European soccer governing body UEFA has announced that its new secondary women’s continental club competition will be known as the UEFA Women’s Europa Cup.
The competition will launch in the 2025-26 campaign and feature six knockout rounds including a two-legged final, the winner of which will automatically qualify for the third qualifying round (the next season) of the elite UEFA Women’s Champions League.
This move echoes the naming convention of the men’s secondary continental competition, the UEFA Europa League, giving branding uniformity to men’s and women’s competitions.
UEFA has also approved an increase to the prize money for the upcoming UEFA Women's European Championships 2025, which will take place in Switzerland from July 2-27. Prize money for the tournament has grown by 156% on the 2022 edition, up to €41 million ($43 million).
All 16 participating teams will receive €1.8 million from the prize pot, making up 70% of the pot in total, with the remaining 30% to be distributed on a performance basis (€100,000 per win, €50,000 per draw across the knockout stage) with the most a team can garner - should it win the tournament - being €5.1 million.
The 2022 Euros had a total prize pot of €16 million, double the €8 million pot from Euro 2017, showcasing the rapid growth of women’s soccer in Europe.
The move was approved at a UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, which also saw a new funding distribution model put in place for UEFA’s women's club competitions for the 2025-2030 period.
For the 2026-27 and 2027-28 campaigns €37.7 million per season will be distributed to competing clubs, and following that the annual number will be increased to €46.7 million.