2025–26 UEFA Europa League qualifying

The 2025–26 UEFA Europa League qualifying phase and play-off round will begin on 10 July and end on 28 August 2025.^[1]

A total of 53 teams will compete in the qualifying system, which includes the qualifying phase and the play-off round. The 12 winners of the play-off round will advance to the league phase, to join the 13 teams that enter in the league stage, along with the seven losers of the Champions League play-off round (five from the Champions Path and two from the League Path), and the four losers of the Champions League third qualifying round (League Path).^[2]

Times are CEST (UTC+2), as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

The qualifying phase will be split into two paths – the Champions Path and the Main Path. The Champions Path contained teams which were eliminated from the Champions League Champions Path, and the Main Path contained teams which qualified as the third-placed or the fourth-placed team from their domestic league or as domestic cup winners. The paths will be merged in the play-off round.

Each tie will be played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The team that scores more goals on aggregate over the two legs will advance to the next round. If the aggregate score is level at the end of normal time of the second leg, extra time will be played, and if the same number of goals is scored by both teams during extra time, the tie will be decided by a penalty shoot-out.^[3]

In the draws for each round, teams will be seeded based on their UEFA club coefficients at the beginning of the season, with the teams divided into seeded and unseeded pots containing the same number of teams. A seeded team will be drawn against an unseeded team, with the order of legs in each tie decided by draw. As the identity of the winners of the previous round may not be known at the time of the draws, the seeding will be carried out under the assumption that the team with the higher coefficient of an undecided tie advances to the subsequent round. In practice, this means if the team with the lower coefficient advances in the Europa League or the team with the higher coefficient is eliminated from the Champions League, it will simply take the seeding of its opponent.

Prior to the draws, UEFA could form "groups" in accordance with the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee, purely for the convenience of the draw and not to resemble any real groupings in the sense of the competition. Teams from associations with political conflicts as decided by UEFA can not be drawn into the same tie. After the draws, the order of legs of a tie can be reversed by UEFA due to scheduling or venue conflicts.

The schedule of the competition is as follows. Matches are scheduled for Thursdays, though exceptionally could take place on Tuesdays or Wednesdays due to scheduling conflicts.^[1]

In the qualifying stage, the teams will be divided into two paths:

• Champions Path (12 teams):
  • Third qualifying round: 12 losers of the Champions League Champions Path second qualifying round.
• Main Path:
  • First qualifying round (16 teams): 16 teams which enter in this round.
  • Second qualifying round (16 teams): 8 teams which enter in this round, and 8 winners of the first qualifying round.
  • Third qualifying round (14 teams): 3 teams which enter in this round, 3 losers of the Champions League League Path second qualifying round, and 8 winners of the second qualifying round.

The winners of the third qualifying round were combined into a single path for the play-off round:

• Play-off round (24 teams): 5 teams which enter this round, 6 losers of the Champions League Champions Path third qualifying round, 6 winners of the Champions Path third qualifying round, and 7 winners of the Main Path third qualifying round.

All teams eliminated from the qualifying phase and play-off round enter the Conference League:

• The 8 losers of the Main Path first qualifying round enter the Main Path second qualifying round.
• The 8 losers of the Main Path second qualifying round enter the Main Path third qualifying round.
• The 6 losers of the Champions Path third qualifying round enter the Champions Path play-off round.
• The 7 losers of the Main Path third qualifying round enter the Main Path play-off round.
• The 12 losers of the play-off round enter the league phase.

Below were the participating teams (with their 2025 UEFA club coefficients, not used as seeding for the Champions Path, however),^[4] grouped by their starting rounds.

Notes

The draw for the first qualifying round was held on 17 June 2025.

A total of 16 teams will play in the first qualifying round. Seeding of the teams will be based on their 2025 UEFA club coefficients.^[4] Before the draw, UEFA allocated the teams into two groups of four seeded teams and four unseeded teams in accordance with the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee.^[5] The first team drawn in each tie will be the home team for the first leg.

The first legs will be played on 10 July, and the second legs will be played on 17 July 2025.

The winners of the ties will advance to the second qualifying round. The losers will be transferred to the Conference League Main Path second qualifying round.

The draw for the second qualifying round was held on 18 June 2025.

A total of 16 teams will play in the second qualifying round. Seeding of the teams will be based on their 2025 UEFA club coefficients.^[4] Before the draw, UEFA allocated the teams into two groups of four seeded teams and four unseeded teams in accordance with the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee.^[24] The first team drawn in each tie will be the home team for the first leg.

Notes

The first legs will be played on 24 July and the second legs will be played on 31 July 2025.

The winners of the ties will advance to the Main Path third qualifying round. The losers will be transferred to the Conference League Main Path third qualifying round.

The draw for the third qualifying round will be held on 21 July 2025.

A total of 26 teams will play in the third qualifying round. Seeding of the teams will be based on their 2025 UEFA club coefficients.^[4] 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 4 August 2025.

A total of 24 teams will play in the play-off round. Seeding of the teams will be based on their 2025 UEFA club coefficients.^[4] 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.

• Official website