The new UEFA women's tournament will begin in the 2025/2026 season as part of a new exciting era for women's football in Europe.

The UEFA Executive Committee approved the name "UEFA Women's European Cup" for the newly created second women's club tournament. Announced a year ago, the tournament will start in the 2025/2026 season, marking an important milestone in the development of women's football in Europe.

The UEFA Women's European Cup will give more teams the opportunity to test themselves against continental rivals, providing additional motivation for investment at the domestic level.

The name for the second women's club competition was carefully chosen to resonate with fans: thanks to the men's UEFA Europa League "Europe" is already a term associated with the second tier of European club football, while "Cup" emphasizes the knockout format of the new tournament.

The branding of the competition and the new trophy will be presented in 2025, before the start of the next season.

UEFA Women's European Cup: how it will work

The UEFA Women's Cup will take place over six stages: two qualifying rounds, round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final consisting of two matches.

Thirteen teams—teams finishing third in the domestic league for the season-2024/2025 from associations ranked 8–13 in UEFA's women’s coefficient ranking (which currently includes Ukraine), as well as holders of second places from associations ranked 18–24—will qualify directly to the UEFA Women's European Cup.

In addition, clubs that are eliminated in the third qualifying round of the women's Champions League and teams finishing second and third in the second qualifying round will enter the tournament via a play-off system.

Winners of the UEFA Women's European Cup will automatically qualify for the third qualifying round of the Champions League in the following season.