Right now, only 13 clubs are already through to the Europa League league phase without kicking a ball - while dozens more, some of them dropping straight down from the Champions League, are still fighting for one of the remaining spots. Here's how it actually works, and where every club stands as of 4 August 2026.
The Format
36Clubs in the league phase
8Games each - single table, no groups
4×9Clubs drawn from 4 seeding pots
4H / 4AHome and away, single-leg matches
Already Confirmed - 13 Clubs
The Europa League's own automatic slots are much more limited than the Champions League's - most come from a specific domestic cup-winner or league-position berth rather than raw coefficient rank, which is why only 13 clubs skip qualifying entirely. Most of the remaining 23 league-phase places are filled via qualifying, and a large share of that qualifying field is actually made up of clubs who were originally chasing a Champions League spot.
About half of this round's Main Path ties are populated by the loser of an equivalent-round Champions League tie - UEFA's cascade rule sends CL qualifying losers straight into the Europa League at the same stage, no separate draw needed. Where that Champions League tie hadn't been played yet at the time of writing, the note below says so explicitly - honest uncertainty, not a guess. Winners advance to the Play-off Round on 20 August.
Champions Path
Larne FCDropped from Champions League Q2 (lost to Red Star Belgrade)
vs
Iberia 1999 TbilisiDropped from Champions League Q2 (lost to Slovan Bratislava)
Winner plays the winner of Jagiellonia Białystok – Rangers FC
Lincoln Red ImpsDropped from Champions League Q2 (lost to Mjällby AIF)
vs
Omonia NicosiaDropped from Champions League Q2 (lost to Kairat Almaty)
Winner plays K. Sint-Truidense VV
KuPS KuopioDropped from Champions League Q2 (lost to Sabah FK)
Crystal Palace didn't finish high enough in the Premier League for an automatic Europa League place - but as reigning Conference League champions, the rules guarantee them one anyway, bumping England's next-best-ranked club down to the Conference League play-off round instead.
Snapshot as of 4 August 2026 - Rules: official UEFA Europa League regulations, 2024–27 cycle. Sourced from UEFA's own coefficient records and round-by-round draw announcements.
Viktoria PlzeňPlays the loser of this week's Champions League tie: Hapoel Beer-Sheva vs Red Star Belgrade
