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The 2026/27 UEFA Europa League league phase draw takes place in Monaco on Friday 28 August, and the field is now complete. Three Premier League clubs enter as first-timers. Celtic arrive off the back of one of the great European collapses. Bayer Leverkusen, Benfica, Juventus, Milan and Lyon head a Pot 1 that gives the competition genuine weight. With all 36 teams confirmed and seeded, the only thing left is to find out who plays who. This is the 56th edition of the competition, the 18th since the UEFA Cup was rebranded, and the third under the single-table format that scrapped groups altogether.
When Is the Europa League 2026-27 Draw? Date, Time and How to Watch
The draw is held at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco from 13:00 CET on Friday 28 August — midday in the UK. The Europa League ceremony runs first, with the Conference League draw following immediately after.
UK viewers can watch on TNT Sports and HBO Max. UEFA will also stream it across UEFA.com, UEFA.tv, the UEFA app and its YouTube channel. Seedings and the full draw procedure are published on UEFA.com from 08:30 CET on the morning of the draw.
One important caveat for anyone planning their autumn: the draw produces opponents, not kick-off times. The complete Europa League fixture list, with dates and start times, follows no later than Sunday 30 August.
How the Europa League 2026-27 Draw Works
Forget groups. All 36 clubs sit in a single league table and each plays eight matches against eight different opponents — four at home, four away. That’s 18 matches per matchday across eight matchdays, 144 games in total before a ball is kicked in the knockouts.
The 36 teams are split into four pots of nine, seeded by UEFA club coefficient over the five seasons ending in 2025/26. Every club then draws:
- Two opponents from Pot 1 — one home, one away
- Two from Pot 2 — one home, one away
- Two from Pot 3 — one home, one away
- Two from Pot 4 — one home, one away
Clubs can be paired with teams from their own pot. They cannot be paired with teams from their own country. That country protection rule matters more than usual this year: England and France both have three entrants, while Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Czechia, Poland and Greece have two apiece. Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Sunderland are therefore guaranteed not to meet before the knockout rounds, and the same goes for Lyon, Marseille and Rennes.
The mechanics are part physical, part software: teams are drawn manually, then a computer assigns their eight opponents and allocates home and away in a way that satisfies every constraint at once.
Europa League 2026-27 Pots: The Confirmed Seedings
UEFA has confirmed the final pot allocations for all 36 clubs:
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leverkusen (GER) | Ferencváros (HUN) | Sturm Graz (AUT) | Hoffenheim (GER) |
| Benfica (POR) | Viktoria Plzeň (CZE) | Lech Poznań (POL) | Beşiktaş (TUR) |
| Juventus (ITA) | Union SG (BEL) | Crystal Palace (ENG) | Torreense (POR) |
| Milan (ITA) | GNK Dinamo (CRO) | Bournemouth (ENG) | H. Beer-Sheva (ISR) |
| Lyon (FRA) | Salzburg (AUT) | Sunderland (ENG) | N.E.C. (NED) |
| AZ Alkmaar (NED) | Celtic (SCO) | Celje (SVN) | OFI Crete (GRE) |
| Olympiacos (GRE) | Sparta Praha (CZE) | Jagiellonia (POL) | Lillestrøm (NOR) |
| Real Sociedad (ESP) | Rennes (FRA) | Omonia (CYP) | Levski Sofia (BUL) |
| Marseille (FRA) | Anderlecht (BEL) | Celta (ESP) | Ararat-Armenia (ARM) |
Leverkusen’s coefficient of 105.000 dwarfs the field and makes them the standout seed. Juventus and Milan bring Serie A pedigree, Benfica and Marseille add European experience, and Olympiacos and Lyon arrive via the Champions League qualifying rounds. The squeeze at the top of the seedings is real: Sturm Graz, who looked like a Pot 2 side before the play-offs resolved, slipped into Pot 3 once the drop-downs landed.
At the other end sits Torreense, the surprise Portuguese cup winners making their continental debut in Pot 4 — exactly the kind of unknown quantity the seeded sides won’t relish drawing away from home. Ararat-Armenia, Lillestrøm and Levski Sofia complete a Pot 4 with almost no league phase experience between them. If you’re weighing up outright markets before the draw, the pot allocations are where the value usually hides; Tips.gg breaks down the odds shifts as the pairings land.
How the Field Was Completed
The last 19 places arrived from two directions in the space of 48 hours.
Twelve came through the Europa League play-off round on Thursday 27 August. Benfica went through and landed straight in Pot 1, while Salzburg, Anderlecht and Ferencváros all made Pot 2. Lech Poznań, who had built a 7-0 first-leg lead over Thun, and Jagiellonia Białystok joined Omonia in Pot 3, with Beşiktaş, OFI Crete and Lillestrøm dropping into Pot 4.
