UEFA's Europa League is back for 2024/25 with a tweaked format, as 36 clubs take part in a giant league table hoping to make it out into the last 16.
The Premier League will be represented by Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, with Rangers from the Scottish Premiership also taking part.
Spurs have won their first three matches and currently sit second in the table – so are in a good position to progress further.
Rangers are currently 11th, which puts them in the higher reaches of the play-off stages – however, a post Erik ten Hag-era Manchester United are 21st, having drawn their first three games.
They'll be hoping for an upturn in form under interim head coach Ruud van Nistelrooy and incoming new manager Rúben Amorim, who's currently at Champions League hopefuls Sporting CP of Lisbon.
Here's how you can tune in live on TV or via streaming.
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Watch UEFA Europa League matches live in the UK
Watch UEFA Europa League football with TNT Sports
Viewers in the UK can watch the UEFA Europa League exclusively on TNT Sports, with access priced at £30.99/month via the discovery+ website. You'll need to choose the 'discovery+ premium (including TNT Sports)' package.
TNT Sports now shares the rights to the UEFA Champions League with Amazon's streaming service Prime Video. It has selected Premier League fixtures, plus exclusive rights to the UEFA Conference League and Italy's premier division, Serie A.
TNT Sports' Europa League coverage for Matchday 4 includes teatime fixtures for Rangers (away at Olympiacos) and Spurs (away at Galatasaray) on Thursday, November 7. Coverage of both games will start at 5pm – head to TNT Sports 1 for Spurs, and TNT Sports 3 for Rangers.
Manchester United host PAOK of Greece at Old Trafford later that evening. Coverage starts at 7pm on TNT Sports 2 and TNT Sports UHD.
All matches also stream online for subscribers via the discovery+ app.
Outside of football, TNT Sports subscribers can enjoy a vast live sports portfolio including WWE, UFC, Moto GP, Formula E, Major League Baseball (MLB), NBA basketball, Gallagher Premiership Rugby, Heineken Champions Cup, and the European Challenge Cup.
Members also have access to discovery+ entertainment and sports programming for their monthly fee, which opens up coverage of the Australian Open and French Open tennis, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and more.
Viewers can access TNT Sports programming via the discovery+ app, their computer browsers, or through a list of compatible devices, smart TVs and games consoles. You can also cast from a phone or tablet using Apple Airplay or Google Chromecast tech.
Europa League 2024/25 format change
UEFA has overhauled the Europa League for this season. Instead of 32 teams split into several groups, there are now 36 teams, all of whom will be ranked in one huge league table just like the new Champions League system. You can see the latest table here.
This is known as the 'league phase'. If you're up to speed with the new Champions League format, then this should come to you fairly easily, as it's very similar.
A draw took place in August 2024 to rank the teams and decide fixtures for the league phase. The clubs were ranked based on their UEFA "club coefficient", which is a ranking system informed by their performance in recent years. Then, they were split into four pots of nine teams and fixtures were allocated at random by computer.
Pros
- Premier League and Champions League football
- Live Eurosport with cycling, tennis, snooker, motorsports
- Included in the Discovery+ Premium membership
Cons
- It's expensive
- Not as extensive as Sky Sports
Europa League 2024/25 league phase explained
Each team will play eight matches, four at home and four away, and face two opponents from each of the ranked pots. We've listed out the matchdays in a separate section below along with the fixtures for Premier League sides Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, plus Scottish Premiership side Rangers.
However, clubs can't face opponents from their own country or footballing association during the league phase, and they can't play more than two sides from the same country either. So, for example, no side would have to play all three Dutch clubs in the tournament, and none of those teams from the Eredivisie could play each other.
Europa League 2024/25 knockout round changes
Once everyone's played all eight of their fixtures, the top eight teams go through to the round of 16 as a seeded team. Eight opponents for these clubs will be chosen from among 16 further teams, who have to get through a two-leg playoff first.
Teams in positions 9 to 16 are seeded for the playoffs and will host the second-leg fixture at home. The teams in positions 17 to 24 are unseeded and will host the first-leg playoff fixture at their home ground.
For those finishing 25th or lower, their European football dreams will be over – there is no route to the UEFA Conference League, and no more eliminated Champions League sides will drop into the Europa League under this new format.
And if anyone out here feels confident that their club will make the Europa League final, then set yourself a calendar reminder for May 21, 2025. The match will be played at the San Mamés stadium in the Spanish city of Bilbao.
Europa League league phase matchdays 2024/25
Here is a list of the Europa League matchdays for the new season. Matches will be played on Wednesdays and Thursdays under this new system, with one Tuesday fixture in January.
Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Rangers' fixtures are listed against the matchdays in which they will take place.
• Matchday 1, September 25-26: Manchester United 1-1 Twente, Malmö 0-2 Rangers, Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 Quarabağ
• Matchday 2, October 3: Ferencváros 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur, Porto 3-3 Manchester United, Rangers 1-4 Lyon
• Matchday 3, October 23-24: Rangers 4-0 FCSB, Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 AZ Alkmaar, Fenerbahçe 1-1 Manchester United
• Matchday 4, November 6-7: Olympiacos v Rangers, Galatasaray v Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United v PAOK
• Matchday 5, November 28: Manchester United v Bodø/Glimt, Tottenham Hotspur v Roma, Nice v Rangers
• Matchday 6, December 11-12: Viktoria Plzeň v Manchester United, Rangers v Tottenham Hotspur
• Matchday 7, January 21-23: TSB Hoffenheim v Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United v Rangers
• Matchday 8, January 30: Rangers v Union SG, Tottenham v IF Elfsborg, FCSB v Manchester United
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Kate (they/she) is a freelance writer, editor, digital editorial trainer and data technician who first joined Digital Spy as an overnight freelance sub-editor in January 2011, after studying a postgraduate diploma in journalism at Salford University while working part-time as a social researcher.
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