Europa League: Dates, format, history & more

The Europa League is the secondary competition in European club football, with plenty of big teams battling it out for continental glory each season.

Europa League matches usually place on Thursday nights, alongside fixtures in the Conference League. The final of the competition is scheduled to take place at Waldstadion in Frankfurt, home stadium of German side Eintracht Frankfurt.

Dates

The 2026/27 Europa League season begins with qualifying, taking place from 9th July 2026, and concludes with the final on May 26th 2027.

League phase and knockout stage matches are played on Thursdays throughout the season, with the exception of the final which is scheduled for Wednesday 26th May.

History

The competition started in 1971 under the name of the UEFA Cup, replacing the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, and it was a third-tier competition until 1999 when the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was discontinued.

In 1999, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was merged with the UEFA Cup.

The 2009/10 edition saw it rebranded as the Europa League, merging with the UEFA Intertoto Cup, and there was a change in format.

Format

The 2026/27 season sees a continuation of the major change to the Europa League format introduced in tandem with other UEFA competitions in 2024 that saw the group stages being replaced by one 36-team league stage.

Each team will face eight different teams, split into four home and four away matches.

The top eight will directly advance to the round of 16, with the sides ranked ninth through to 24th contesting the knockout round play-offs.

Those remaining clubs battle it out in two-legged ties in the last-16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.

Most successful team & country

Sevilla have won the most titles in the history of either the UEFA Cup or Europa League.

The Spanish outfit won their seventh trophy in 2023 with their first victorious campaign arriving back in 2006.

They won the tournament on three successive occasions between 2014 and 2016.

Inter Milan, Liverpool, Juventus and Atletico Madrid have each won the competition on three occasions.

Tottenham were the inaugural winners of the UEFA Cup, beating Wolves 3-2 on aggregate over a two-legged final in 1972 and also won the competition in 2025.

Spain, thanks largely to the exploits of Sevilla, has been the most successful nation in the competition, winning 14 editions and finishing runner-up five times.

England are second for titles, with English clubs winning the competition ten times, followed closely by Italy which has nine wins.

Aston Villa are the most recent winners of the competition, securing the trophy in 2026 with a 3-0 win over German club Freiburg in the final.