Europa League kicks off September 16 with Sunderland first English side in action

The 2025/26 Europa League league phase gets underway on Tuesday, September 16, a week after the Champions League opened its doors. Sunderland are the first English club in action, hosting AZ Alkmaar at the Stadium of Light on opening night.

Bournemouth travel to San Sebastián to face Real Sociedad the following day, Wednesday, September 17, with Crystal Palace also starting on that date at home against Lech Poznań. Scottish champions Celtic open their campaign on the same Wednesday, welcoming Ferencváros to Glasgow.

The Europa League league phase runs across eight matchdays. The first six are scheduled before Christmas, with matchdays seven and eight falling in the final two weeks of January — the last of which lands on Monday, January 28, a UK Bank Holiday, when all 18 remaining fixtures are played simultaneously. A play-off round will then add eight teams to the top eight from the league phase to complete a round of 16, due to be played in March. The final is set for Frankfurt on Wednesday, May 26.

The Conference League begins a full month after the Europa League, with all 36 competing clubs playing their opening fixtures on Thursday, October 15 — the same evening as the second round of Europa League matches. Brighton & Hove Albion host Kauno Žalgiris of Lithuania in their first outing, while Hearts welcome Danish side Nordsjælland to Edinburgh.

Conference League participants play six league phase matches in total, with the final round on Thursday, December 17. The two finalists will meet in Istanbul in early June.