Europa League draw LIVE: Bournemouth, Sunderland, Crystal Palace and Celtic to learn opponents

Once the draw has been concluded the fixture list will be checked and once all situations have been confirmed the complete fixtures including dates and kick off times will be issued by Uefa no later than Sunday 30 August.

Aston Villa triumphed in last season’s Europa League final and won the trophy for the very first time.

They’re playing in the Champions League this season so who will take their place as champions?

Uefa is preparing to bring a criminal complaint against Gianni Infantino following the Fifa president’s failed plan to sell off commercial stakes in the World Cup to private investors.

A 56-page document, filed by Uefa’s lawyers in a federal court in the United States and seen by The Independent, declares that Uefa are “preparing to bring criminal claims in Switzerland against Infantino” for “criminal mismanagement” following Fifa’s now scrapped Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal.

There are further layers of complexity to contend with – teams can’t play more than two consecutive home or away fixtures; there are security factors to consider around cities with more than one club.

Or as Uefa wordily put it: “In accordance with Paragraph 23.01 (b) of the competition regulations, the UEFA administration decides which matches are played on Tuesday, which on Wednesday and which on Thursday (MD1 only), as well as the kick-off times.

“Furthermore, as per Paragraph 17.02 of the above-mentioned regulations a club, in principle, does not play more than two home or two away matches in a row, and each club plays one home match and one away match in the first two matchdays and the last two matchdays.

“If need be, however, the UEFA administration may derogate from these rules.”

The draw will determine the opponents for each team in the league phase of the competition.

36 teams have been divided into four pots based on their Uefa coefficient rankings.

Each team is drawn against two opponents from each of the four pots and plays one opponent from each pot at home, and the other away.

Teams from the same association can not be drawn against each other and each team may play against a maximum of two opponents from any other one association.

Since the start of the 2024/25 season, the first part of a Europa League season contain a single 36-team league phase.

In the Europa League league phase, each side faces eight different teams (four at home, four away).

The top eight overall advance directly to the round of 16; sides finishing from ninth to 24th will contest the knockout phase play-offs, with the victors going through to the last 16.

Teams that finish 25th or lower are knocked out of the competition.

The 2026/27 Europa League final will be staged at Stadion Frankfurt in Frankfurt, Germany, on 26 May 2027.

Originally opened in 1925, the arena has been upgraded several times, and recently hosted five games at Euro 2024, along with matches at the 2005 Fifa Confederations Cup and 2006 World Cup.

Which teams will complete the road to Frankfurt and face off in the final come May?

Martin O’Neill admitted the defeat ranked as one of his most painful nights as Celtic manager.

“I would say absolutely, yes,” he said. “I’d put it down before the disappointment of losing the Uefa Cup final in 2003, but it’s so, so disappointing.

“We should have been out of sight by half-time. We scored a goal, which was great, we missed two great, great opportunities. And then we give them a lifeline just before half-time and then one just after it. And they come roaring back.

“And obviously we conceded, from our viewpoint, not good goals at all. But that’s my team and that’s my responsibility.

“I’m disappointed that we’ve conceded the goals in the manner which we did.”

“We got what we deserved,” McGregor told Amazon Prime. “I thought we were so passive. All night. We actually looked scared to go and win the game, and when you are 3-0 up it’s psychological.

“To be honest I didn’t think we were that good in the first leg either. We scored at good times and kind of got away with it. You go 3-0 and you think you’ve got a real chance but when you play like that you can’t have any excuse whatsoever.”

Celtic threw away a four-goal lead in Austria as they missed out on the Champions League for the second year running.