When is the Europa League 2026-27 draw? Date, time, how to watch, how it works

Three Premier League teams are eagerly anticipating the draw for the League Phase of the Europa League, which takes place on Thursday.

Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Sunderland are all making their first-ever appearances in this version of the competition.

Having edged out the likes of Chelsea for a spot in the tournament, all three teams will have ambitions to lift the trophy in Frankfurt on May 26.

However, with European giants such as Juventus, AC Milan and Bayer Leverkusen also featuring in the second-tier tournament, they cannot claim to be among the favourites.

Here, Sports Mole rounds up everything you need to know about the upcoming Europa League league-phase draw, including the date, time, how to watch and how it works.

When and where is the Europa League 2026-27 draw?

The Europa League league-phase draw takes place on Friday, August 28, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, starting at 12pm UK time.

While 17 teams have already secured their spots in the draw, they are awaiting clubs to join them from the subsequent qualifying round ties that are taking place between Tuesday and Thursday.

How does the Europa League 2026-27 draw work?

As with the Champions League draw, each club plays two opponents from each of the four pots, including their own, with one home fixture and one away fixture against every pot.

The software that is used to conduct the draw applies country protection rules, meaning that no two teams from the same nation can play each other in the League Phase.

Regardless of the three Premier League teams remaining unsure of whether they will be placed in the same pot, they cannot square off versus each other until the knockout stage at the earliest.

The top eight teams after eight league phase matches will progress directly through to the last 16.

Meanwhile, clubs finishing ninth to 24th will enter a two-legged playoff round, with teams ranked between 25th and 36th exiting the competition.

How to watch the Europa League 2026-27 draw in the UK

Viewers in the UK can watch the 2026-27 Europa League league-phase draw on TNT Sports and HBO Max.

The ceremony is also expected to be shown live on the UEFA website, Uefa.tv, the UEFA app and the governing body's YouTube channel.

Europa League 2026-27 draw pots in full

With the losers of the Champions League playoff round ties and the winners of the Europa League playoff round ties still to be added, the Europa League draw pots will not be determined until Thursday night.

However, as a result of their high UEFA coefficient, five teams - Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus, AC Milan, AZ Alkmaar and Olympiacos have already been confirmed for pot one.

Real Sociedad and Marseille are also likely to feature in that pot, but Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Sunderland are in line to be placed in pot three.

The European debut of surprise Portuguese cup winners Torreense will see them occupy a spot in pot four.