The biggest casualty was Trabzonspor, who added Mohamed Salah this summer and still went out — a 1-0 home defeat proved too much to overturn away to Ferencváros. Ararat-Armenia edged past Universitatea Craiova after the first leg finished 1-1, and Lillestrøm broke the deadlock against Egnatia following a goalless opener.
The other seven places went to the losers of the Champions League play-off round. Lyon fell to Fenerbahçe and enter as a Pot 1 seed, GNK Dinamo lost out to Viking and land in Pot 2, Celje drop to Pot 3 after defeat to Slovan Bratislava, and Levski Sofia go into Pot 4 having been beaten by AEK Athens.
Celtic Crash Into the Europa League After Collapse at LASK
The headline drop-down is a brutal one. Celtic led LASK 4-1 on aggregate and still went out, beaten 5-1 in Linz and 5-4 over the tie after extra time.
Callum McGregor’s deflected opener made it 4-0 on aggregate inside 21 minutes. Then Benjamin Nygren’s loose backpass gifted Moses Usor a way in, Robert Ljubičić and Samuel Adeniran struck from range, and Florian Flecker’s stoppage-time header forced extra time. Adeniran’s second in the 109th minute completed the comeback and dumped the Scottish champions into the Europa League league phase.
They are joined by NEC Nijmegen, beaten 6-1 on aggregate by Bodø/Glimt, and Hapoel Be’er Sheva, who lost 5-2 in Baku to Sabah after conceding a 90th-minute leveller and then two more in extra time. Both go into Pot 4.
Celtic, at least, have the cushion of a Pot 2 seeding — small consolation for a side that was 20 minutes from Europe’s top table.
Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Sunderland: Three Premier League Debutants
England has three representatives, all breaking new ground in this competition.
Bournemouth are in Europe for the first time in the club’s history. Marco Rose’s side are guaranteed eight league phase matches — four of them at Vitality Stadium — and opened their Premier League campaign at Manchester City with Marcus Tavernier on the scoresheet.
Crystal Palace enter as Conference League holders, promoted a tier after May’s triumph. Sunderland complete the set, having edged out the likes of Chelsea for a continental berth.
All three sit in Pot 3 on an identical 23.903 coefficient, which means two fixtures against Pot 1 opposition — Leverkusen, Benfica, Juventus, Milan or Lyon among the possibilities — are locked in for each of them. Notably, Aston Villa are absent: the reigning Europa League champions qualified for the Champions League through the Premier League and won’t defend their title.
Europa League 2026-27 Fixtures: Every League Phase Matchday
The league phase runs from mid-September to the end of January, roughly fortnightly with a Christmas break.
| Matchday | Date |
|---|---|
| Matchday 1 | 16/17 September 2026 |
| Matchday 2 | 15 October 2026 |
| Matchday 3 | 22 October 2026 |
| Matchday 4 | 5 November 2026 |
| Matchday 5 | 26 November 2026 |
| Matchday 6 | 10 December 2026 |
| Matchday 7 | 21 January 2027 |
| Matchday 8 | 28 January 2027 |
Matchday 8 is played simultaneously across all 18 fixtures — the format’s built-in guarantee against dead rubbers, and traditionally the wildest night of the league phase as the table reshuffles in real time.
How Europa League Knockout Qualification Works
One table, 36 teams, three outcomes:
- 1st to 8th — straight through to the Round of 16
- 9th to 24th — a two-legged knockout phase play-off
- 25th to 36th — eliminated from Europe entirely, with no parachute into the Conference League
The eight play-off winners join the top eight seeds in the last 16, and from there it’s conventional two-legged knockout football.
Knockout phase dates:
- Knockout phase play-offs: 18 & 25 February 2027
- Round of 16: 11 & 18 March 2027
- Quarter-finals: 8 & 15 April 2027
- Semi-finals: 29 April & 6 May 2027
- Final: 26 May 2027
That top-eight cut-off is the number every club will be tracking from September. Avoiding February’s play-off round means two fewer matches in a congested winter and a seeded route through the last 16.
Europa League Final 2027 in Frankfurt and What the Winners Get
The 2027 UEFA Europa League final is at Stadion Frankfurt in Germany on Wednesday 26 May 2027. Originally opened in 1925 and upgraded repeatedly since, the venue hosted five matches at UEFA EURO 2024 as well as games at the 2005 Confederations Cup and 2006 World Cup.
The prize is more than the trophy — which, at 15kg, is the heaviest piece of silverware UEFA hands out. Winners take a place in the 2027/28 Champions League league phase if they haven’t already qualified domestically, plus a shot at the Champions League holders in the 2027 UEFA Super Cup. For a club like Bournemouth or Sunderland, that’s a route into Europe’s elite competition that has nothing to do with finishing in the Premier League’s top five.