UEFA Europa League

The UEFA Europa League is a yearly club football tournament run by UEFA, the governing body of European soccer. It started in 1971 and sits as the second-highest level of European club competition, below the Champions League but above the Conference League.

Originally called the UEFA Cup, it took over from the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, a competition that ran from 1955 to 1971 and grew from 11 teams in its first edition to 64 by its last. The UEFA Cup was created with new rules, a different format, and its own disciplinary system. UEFA later noted that while the Fairs Cup was successful, the time had come for the organization to run such a major competition itself to ensure standard rules and handle refereeing and discipline. Over time, the UEFA Cup gained more prestige.

The first UEFA Cup final, in 1972, was an all-English affair between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur, with Spurs winning. Liverpool beat Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1973. Gladbach won the cup in 1975 and 1979 and reached the final in 1980. Feyenoord won in 1974, beating Tottenham 4–2 on aggregate.

Liverpool claimed their second title in 1976, defeating Club Brugge. In the 1980s, IFK Göteborg (1982 and 1987) and Real Madrid (1985 and 1986) each won twice. Anderlecht reached back-to-back finals, winning in 1983 and losing to Tottenham in 1984. Italian dominance began in 1989, when Diego Maradona’s Napoli beat VfB Stuttgart.

The 1990s opened with two all-Italian finals. In 1992, Torino lost to Ajax on away goals. Juventus won their third title in 1993, and Inter Milan kept the trophy in Italy in 1994. 1995 saw another all-Italian final, with Parma appearing after two straight Cup Winners’ Cup finals. The only 1990s final without an Italian team was in 1996.

Inter reached the final the next two years, losing to Schalke 04 on penalties in 1997 and winning an all-Italian final in 1998. Parma won in 1999, the last Italian victory for a long stretch—no Italian club reached the final again until Inter in 2020.

A group stage was added before the knockout rounds in the 2004–05 season. The competition was renamed the UEFA Europa League in 2009, following a format overhaul that merged it with the UEFA Intertoto Cup, expanded the group stage, and changed qualification. In the 2024–25 season, the group stage was replaced by a 36-team league phase.

From 1971 to 1995, teams qualifying for the competition usually came from second to fifth place in their national leagues, except for domestic cup winners who chose to play in the Cup Winners’ Cup. Starting in 1996, more than one team per nation could enter the Champions League—two from 1996, four from 1999 for top leagues. From 1999 onward, teams qualifying for the UEFA Cup were those finishing fifth or sixth down to seventh or eighth, which reduced the competition’s quality and prestige relative to the Champions League.

From 1994–95, clubs eliminated in the Champions League’s third qualifying round entered the UEFA Cup, and from 1999–2000, this was extended to include teams finishing third in their Champions League group stage (a rule that lasted until the end of the 2023–24 season; over 25 years, nine teams that won the Europa League had started in the Champions League as third-place group finishers). The Cup Winners’ Cup was absorbed into the UEFA Cup after the 1998–99 season.

The 2000s began with Galatasaray becoming the first Turkish team and the first to win the trophy after starting in the Champions League, beating Arsenal. Liverpool won their third title in 2001. Feyenoord won again in 2002, defeating Borussia Dortmund. Porto triumphed in 2003 and 2011, the latter against fellow Portuguese side Braga. Valencia won in 2004. CSKA Moscow won in 2005. Sevilla won back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007, the second against fellow Spaniards Espanyol. Zenit Saint Petersburg won in 2008.

Winners of the Europa League qualify for the next season’s UEFA Super Cup and Champions League. They have also occasionally faced winners of the CONMEBOL Copa Sudamericana in the UEFA–CONMEBOL Club Challenge, most recently in 2023.

Thirty-one different clubs have won the competition, and 14 have won it more than once. Spanish clubs lead with 14 titles, followed by England (11) and Italy (10). The most successful club is Sevilla, with seven titles. The current holders are Aston Villa, who beat SC Freiburg 3–0 in the 2026 final.