Europa League: Table, Football Fixtures, Thursday Kick-Off Times and African Stars

The Europa League (the UEFA Europa League, shortened to UEL) is the second of UEFA's club competitions, a football tournament in which 36 clubs play a league phase before knockout rounds decide the champion. It began in 1971 as the UEFA Cup, took the Europa League name from the 2009-10 season, and Aston Villa were the champions in 2025-26 after beating SC Freiburg 3-0 in the final. The live fixtures, results and table sit above, and they update themselves after every match.

South African readers may also say soccer, while in Lagos, Accra and Nairobi it is simply Thursday night football, and the competition is the same either way. What follows explains how the format works, what time the games start in WAT, EAT, SAST and GMT, who has lifted the trophy, and why it matters to the Nigerian, Ghanaian, South African, Kenyan and Ugandan players who reach it. One scroll should answer what you came to ask, and the data above it shows every result as it lands.

How Do You Read the Europa League Table, Fixtures and Results?

You read the Europa League table as one long list of 36 clubs, ranked by points, rather than as eight small groups. The Europa League table gives three points for a win and one for a draw, then separates level clubs by goal difference and the other tiebreakers UEFA sets. In South Africa you may hear the table called the log, and it is read in exactly the same way. The two lines that matter sit under eighth place and under twenty fourth place, because the first decides who goes straight through and the second decides who is still in the competition.

The Europa League fixtures list every match with its date and the start time for each of our five countries side by side, so nobody in Kampala or Kumasi has to do the sum. Each club plays eight matches in the league phase, split evenly between home and away, which means every single round carries weight. The practical habit is to check the fixture list early in the week, find the clubs you care about, and plan the Thursday evening around them before the viewing centre fills up.

The Europa League results carry the full time scores and the scorers, and they refresh as soon as the referee blows. A result in the league phase is worth reading twice, because a draw away from home can shape a club's place in the top eight as much as a big win at home. Read the result beside the table rather than on its own, and you will see quickly whether a club has climbed over one of those two lines or slipped below it.

Who Scores the Goals in the Europa League, and Where Are the Africans?

The leading scorers and assist makers for this season live in the Europa League stats module, which updates after every match, so the name at the top is always the live one. The stats also show clean sheets and minutes played, and those columns tell you more than goals alone about which clubs are built to last into spring. A striker scoring freely in autumn is one thing, but the knockout rounds are where the real reputations are made.

The African players at Europa League clubs are listed in a live module, country by country, drawn from the clubs' registered squads. That matters because squads change in every transfer window, and a Ghanaian full back or a Nigerian forward can arrive at a club in January and play in the knockout rounds a few weeks later. If you follow one player in particular, the squad module is the place to check whether he is registered, before you settle in for the evening expecting to see him.

The clearest example of what the competition means for African players is Nigeria's Ademola Lookman, who scored a hat-trick as Atalanta beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 in the 2024 final. Morocco's goalkeeper Yassine Bounou also won the trophy with Sevilla in 2020 and 2023. Minutes in Europe against strong opposition are what national team coaches notice, and eight league phase matches give a player regular European football from autumn into winter. A long run into spring puts him on the biggest Thursday stages, where a single goal can change how a whole country talks about him.

What Time Do Europa League Matches Kick Off in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and South Africa?

Europa League matches are mostly played on Thursday evenings, with the usual kick-offs at 18:45 and 21:00 Central European Time. In the European winter that means 18:45 and 21:00 WAT in Lagos, 17:45 and 20:00 GMT in Accra, 19:45 and 22:00 SAST in Johannesburg, and 20:45 and 23:00 EAT in Nairobi and Kampala. The early game suits East Africa best, while the late game sits comfortably in the evening for Nigeria and Ghana.

Europe switches to summer time in late March and returns to winter time in late October, while all five African countries keep the same clocks throughout the year, so the gap to Europe shifts by an hour twice a year. Matches played after the clocks go forward, and league phase matches played before they go back, start an hour earlier for us: 17:45 and 20:00 WAT, 16:45 and 19:00 GMT, 18:45 and 21:00 SAST, and 19:45 and 22:00 EAT. February play-offs and early March ties are still on winter time. The fixture list above does this conversion for you, match by match, so you never have to remember which week the clocks changed.

