UEFA have this evening revealed the name of the third club competition that is planned to be launching in 2021.
Yep, as if we need another one and just when you thought the Europa League was bad enough. The new name for it is, the UEFA Europa Conference League, no joke.
The aim is said to have more clubs from more associations will play European football, or basically more money, that’s the real reason.
So get ready for more moaning from managers in the Premier League about a packed fixture list and potentially talk of changing up the League Cup, something the French are getting rid of.
Couldn't sound anymore tinpot.
— Fan Banter (@fan_banter) September 24, 2019
So what does the new competition all mean?
• The new competition (which has the working title of UEL2) will mirror the existing UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, and feature 32 teams in a group stage.
• The format will see eight groups of four teams, followed by the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.
• An additional knockout round will be played before the round of 16 between teams ranked second in their groups and the third-ranked teams of the UEFA Europa League groups.
• The new competition will feature 141 matches over 15 match weeks, exactly like the UEFA Europa League.
• The winner of the new competition will be entitled to participate in the UEFA Europa League in the following season.
• The new competition matches will be played on Thursdays. As such, the UEFA Champions League continues to be played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the UEFA Europa League and the new competition will be played on Thursday with one additional kick-off time slot for a limited number of matches in principle at 16:30CET to be further defined.
• All club competition finals will be played in the same week: Wednesday (new competition), Thursday (UEFA Europa League) and Saturday (UEFA Champions League).
The new third competition will ensure that at least 34 countries will be represented in the group stages of the UEFA club competitions (today, the minimum guaranteed number is 26). All member associations will have access to the three club competitions and all associations will keep the same overall access quota as currently.
UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin said: “The new UEFA club competition makes UEFA’s club competitions more inclusive than ever before. There will be more matches for more clubs, with more associations represented in the group stages. This competition was borne out of ongoing dialogue with clubs through the European Club Association.
“There was a widespread demand by all clubs to increase their chances of participating more regularly in European competition. This has been achieved with a strategic approach, and in accordance with UEFA’s objective of having both more quality and more inclusivity in our club competitions.”
After announcing the new name for the third European competition, fans took to laugh and mock it – see what they had to say on the next page.
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