Europa League 2026/27 Draw: Milan, Juventus and Sunderland Learn League Phase Fixtures
All 36 clubs competing in the 2026/27 UEFA Europa League have discovered their opponents for the competition’s league phase, following the draw held at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on Friday, August 28.
The draw was conducted under Article 16 of the UEFA Europa League regulations, with the 36 participating clubs divided into four pots of nine teams each, based on club coefficient rankings established at the start of the season. Each club was then drawn against two opponents from each of the four pots, one to be played at home and one away, with clubs unable to be paired against opponents from their own domestic association and limited to facing a maximum of two clubs from any other single country.
This season’s field features 21 clubs that qualified directly for the league phase, including reigning UEFA Conference League champions Crystal Palace, alongside sides such as Bournemouth and Sunderland from England, Milan and Juventus from Italy, Real Sociedad and Celta from Spain, Hoffenheim and Bayer Leverkusen from Germany, Marseille and Rennes from France, AZ Alkmaar from the Netherlands, and Torreense from Portugal. They are joined by clubs progressing through various qualifying and play-off routes, including Celtic, Lyon, GNK Dinamo, Sturm Graz, Sparta Praha, Viktoria Plzeň, Olympiacos, Ferencváros and Union SG, among several others drawn from across UEFA’s member associations.
Under the format, now in its third season, the competition will consist of 144 total league-phase matches, worked out across eight matchdays with 18 fixtures played on each. The league-phase schedule is set to begin on September 16 and 17, 2026, before continuing through further matchdays in October, November and December, followed by a winter break, and concluding with the final two matchdays on January 21 and 28, 2027.
Once the league phase concludes, the top eight clubs in the final standings will progress automatically into the round of 16, while the teams finishing between ninth and 24th will contest two-legged knockout play-off ties for the remaining places in the last 16. The bottom 12 clubs in the table will be eliminated from the competition at that stage.
The draw for the Europa League took place alongside the corresponding draw for the UEFA Conference League, whose own 36 clubs were similarly divided into six pots of six teams each and drawn against one opponent from each pot, with matches also determined as either home or away fixtures. The Conference League’s league phase is set to run from October 15 to December 17, 2026.
Beyond determining this season’s route through the competition, this year’s Europa League also carries added stakes for its eventual winner, who will be guaranteed a place in the league phase of the 2027/28 UEFA Champions League should they fail to qualify for it through their domestic competition. The 2026/27 Europa League final is scheduled to be played on May 26, 2027, in Frankfurt, Germany, bringing the curtain down on the 56th edition of the competition and the 18th since its rebranding from the UEFA Cup.
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