UEFA Women's Europa Cup

Last updated

UEFA Women's Europa Cup
UEFA Women's Europa Cup.svg
Organiser(s) UEFA
Founded4 December 2023;21 months ago (2023-12-04)
Region Europe
Teams44
Qualifier for UEFA Women's Champions League
Related competitionsUEFA Women's Champions League (1st tier)
Website Official website
Soccerball current event.svg 2025–26 UEFA Women's Europa Cup

The UEFA Women's Europa Cup is an annual international women's football competition organised by UEFA, the governing body of the sport for Europe. It serves as a secondary club competition below the UEFA Women's Champions League and runs concurrently to it. [1] The first edition has taken place in the 2025–26 season. [1]

Contents

The winner of the UEFA Women's Europa Cup qualifies for the third qualifying round of the champions path of the following season's UEFA Women's Champions League.

Background

After several decades successfully running knock-out competitions for men's football clubs, the UEFA Women's Cup was created in 2001 to offer similar opportunities for women's clubs. [1] The Women's Cup was renamed to the UEFA Women's Champions League in 2009 to match the styling of the men's tournament, and the tournament was expanded to include more clubs and more countries. [2]

Following UEFA's expansion of men's competitions with the third-tier Europa Conference League playing its first season in 2021, proposals for a second-tier women's competition were submitted to offer a similar increase in scale to the women's game. On 4 December 2023 UEFA announced that it would act on these proposals with the creation of a new second-tier tournament which would commence from the 2025–26 season. [1] The name of the competition was confirmed as the "UEFA Women's Europa Cup" on 16 December 2024. [3] [4]

Format

Similarly to the UEFA Europa League in men's football, clubs can enter the tournament both by virtue of their league position in the previous season or by elimination from early stages of the same season's Champions League. It is a pure knock-out tournament with no group stage. Every round, up to and including the final, will be played as a two-legged home-and-away tie. [1]

The tournament will be contested by 44 clubs in total – thirteen direct qualifiers from associations ranked 8–13 and 18–24 based on domestic league placement in the previous season plus thirty-one teams eliminated in the second and third qualifying rounds of the same season's Women's Champions League. [1]

Provisional access list [5]
Teams entering in this roundTeams advancing from the previous roundTeams entering from the Champions League qualifying rounds
First qualifying round
(24 teams)
  • 7 runners-up from associations 18–24
  • 6 third-placed teams from associations 8–13
  • 7 third-placed teams from the second round champions path mini-tournaments
  • 4 third-placed teams from the second round league path mini-tournaments
Second qualifying round
(32 teams)
  • 12 winners from the first qualifying round
  • 7 runners-up from the second round champions path mini-tournaments
  • 4 runners-up from the second round league path mini-tournaments
  • 4 losers from the third round champions path
  • 5 losers from the third round league path
Round of 16
(16 teams)
  • 16 winners from the second qualifying round

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "New UEFA Women's club football system explained". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 4 December 2023. Archived from the original on 4 December 2023. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
  2. ↑ "Women's Champions League details confirmed" (PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2012. Retrieved 8 May 2009.
  3. ↑ "Record Women's EURO 2025 prize money approved". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 16 December 2024. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
  4. ↑ "Women's football to enter new era with UEFA Women's Europa Cup". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 16 December 2024. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
  5. ↑ "Provisional access list for the UEFA Women's Champions League and 2nd competition 2025/26" (PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 December 2023. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
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