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.

The 2024/25 staging will take place on Thursday nights, with the third qualifying round starting on 8th August 2024 and the final of the competition taking place on 21st May 2025 at the San Mames Stadium in Bilbao.

Europa League dates

The 2024/25 Europa League started on 11th July 2024 and concludes with the final on May 21st 2025.

League phase and knockout stage matches are played on Thursdays throughout the season, with the exception of the final which is scheduled for Wednesday 21st May.

Europa League 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.

Europa League format

The 2024/25 season sees a major change to the Europa League format, with 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.

Europa League most successful team

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.

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.

Italy are second for titles, winning the competition nine times and having a runner-up on eight occasions, while England are third with eight champions.

Italian side Atalanta are the most recent winners of the competition, with an Ademola Lookman hat-trick sealing a 3-0 over Bayer Leverkusen at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.