Here's how the new Europa League format works

The format

The group phase of the UEFA Europa League is history. Once the draw for the first round is complete, TSG Hoffenheim will not find themselves in a group of four as per usual but will instead be placed in a larger table with 36 teams in total. All the results from the matches in the UEFA Europa League will flow into one table. The teams will no longer face their three group opponents on two occasions as has previously been the case (home and away), but will instead play matches against eight different opponents, with opponents from the same national association unable to be drawn together. Each club will contest four home and four away matches. There will be four different pots in the draw, with each team then facing two teams from each pot, with one home and one away game per pot.

The matchdays

Generally, matches will continue to be played on Thursdays, with kick-off times remaining at 18:45 and 21:00 CEST. Occasionally, however, matches can also kick off at 16:30 German time if the local time zone renders this necessary. On the eighth matchday of the league phase, all 18 fixtures will kick off at the same time. In addition, each of the three European cup competitions will have an exclusive match week, with the Europa League experiencing this on the very first match day, which will take place on 25 and 26 September. Matches will then be played on Wednesday and Thursday.

The dates

Matchday 1: 25/26 September 2024

Matchday 2: 03 October 2024

Matchday 3: 24 October 2024

Matchday 4: 07 November 2024

Matchday 5: 28 November 2024

Matchday 6: 12 December 2024

Matchday 7: 23 January 2025

Matchday 8: 30 January 2025

Play-offs: 13/20 February 2025

Round of 16: 06/13 March 2025

Quarter-finals: 10/17 April 2025

Semi-finals: 01/08 May 2025

Final: 21 May 2025

The knockout rounds

Following completion of the league phase, which will be held from September to January 2025, the top eight teams will qualify directly for the round of 16 and will be seeded there. The teams from places nine to 24 in the table will contest a play-off round with first and second legs in order to reach the last 16. For the teams in places 25 and below, the international campaign will end and they will not continue in the UEFA Conference League. There will not be teams dropping down from the Champions League either. In the knockout rounds, the teams from places nine to 16 will be seeded for the play-off draw and will have home advantage against the teams from 17th to 24th in the return leg. From this point onwards, teams from the same country may meet. The eight clubs that win in the play-offs will then meet one of the eight clubs that qualified directly for the round of 16. From the round of 16 to the semi-finals, the competition will continue up to the final in the familiar format of first and second legs without the away goals rule.

The route to the final

There will be a fixed tournament tree for the entire knockout stages, meaning no further draws. Instead, two table neighbours from the 24 teams that have come through the league phase will form a pair, i.e. the first and second in the table, the third and fourth, etc. These pairings will then each be allocated to different sides of the tournament tree, ensuring for example that the first in the table can meet in the second-place team in the final at the earliest.

The participants

Only 17 of the 36 participants have so far been confirmed.

They are:

• TSG Hoffenheim, Eintracht Frankfurt (Germany)

• Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur (England)

• Roma, Lazio (Italy)

• Real Sociedad, Athletic Bilbao (Spain)

• Olympique Lyon, Nice (France)

• Porto (Portugal)

• AZ Alkmaar, Twente Enschede (Netherlands)

• Olympiacos (Greece)

• Fenerbahce (Türkiye)

• Union Saint-Gilloise (Belgium)

• Rangers (Scotland)

They will be joined by the seven losers of the UEFA Champions League qualifying ties, which are as follows (first-leg result in brackets):

• Young Boys vs. Galatasaray (3-2)

• Dinamo Zagreb vs. Qarabağ (3-0)

• Midtjylland vs. Slovan Bratislava (1-1)

• Bodø/Glimt vs. Red Star Belgrade (2-1)

• Malmö vs. Sparta Prague (0-2)

• Lille vs. Slavia Prague (2-0)

• Dynamo Kiev vs. Salzburg (0-2)

The line-up will be completed by the winners of the following 12 play-off ties, which are taking place on 22 and 29 August (first-leg result in brackets):

• Dinamo Minsk vs. Anderlecht (0-1)

• Jagiellonia Białystok vs. Ajax (1-4)

• Ludogorets vs. Petrocub (4-0)

• Lugano vs. Beşiktaş (3-3)

• LASK vs. FSCB (1-1)

• RFS vs. APOEL Nicosia (2-1)

• Maccabi Tel Aviv vs. Bačka Topola (3-0)

• PAOK vs. Shamrock Rovers (4-0)

• Ferencváros vs. Borac Banja Luka (0-0)

• Molde vs. Elfsborg (0-1)

• Sporting Braga vs. Rapid Vienna (2-1)

• Viktoria Plzeň vs. Hearts (1-0)