2026–27 UEFA Europa League

The Waldstadion in Frankfurt will host the final
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying: 9 July – 27 August 2026 Competition proper: 16 September 2026 – 26 May 2027
Teams	Competition proper: 25+11 Total: 45+32 (from 41 associations)
← 2025–26 2027–28 →

The 2026–27 UEFA Europa League is the 56th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 18th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League.

As the reigning champions, Aston Villa automatically qualified for the Champions League league phase, and are unable to defend their title as 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 at least 33 UEFA member associations are expected to participate in the 2026–27 UEFA Europa League. The association ranking based on the UEFA association coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:^[1]

• The title holders of the 2025–26 UEFA Conference League will receive an entry into the Europa League (if they do 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.
• Teams eliminated from the 2026–27 UEFA Champions League qualifying phase and play-off round (except from the first qualifying round) will be transferred to the Europa League.

For the 2026–27 UEFA Europa League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2025 UEFA association coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2020–21 to 2024–25.^[2]

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

Association ranking for 2026–27 UEFA Europa League

Rank Association Coeff. Teams Notes 1  England 115.196 2 2  Italy 97.231 3  Spain 94.453 4  Germany 86.331 5  France 73.093 6  Netherlands 67.150 7  Portugal 62.266 8  Belgium 56.850 9  Czech Republic 44.100 10  Turkey 43.900 11  Norway 39.687 12  Greece 39.312 13  Austria 36.450 1 14  Scotland 35.550 15  Poland 35.000 16  Denmark 33.981 17  Switzerland 33.625 18  Israel 31.625 19  Cyprus 27.537

Rank Association Coeff. Teams Notes 20  Sweden 27.125 1 21  Croatia 27.025 22  Serbia 25.500 23  Ukraine 24.400 24  Hungary 24.000 25  Romania 23.250 26  Russia 22.632 0 [Note RUS] 27  Slovakia 21.250 1 28  Slovenia 20.343 29  Bulgaria 19.875 30  Azerbaijan 19.625 31  Republic of Ireland 14.968 32  Moldova 14.500 33  Iceland 13.520 34  Bosnia and Herzegovina 13.031 0 35  Armenia 12.250 36  Latvia 12.250 37  Kosovo 12.041 38  Finland 11.750

Rank Association Coeff. Teams Notes 39  Kazakhstan 11.125 0 40  Faroe Islands 10.750 41  Malta 8.500 42  Northern Ireland 8.333 43  Lithuania 8.250 44  Liechtenstein 8.000 45  Estonia 7.957 46  Albania 7.875 47  Montenegro 7.208 48  Luxembourg 6.875 49  Wales 6.791 50  Georgia 6.625 51  North Macedonia 6.166 52  Belarus 6.000 53  Andorra 5.498 54  Gibraltar 5.457 55  San Marino 2.498

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 Europa League title holders (Aston Villa) qualified for the Champions League via their domestic league's standard berth allocation, the following changes to the default access list were made:

• The cup winners of associations 17 to 20 (Switzerland, Israel, Cyprus, Sweden) will enter the second qualifying round instead of the first 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
• PW: Play-off between 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).

Qualified teams for 2026–27 UEFA Europa League

Entry round		Teams
League phase		(CON)	Bournemouth (6th)	Sunderland (7th)	Milan (5th)
		Juventus (6th)	Real Sociedad (CW)	Celta Vigo (6th)	TSG Hoffenheim (5th)
		Bayer Leverkusen (6th)	Marseille (5th)	Rennes (6th)	AZ (CW)
		Torreense (CW)	(CL CH PO)	(CL CH PO)	(CL CH PO)
		(CL CH PO)	(CL CH PO)	(CL LP PO)	(CL LP PO)
		(CL LP Q3)	(CL LP Q3)	(CL LP Q3)	(CL LP Q3)
Play-off round		Sint-Truiden (3rd)	Karviná (CW)	Trabzonspor (CW)	Lillestrøm (CW)
		OFI (CW)	(CL CH Q3)	(CL CH Q3)	(CL CH Q3)
		(CL CH Q3)	(CL CH Q3)	(CL CH Q3)
Third qualifying round	CH	(CL CH Q2)	(CL CH Q2)	(CL CH Q2)	(CL CH Q2)
		(CL CH Q2)	(CL CH Q2)	(CL CH Q2)	(CL CH Q2)
		(CL CH Q2)	(CL CH Q2)	(CL CH Q2)	(CL CH Q2)
	MP	Red Bull Salzburg (3rd)	Rangers (3rd)	Jagiellonia Białystok (3rd)	(CL LP Q2)
		(CL LP Q2)
Second qualifying round		Twente (4th)	Benfica (3rd)	Anderlecht (4th)	Viktoria Plzeň (3rd)
		Beşiktaş (4th)	Tromsø (3rd)	PAOK (3rd)	Midtjylland (CW)
		St. Gallen (CW)	Maccabi Tel Aviv (CW)	(CW)	Hammarby IF (2nd)
First qualifying round		Hajduk Split (2nd)	Vojvodina (2nd)	Dynamo Kyiv (CW)	Ferencváros (CW)
		Universitatea Cluj (2nd)	Žilina (CW)	Aluminij (CW)	CSKA Sofia (CW)
		Qarabağ (2nd)	Derry City (2nd)	Sheriff Tiraspol (CW)	Vestri (CW)

Two teams not playing in a national top division took part in the competition: Torreense (pending possible promotion), Vestri (2nd tier).

Notes

The schedule of the competition is as follows.^[5] 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.

The draw for the first qualifying round will be held on 16 June 2026.

A total of 12 teams will play in the first qualifying round. Seeding of the teams will be based on their 2026 UEFA club coefficients.^[6] Before the draw, UEFA may form groups of seeded and unseeded teams per the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee. The first team drawn in each tie will be the home team for the first leg.

The draw for the second qualifying round will be held on 17 June 2026.

A total of 18 teams will play in the second qualifying round. Seeding of the teams will be based on their 2026 UEFA club coefficients.^[6] Before the draw, UEFA may form groups of seeded and unseeded teams per the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee. The first team drawn in each tie will be the home team for the first leg.

The draw for the third qualifying round will be held on 20 July 2026.

A total of 26 teams will play in the third qualifying round. Seeding of the teams will be based on their 2026 UEFA club coefficients.^[6] Before the draw, UEFA may form groups of seeded and unseeded teams per the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee. The first team drawn in each tie will be the home team for the first leg.

The draw for the play-off round will be held on 3 August 2026.

A total of 24 teams will play in the play-off round. Seeding of the teams will be based on their 2026 UEFA club coefficients.^[6] Before the draw, UEFA may form groups of seeded and unseeded teams per the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee. The first team drawn in each tie will be the home team for the first leg.

Bournemouth, Sunderland and Torreense will make their debut appearances since the introduction of the group stage. All three sides will also make their debut appearances in a major UEFA competition group or league phase, with Bournemouth and Torreense qualifying for European football for the first time in their history.

Bournemouth

Sunderland

Marseille

Rennes

Leverkusen

Hoffenheim

Juventus

Milan

AZ

Celta

Real Sociedad

Torreense

Location of teams in the 2026–27 UEFA Europa League league phase

As of 24 May 2026^[update], 12 out of 36 teams have qualified for the league phase:

The following is a provisional allocation of the qualified teams into seeding pots, based on their UEFA club coefficients.

• 2026–27 UEFA Champions League
• 2026–27 UEFA Conference League
• 2026–27 UEFA Women's Champions League
• 2026–27 UEFA Women's Europa Cup

• Official website