What does playing in Europa League mean for Nottingham Forest? Key questions answered

New York Times

a day ago

For much of last season, Nottingham Forest built a sustained push for Champions League qualification.
With Nuno Espirito Santo's side challenging for a top-five finish, Forest fans began to dream of a first return to the European stage for three decades.
A stuttering finale to the campaign ensured Forest slipped down to seventh, which still secured a place in the Conference League.
Advertisement
But Crystal Palace have been punished by UEFA over multi-club ownership rules — and relegated to the Conference League as a result — with John Textor's Eagle Football's 43 per cent stake in Palace deemed to be in conflict with Eagle Football's majority stake in French side Lyon, after both clubs qualified for the Europa League.
And Forest have been promoted to the Europa League in their place. Here we breakdown the key questions for fans after the news…
They have yet to comment on the ruling.
The UEFA Europa League (UEL) is an annual tournament staged by UEFA since 1971. It is the second tier of European competition, behind the UEFA Champions League — which Forest won twice, under Brian Clough — and above the Conference League.
It replaced the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup when it was initially formed as the UEFA Cup. Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham battled it out in the first final, in 1972, when Spurs emerged victorious.
The competition took on its current name in 2009, amid a change in format, following a merger with the UEFA Intertoto Cup, which resulted in an extended group phase. Last season the format was altered again, this time to create an expanded league phase of 36 teams.
Overall, the competition has been won most times by Spanish clubs (14), followed by English and Italian sides (10 each). Sevilla are the most successful club, having lifted the trophy seven times.
Tottenham are the holders, having beaten Manchester United 1-0 in the 2025 final.
There is still a feeling of injustice among some former players, following the UEFA Cup semi-final of 1983-84, in which Forest were beaten by Anderlecht, in controversial circumstances.
Numerous key refereeing decisions went against Clough's side and it later emerged that referee Emilio Guruceta Muro had been paid a £27,000 'loan' from Anderlecht chairman Constant Vanden Stock. It was not until 1997 that UEFA punished Anderlecht, banning them from European competitions for a single year. Muro died in a car accident in 1987.
Forest will have rather happier memories of their progression to the quarter-finals of the competition under Frank Clark in 1995-96, where they were eventually beaten by German giants Bayern Munich.
Thirteen teams qualify directly for the Europa League league phase, with a further 12 sides securing their places through qualifying, which will come to a head on August 21 and August 28, when the two-legged play-off round will be completed.
The 36-team line-up is completed by 11 losing teams moving over from the Champions League third qualifying round and play-off stages. The stage at which the teams involved join qualifying is decided by their association club coefficient rankings.
Advertisement
Genk, Samsunspor, Sigma Olomouc, Aberdeen and Young Boys are the teams confirmed to be involved in the Europa League play-off round so far, with the second leg of the third qualifying round games to be played on Thursday. Shakhtar Donetsk, Panathinaikos, Utrecht, Braga and Lincoln Red Imps are among the 26 teams in the third qualifying round, looking to secure a place in those play-offs.
Had Forest remained in the Conference League, they would have been required to play in a play-off round. In the Europa League, they will go straight into the league phase.
Forest are among the 13 teams who have already had their place in the League phase confirmed. The others are:
England: Aston Villa
Italy: Bologna, Roma
Spain: Real Betis, Celta
Germany: Stuttgart, Freiburg
France: Lille, Lyon
Netherlands: Go Ahead Eagles
Portugal: Porto
Croatia: GNK Dinamo
In the previous group stage guise, clubs would play three other teams twice. Now each team will play eight matches, half of those fixtures at home and half away.
To determine those eight opponents, teams will initially be placed into four seeding pots. Each team will face two opponents from each of those pots. At the end of those games, the top eight sides in the league will qualify immediately for the knockout stage. Those who finish between ninth and 24th will complete in a two-leg play-off for a place in the last 16. Those who finish below 24th will be eliminated.
Matchday 1: 24 & 25 September 2025
Matchday 2: 2 October 2025
Matchday 3: 23 October 2025
Matchday 4: 6 November 2025
Matchday 5: 27 November 2025
Matchday 6: 11 December 2025
Matchday 7: 22 January 2026
Matchday 8: 29 January 2026
Knockout phase play-offs: February 19 & 26, 2026
Round of 16: March 12 & 19
Quarter-finals: April 9 & 16
Semi-finals: April 30 & May 7
Final: May 20
The 17th final of the competition since it became the Europa League — and the 55th overall — will be held in Istanbul. It will take place at Besiktas Park, the home of the 16-time Turkish League champions, Besiktas. In 2019, the 40,000-capacity stadium hosted the Super Cup, in which Champions League winners Liverpool beat Europa League winners Chelsea 5-4 on penalties, following a 2-2 draw.
The headline is that the overall prize pot for teams competing in the Europa League is almost double that of the Conference League, at €565million (£487m; $660m).
Forest's place in the league phase immediately earns them €4.31m (£3.72m). Beyond that, the prize for winning a league phase match is €450,000 (£389k).
Advertisement
One of the biggest differences between the two competitions is the distribution of funds based on league placing at the end of the initial phase. As well as €450,000 per win, UEFA also awards €150,000 (£129,000) to clubs for a draw. Undistributed amounts — i.e. the remaining €150,000 prize money for every drawn game — are returned to an overall pot which is then distributed proportionally based on league finishes, using a shares system.
At the end of the league phase, the top-ranked team receives 36 shares, the second-placed team 35 shares, the team in third 34 shares and so on, right down to the club in 36th, which earns just one share. Each share is initially worth €75,000 (£64,000) in the Europa League — compared with just €28,000 (£24,000) in the Conference League — but each drawn game adds €150,000 to the overall share pot.
Meanwhile, teams ranked first to eighth in the league phase bank an extra €600,000 (£518,765). Placing ninth to 16th secures €300,o00 (£259,381). The prize money for advancing in the knockout stages is notably more fruitful in the Europa League, with the champions receiving double that earned by the winners of the Conference League.
Should a team win all their matches en route to lifting the Europa League trophy, they would earn a minimum of €32.5m.
The winners of the competition will qualify for a place in the 2026-27 UEFA Champions League league phase, if they have not qualified via their domestic competition.
They will also get to lift the Europa League trophy which, at 15kg, is the heaviest of all the UEFA silverware. Helpfully, it also has no handles. UEFA keep hold of the original trophy, with the winning club given a full-sized replica.
The trophy was designed by Silvio Gazzaniga, who also designed the World Cup trophy.
Any club who wins the competition three times in a row or five times overall, will be awarded a multiple-winner badge. Thus far, only Sevilla have one.
Those who made a rather optimistic hotel room booking in Leipzig, Germany, in case Forest did manage to reach the Conference League final, will have to put a call in to their travel agent.
The clubs Forest are likely to face in the Europa League will provide more difficult opposition, but they might also be easier to get to geographically.
The main thing for Forest fans is that they are back on the European stage for the first time in 30 years.
And, as Murillo testified in a recent interview, the players intend to give their all, in an effort to come back with some silverware.
Spot the pattern. Connect the terms
Find the hidden link between sports terms
Play today's puzzle