In Lagos the late game starts at 21:00 WAT in winter, a comfortable evening slot once the working day is over. For a fan in Nairobi or Kampala, a winter kick-off at 23:00 EAT is a real commitment on a work night, and Johannesburg is not far behind at 22:00 SAST. The early slot is the better choice for live viewing in East or Southern Africa, and the late match can be caught through the results and highlights the next morning.

How Can You Watch the UEFA Europa League in Africa?

Where you can watch the UEFA Europa League depends on your country, and the rights change hands from time to time, so the current broadcaster for Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa sits in a data box for each country rather than in the text. That box is checked and updated when the rights move. Many fans across the five countries follow the matches in bars and viewing centres, and a growing number follow on their phones, with live scores open beside a stream or a radio commentary.

If a Premier League club is in the competition, viewing centres often fill for its Thursday match, because loyalties to Premier League clubs run deep from Lagos to Nairobi. The practical step is simple: check the country box for the broadcaster and the slot, then arrive early if your club is playing in the late game, because the good seats go first.

How Does the Europa League Work?

The Europa League is UEFA's second club competition, sitting below the Champions League and above the Conference League, which is the third. Clubs earn their places through their domestic seasons, so a club that finishes just outside the Champions League places at home, or wins a domestic cup, can find itself here. In plain terms, it is the competition for very good clubs who have not quite reached the very top table that season, and it often contains famous names from England, Spain, Italy and Germany.

Since the 2024-25 season the competition has used a 36 team league phase, in which each club plays eight matches against different opponents, half of them at home, with every result going into one shared table. Think of an inter house sports day at a Lagos secondary school, where each house runs only some of the races but every point lands on the same scoreboard. That single table replaced the old groups, and it means a club's fate can depend on results in matches it never played.

What Does Finishing in the Top 8 Mean, and What Does the Winner Get?

Finishing in the top eight of the league phase sends a club straight to the round of 16, which is the reward for a strong autumn. Clubs ranked ninth to twenty fourth play knockout play-offs over two legs for the remaining places in the round of 16, and the clubs ranked twenty fifth to thirty sixth are eliminated. A club in the top eight gets a rest while the others play an extra round, and in a long European season that extra rest can be worth a great deal.

The winner of the Europa League qualifies for the following season's UEFA Champions League and for the UEFA Super Cup. That is why the competition matters so much to a club that finished outside the Champions League places in its own league, because winning it opens the front door anyway. UEFA keeps the original and the winners receive a full size replica.

For readers who search for a UEFA Europa League predictor, our Europa League predictions set out a view of every fixture, with the chance we give it and a reference price alongside. A call is an informed view of what is more likely, never a promise, and the results of past calls are published, whether they landed or not. The knockout rounds are where calls are hardest, because two legs, away grounds and late substitutions can turn a tie that looked settled after the first match.

Who Has Won the Europa League, and Which Records Still Stand?

Sevilla have won the competition more than anyone, with seven titles, in 2006, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2020 and 2023. Their sixth came in the 2020 final against Inter Milan, and the seventh followed three years later. It could be argued that no club has ever made a European competition feel so much like its own home ground, and every club that enters still measures itself against that record, the way every Nollywood director still measures a hit against the classics.

By country, Spanish clubs lead with 14 titles, followed by England with 11, Italy with 10 and Germany with 7, a list that shows how the competition has moved between Europe's big leagues over the decades. Sevilla and Tottenham Hotspur are the only clubs to have won it in three different decades, which tells you something about patience. Tottenham completed that set in 2024-25, when they won their third title in the competition.

The recent winners show how open the competition has become: Villarreal in 2020-21, Eintracht Frankfurt in 2021-22, Sevilla in 2022-23, Atalanta in 2023-24, Tottenham Hotspur in 2024-25 and Aston Villa in 2025-26. Six seasons produced six different champions from four countries. So, if you are looking at the table this season and wondering whether the obvious favourite will win, the record suggests caution, because the Europa League has a long habit of rewarding the club that grows stronger in spring.

Which African Nations Have a Stake in the Europa League, Country by Country?

