RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Aston Villa won the Europa League trophy last season [Getty Images]
The league phase draw for the 2026-27 Europa League takes place on Friday, 28 August at 12:00 BST in Monaco.
Much like the Champions League draw on Thursday, a total of 36 teams will enter the draw for Europe's second-tier club competition. Just 24 of those teams have been confirmed at present, with the remainder to be made up from the winners from the final round of Europa League qualifying.
In the league phase, each team will face eight different teams once, with four home matches and four away matches.
For the draw, the 36 teams will be placed into four pots, with pot one being the highest-ranked and four being the lowest. The pot placements are based on the club's Uefa club coefficient ranking from the five-season period ending at the conclusion of 2025-26.
Each team will face two teams from each of the four pots and cannot face a team from the same country as themselves.
The teams who finish in the top eight will qualify for the Europa League's round of 16. Those between ninth and 24th place will enter the play-off knockout round. The 12 teams ranked between 25th and 36th place will exit the competition when the league phase is concluded.
Who is in each pot?
While the final details of who will qualify are yet to be finalised, the majority of the teams in pot one have been confirmed.
Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus, AC Milan, Lyon AZ Alkmaar, Olympiakos, Real Sociedad and Marseille will take eight of the nine pot one places.
As the highest-ranked team still in qualifying, Portuguese outfit Benfica would take the last spot, should they win against Danish side AGF.
Scottish champions Celtic are guaranteed to enter pot two, as are Dinamo Zagreb, Sparta Prague and Rennes. Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise will enter either of pot one or two, although two is more likely.
English trio Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and Sunderland will all enter pot two or three, with three being the more likely outcome. Austrian side Sturm Graz will also go in one of those two pots.
Slovenian side Celje are one of two teams confirmed in pot three so far, as are La Liga's Celta Vigo.
TSG Hoffenheim, Hapoel Be'er Sheva and NEC Nijmegen will all enter either pot three or four. Torreense, who play their club football in Portugal’s second tier, will also enter either of those pots.
Bulgarian side Levski Sofia are the only team to be confirmed for a place in pot four at present.
Which teams are in each pot?
Pot one
Bayer Leverkusen
Juventus
AC Milan
Lyon
AZ Alkmaar
Olympiakos
Real Sociedad
Marseille
Pot one or two
Union Saint-Gilloise
Pot two
Dinamo Zagreb
Celtic
Sparta Prague
Rennes
Pot two or three
Sturm Graz
Crystal Palace
Bournemouth
Sunderland
Pot three
Celje
Celta Vigo
Pot three or four
TSG Hoffenheim
Torreense
Hapoel Be'er Sheva
NEC Nijmegen
Pot four
Levski Sofia
Pots unconfirmed
Winner of Trabzonspor vs Ferencvaros
Winner of Universitatea Craiova vs Aarat-Armenia
Winner of Sint-Truiden vs Omonia
Winner of Red Star Belgrade vs Viktoria Plzen
Winner of Egnatia vs Lillestrom
Winner of Jagiellonia Bialystok vs Iberia 1999
Winner of Mjallby AFG vs Red Bull Salzburg
Winner of Kairat vs Anderlecht
Winner of Lech Poznan vs Thun
Winner of Besiktas vs Kauno Zalgiris
Winner of Benfica vs AGF
Winner of OFI vs CSKA Sofia
This article is the latest from BBC Sport's Ask Me Anything team.
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