The UEFA Women's Europa Cup is a European women's association 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 took place in the 2025–26 season.[1]
 | |
| Organiser(s) | UEFA |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2025 |
| Region | Europe |
| Teams | 44 |
| Qualifier for | UEFA Women's Champions League |
| Related competitions | UEFA Women's Champions League (1st tier) |
| Current champions |  BK Häcken (1st title) |
| Most championships | BK Häcken (1 title) |
| Website | Official website |
 2026–27 UEFA Women's Europa Cup | |
| Season | UEFA Women's Europa Cup |
|---|---|
| 2025–26 | BK Häcken |
| 2026–27 |
The winners of the UEFA Women's Europa Cup qualify for the third qualifying round (Champions Path) of the following season's UEFA Women's Champions League. Alternatively, they will qualify for the league phase (competition proper) should the Champions League title holders qualify for the league phase via their domestic league.[2]
Background
editAfter 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.[3]
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.[4][5]
Format
editSimilarly 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 or league phase. Every round, up to and including the final, will be played as a two-legged home-and-away tie.[1]
The tournament is 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]
| Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from the previous round | Teams entering from the Champions League qualifying rounds | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First qualifying round (24 teams) |
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| Second qualifying round (32 teams) |
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| Round of 16 (16 teams) |
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Records and statistics
editExternal links
editReferences
edit- 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.
- ↑ "Regulations of the UEFA Women's Champions League – 2026/27 Season". UEFA. 1 March 2026. Retrieved 3 May 2026.
- ↑ "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.
- ↑ "Record Women's EURO 2025 prize money approved". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 16 December 2024. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
- ↑ "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.
- ↑ "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.