The 2026-27 Europa League will take shape this Friday, 28 August, when the league phase draw is conducted in Monaco at 12:00 BST, a day after the corresponding Champions League draw in the same city.
As with Europe's top-tier competition, 36 clubs will be involved in the process, though only 20 places have been finalised so far. The remaining spots will go to sides eliminated in the final round of Champions League qualifying, along with the winners of the last qualifying round for the Europa League itself.
Under the format, each of the 36 teams will play eight matches in the league phase, split evenly between four home and four away fixtures, facing two opponents from each of four seeding pots. No club will be drawn against another from its own country. The pots are determined by UEFA's five-year club coefficient standings, calculated up to the end of the 2025-26 campaign, with pot one containing the strongest sides on paper and pot four the weakest.
Once the league phase concludes, the top eight finishers will progress directly to the round of 16. Clubs finishing between ninth and 24th will contest a knockout play-off round for a spot in the last 16, while those placed 25th to 36th will be eliminated from the competition altogether.
Most of the nine pot one places are already accounted for. Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus, AC Milan, AZ Alkmaar, Olympiakos, Real Sociedad and Marseille have all secured top seeding. The two remaining pot one slots depend on results still to be played out in Champions League and Europa League qualifying. Whichever of Fenerbahce or Lyon loses their Champions League qualifying tie will automatically drop into Europa League pot one. Benfica, meanwhile, are on course to claim the final pot one place as the highest-ranked side still involved in qualifying, provided they get past Danish club AGF.
Further down the seeding structure, Scottish champions Celtic have already been confirmed for pot two, alongside Sparta Prague and Rennes. Belgian outfit Union Saint-Gilloise are set to land in either pot one or two, with pot two considered the more probable landing spot.
English representation comes in the form of Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and Sunderland, all of whom are projected for pot two or pot three, with the latter seen as more likely for the trio. Austrian club Sturm Graz face a similar situation, also poised for either of those two pots.
At the lower end of the seeding table, Celta Vigo, TSG Hoffenheim, Hapoel Be'er Sheva and NEC Nijmegen are all expected to be placed in pot three or four. Torreense, who currently compete in Portugal's second division, complete that group of clubs awaiting confirmation between those two pots.
Because so many places remain unresolved pending the outcome of qualifying fixtures, no club has yet been definitively locked into pot three or pot four. Clarity on the full 36-team lineup and pot allocations is expected to emerge in the days before Friday's draw, once the final qualifying results are confirmed across both the Champions League and Europa League pathways.
Based on reporting from BBC Sport.