13 winners from third qualifying round 6 losers from Champions League third qualifying round (Champions Path)League phase (36 teams) 7 domestic cup winners from associations 1–7 5 domestic league fifth-placed teams from associations 1–5 1 cup winner from association 20 as the team with the highest club coefficient, originally from the first qualifying round 12 winners from play-off round 5 losers from Champions League play-off round (Champions Path) 4 losers from Champions League third qualifying round (League Path) 2 losers from Champions League play-off round (League Path)Knockout phase play-offs(16 teams) 16 teams ranked 9–24 from the league phaseRound of 16(16 teams) 8 teams ranked 1–8 from the league phase 8 winners from the knockout phase play-offs
The information here reflects the ongoing suspension of Russia in European football, and so the following changes to the default access list were made:
The cup winners of association 16 (Denmark) entered 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 were made:
Dinamo Zagreb, as the club with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have entered the qualifying phase or play-off round, entered the league phase instead of the first qualifying round. The cup winners of association 34 (Finland) entered the first qualifying round, instead of the Conference League second qualifying round.
Teams 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 was divided into Champions Path (CH) and Main Path (MP).
+Qualified teams for 2025–26 UEFA Europa LeagueEntry roundTeamsLeague phase Aston Villa Nottingham Forest Bologna Roma Real Betis Celta Vigo VfB Stuttgart SC Freiburg Lille Lyon Go Ahead Eagles Porto Dinamo Zagreb Celtic Basel Sturm Graz Red Star Belgrade Ferencváros Fenerbahçe Rangers Nice Feyenoord Viktoria Plzeň Red Bull Salzburg Play-off round Genk Samsunspor Sigma Olomouc Aberdeen Young Boys Dynamo Kyiv Lech Poznań Malmö FF Ludogorets Razgrad Slovan Bratislava Shkëndija Third qualifying round Maccabi Tel Aviv Rijeka FCSB Drita KuPS Shelbourne Noah RFS Zrinjski Mostar Breiðablik Hamrun Spartans Lincoln Red Imps Wolfsberger AC Fredrikstad PAOK Servette Brann Panathinaikos Second qualifying round Utrecht Braga Anderlecht Beşiktaş Baník Ostrava Hibernian Lugano Midtjylland First qualifying round Hapoel Be'er Sheva Shakhtar Donetsk Partizan Legia Warsaw AEK Larnaca Paks BK Häcken CFR Cluj Levski Sofia Sabah Spartak Trnava Celje Sheriff Tiraspol Prishtina Aktobe Ilves
Notes
Schedule The schedule of the competition was as follows. Matches were scheduled for Thursdays, apart from the final, which took place on a Wednesday, though exceptionally could take place on Tuesdays or Wednesdays due to scheduling conflicts. One exclusive week was held where both Wednesday and Thursdays were matchdays, on 24 and 25 September.
+Schedule for 2025–26 UEFA Europa LeaguePhaseRoundDraw dateFirst legSecond legQualifyingFirst qualifying round17 June 202510 July 202517 July 2025Second qualifying round18 June 202524 July 202531 July 2025Third qualifying round21 July 20257 August 202514 August 2025Play-offsPlay-off round4 August 202521 August 202528 August 2025League phaseMatchday 129 August 202524–25 September 2025Matchday 22 October 2025Matchday 323 October 2025Matchday 46 November 2025Matchday 527 November 2025Matchday 611 December 2025Matchday 722 January 2026Matchday 829 January 2026Knockout phaseKnockout round play-offs30 January 202619 February 202626 February 2026Round of 1627 February 202612 March 202619 March 2026Quarter-finalsrowspan="3" 9 April 202616 April 2026Semi-finals30 April 20267 May 2026Final20 May 2026 at Beşiktaş Stadium, Istanbul
Qualifying rounds
First qualifying round
Second qualifying round
Third qualifying round
Play-off round
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. Each team faced two opponents from each of the four pots, one at home and one away. Teams could not face opponents from their own association, and could only be drawn against a maximum of two sides from the same association.
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 were represented in the league phase.
Table
Results
Knockout phase
In the knockout phase, teams played 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.
Bracket
Knockout phase play-offs
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
Statistics Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.
Top goalscorers RankPlayerTeamGoalsMinutes played1 Igor Jesus Nottingham Forest7797 Petar Stanić Ludogorets Razgrad8583 Kerem Aktürkoğlu Fenerbahçe6699 Antony Real Betis7885 Dion Drena Beljo Dinamo Zagreb5492 Williot Swedberg Celta Vigo585 Bilal El Khannouss VfB Stuttgart644 John McGinn Aston Villa716 Federico Bernardeschi Bologna772 Ollie Watkins Aston Villa913 Vincenzo Grifo SC Freiburg980
Team of the Season The UEFA technical study group selected the following players as the team of the tournament.
PlayerTeam Emiliano Martínez Aston Villa Víctor Gómez Braga Matthias Ginter SC Freiburg Morato Nottingham Forest Óscar Mingueza Celta Vigo Maximilian Eggestein SC Freiburg John McGinn Aston Villa Morgan Rogers Aston Villa Antony Real Betis Igor Jesus Nottingham Forest Emiliano Buendía Aston Villa
Player of the Season Morgan Rogers ( Aston Villa)
Young Player of the Season Johan Manzambi ( SC Freiburg)
See also 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
References
External links