The first time the UEFA Europa League was played was in the 20th century, the 1971-72 edition was the inaugural season of the tournament, and at that time the first UEL champion was Tottenham Hotspur, they have won only two titles (1972, 1984).

The format of the tournament has changed over time, during the first years of the Europa League the teams played directly the knockout stage without a group stage or qualifying rounds, all games were two-legged. Changes were made to the format over multiple decades (1997, 2004, 2009) until it reached the format that is used today.

Only one country, Spain, has more than thirteen UEL titles divided among eight Spanish teams, the second country with the most titles, including runners-up is England with 17 and the third spot is for Italy with 16 titles (with runners-up as well).

UEFA Europa League Winners: Complete list by year of every UEL champion

The team with the most UEL championships is Sevilla, they won their first title in 2006 and the most recent was in 2020. Sevilla is the only team with six UEL titles, four other teams have three titles and eight teams have won the UEL twice.

Benfica and Marseille are the two teams that have lost the most UEFA Europa League finals, one in the 20th century for each and two in the 21st century. Other 32 teams have never won the tournament and lost finals from 1972 to today.

In the 2021-22 UEFA Europa League, the final matchup was played between Eintracht Frankfurt and Rangers at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium in Sevilla, Spain. The game ended as a 1-1 draw. After a 5-3 penalty shootout, Eintracht Frankfurt won to be crowned as the UEFA Europa League Champions for the second time in the club's history.

Wins by club, UEFA Europa League
Club Winners Runners-up Years won Years runner-up
 Sevilla 6 0 2006, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2020
 Inter Milan 3 2 1991, 1994, 1998 1997, 2020
 Liverpool 3 1 1973, 1976, 2001 2016
 Juventus 3 1 1977, 1990, 1993 1995
 Atlético Madrid 3 0 2010, 2012, 2018
 Borussia Mgladbach 2 2 1975, 1979 1973, 1980
 Tottenham Hotspur 2 1 1972, 1984 1974
 Feyenoord 2 0 1974, 2002
 IFK Göteborg 2 0 1982, 1987
 Real Madrid 2 0 1985, 1986
 Parma 2 0 1995, 1999
 Porto 2 0 2003, 2011
 Chelsea 2 0 2013, 2019
 Anderlecht 1 1 1983 1984
 Ajax 1 1 1992 2017
 Manchester United 1 1 2017 2021
 PSV Eindhoven 1 0 1978
 Eintracht Frankfurt 2 0 1980, 2022
 Ipswich Town 1 0 1981
 Bayer Leverkusen 1 0 1988
 Napoli 1 0 1989
 Bayern Munich 1 0 1996
 Schalke 04 1 0 1997
 Galatasaray 1 0 2000
 Valencia 1 0 2004
 CSKA Moscow 1 0 2005
 Zenit St Petersburg 1 0 2008
 Shakhtar Donetsk 1 0 2009
 Villarreal 1 0 2021
 Benfica 0 3 1983, 2013, 2014
 Marseille 0 3 1999, 2004, 2018
 Athletic Bilbao 0 2 1977, 2012
 Espanyol 0 2 1988, 2007
 Borussia Dortmund 0 2 1993, 2002
 Arsenal 0 2 2000, 2019
 W Wanderers 0 1 1972
 Twente 0 1 1975
 Club Brugge 0 1 1976
 Bastia 0 1 1978
 Red Star Belgrade 0 1 1979
 AZ 0 1 1981
 Hamburger SV 0 1 1982
 Fehérvár 0 1 1985
 1. FC Köln 0 1 1986
 Dundee United 0 1 1987
 VfB Stuttgart 0 1 1989
 Fiorentina 0 1 1990
 Roma 0 1 1991
 Torino 0 1 1992
 Red Bull Salzburg 0 1 1994
 Bordeaux 0 1 1996
 Lazio 0 1 1998
 Alavés 0 1 2001
 Celtic 0 1 2003
 Sporting CP 0 1 2005
 Middlesbrough 0 1 2006
 Rangers 0 2 2008, 2022
 Werder Bremen 0 1 2009
 Fulham 0 1 2010
 Braga 0 1 2011
 Dnipro 0 1 2015