The Europa League is one of the stages where Nigerian players at European clubs meet the continent's bigger names. Ademola Lookman showed it in the 2024 final, scoring all three goals as Atalanta beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-0. Nigerian players at Europa League clubs are listed in the live squad module, checked against the registered squads, so you can see at a glance who is in the competition this season.

For Ghana, the link runs through Thomas Partey, who was part of the Atlético Madrid squad that won the Europa League in 2017-18. Ghanaian players at Europa League clubs appear in the same live module. In Accra the 20:00 GMT kick-off in winter is a natural evening appointment, and a Ghanaian name in the starting line up gives a Thursday match a meaning that a neutral fixture does not have.

South African fans follow European football with real passion alongside the Premiership. Readers who call the table the log will find it works the same way here, and the 19:45 SAST early slot in winter fits straight after the working day, with Johannesburg and Cape Town viewers also following the Premier League clubs in the draw.

Kenya has one particular rhythm: the winter late game at 23:00 EAT means many Nairobi fans choose the early 20:45 match for live viewing, then read the late scores and scorers in the results module the next morning. Kenyan players registered with Europa League clubs appear in the live module.

In Uganda, Kampala shares the same EAT kick-off times as Nairobi, so bars and viewing centres tend to build the evening around the early slot, and Ugandan players registered with Europa League clubs are listed in the same module, checked against the squads. When a Premier League club is in the draw, its Thursday nights fill bars across both cities.

When Does the Europa League Season Start and End?

The Europa League season begins with qualifying rounds in late summer, runs its league phase from autumn into the new year, then plays the knockout rounds through spring before the final closes the European season. Almost all of it happens on Thursday nights, which is why the competition and Thursday night football have become the same phrase for so many fans. The exact dates for this season are in the fixture list, and the final's date and venue appear there once UEFA confirms them.

A defining Europa League match of recent years is the 2026 final, in which Aston Villa beat SC Freiburg 3-0 to win the 2025-26 title. For the many Villa supporters across West and East Africa, that 3-0 scoreline in the final was the night the trophy was won. Freiburg reached the final on merit, and their run is a reminder that a well organised club from outside the giants can go all the way to the last match.

Which Clubs Play in the Europa League, and How Do They Get There?

Thirty six clubs from across Europe play in the league phase each season, some entering directly through their domestic league finish or a cup win, and others through the qualifying rounds in summer. The list changes every year, so the current clubs are shown in the table module rather than written out here. For a reader trying to decide which matches to follow, the most useful thing is to look for clubs from the leagues you already watch, then check where they sit after each round.

Recent seasons have given Premier League followers across Africa plenty to watch, with Tottenham Hotspur winning in 2024-25 and Aston Villa in 2025-26. African players have also left their mark on other winners: Atalanta, champions in 2023-24, had Nigeria's Ademola Lookman scoring a hat-trick in the final, and Sevilla's wins in 2020 and 2023 had Morocco's Yassine Bounou in goal. A Champions League place for the winner is worth a great deal, which is why English clubs take the competition seriously. Whichever Premier League club enters this season, expect the viewing centres in Lagos, Accra, Nairobi, Kampala and Johannesburg to treat its Thursday matches as main events.

How Did the UEFA Europa League Begin?

The competition began in 1971 as the UEFA Cup, which replaced the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, a tournament that had been tied to trade fairs in European cities. UEFA took the competition over and gave it a clear place below the European Cup, which later became the Champions League. For older fans in Lagos and Accra, the UEFA Cup name still lingers, and you will hear it used in viewing centres by people who first followed European football in the years before the satellite dish was common.

The competition was renamed the UEFA Europa League from the 2009-10 season, and it received a new trophy designed by Silvio Gazzaniga, the same designer behind the FIFA World Cup Trophy. The Europa League trophy weighs 15 kg and stands 67 cm tall. UEFA keeps the original, and each winner takes home a full size replica.

The Europa League finals tell the story of the competition better than any list, from Sevilla's long run of titles, including the 2020 final against Inter Milan, to Tottenham's third title in 2024-25 and Aston Villa's 3-0 win over SC Freiburg in 2026. If you want to follow the finals in order, start with the winners above, then open the results module for the current season and watch how this season's contenders are building their own path towards the next one.