The 2009–10 UEFA Europa League was the first season of the UEFA Europa League, Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA. The competition was previously known as the UEFA Cup, which had been in existence for 38 years.
Spain's Atlético Madrid won the tournament for the first time, beating Fulham – who were playing in their first European final – at the Volksparkstadion, home ground of Hamburger SV, in Hamburg, Germany.
The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual club football competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It is the second-tier competition of European club football, ranking below the UEFA Champions League and above the UEFA Conference League.
Introduced in 1971 as the UEFA Cup, it replaced the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. From the 2004–05 season a group stage was added before the knockout phase. The competition took on its current name in 2009, following a change in format. The 2009 re-branding included a merge with the UEFA Intertoto Cup, producing an enlarged competition format, with an expanded group stage and a change in qualifying criteria. In the 2024–25 season, the group stage was replaced with an expanded league phase of 36 teams.