In this article, we take a look a what UEFA’s Europa Conference League means for Premier League teams with teams able to qualify this season.
It will be introduced as the third-tier of European competition behind the Europa League and Champions League, though some would argue that it’s not needed.
Teams who fail to finish in the top five of the Premier League or end up as winners of this year’s Carabao Cup will enter the newest tournament which will start next season.
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What is the Europa Conference League?
It was announced back in December 2018 and the initially thinking behind it is a way to reduce the amount of teams taking part in the Europa League.
The Europa Conference League will have 32 teams entering its group stage, with the Europa League being reduced from 48 to 32 teams.
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.”
How is it formatted?
The tournament will have three qualifying rounds before a play-off round is played out.
Winners in the play-off stage then enter a group stage alongside the losers of the Europa League play-off round, with the competition then taking a similar structure to other European competitions.
The top team in each group will go directly through to the round of 16 knockout stage.
However, those who finish in second place will face an extra knockout round against teams who finish third in their Europa League group.
What do the winners get?
The tier format for European football means the winners will get direct entry into the following season’s Europa League.
The same goes for the Europa League, and the winners of that go on to enter the Champions League.
How do Premier League qualify for the new tournament?
Teams can qualify by becoming winners of the Carabao Cup – entering at the play-off stage before the group stage.
If the winners of the Carabao Cup have already finished in the top vie of the Premier League table, then the spot will go to the sixth-placed side, meaning we could see teams who have spent years and years away from European football back in some way.
As mentioned by ChronicleLive, clubs that lose in the play-off round of the Europa League enter the Europa Conference League group stage, whilst clubs who finish third in their Europa League group also enter the competition in the knockout stage.
When will games be played?
Matches are scheduled for Thursdays (including the May 2022 Final), though exceptionally can take place on Tuesdays or Wednesdays due to scheduling conflicts. Scheduled kick-off times are 16:30 (for a limited number of matches), 18:45 and 21:00 CEST/CET.
Who else is taking part?
The competition will feature clubs from smaller countries in Europe alongside one team from each of Europe’s top five leagues.
Liechtenstein doesn’t have a domestic league and will provide the winner of the Liechtenstein Football Cup irrespective of their coefficient ranking. So every European country will have a team enter in a European competition for the first time.
Nations ranked 1 to 5 will have one team; Nations ranked 6 to 15 will have two teams; Nations ranked 16 to 50 will have three teams; Nations ranked 51 to 55 will have two teams
Does this impact how many Champions League and Europa League spots England gets?
England will still have four teams in the Champions League but, due to the reduction in Europa League numbers, one less team will compete in the Europa League.
The two places in the Europa League will go to the fifth-placed Premier League side and the FA Cup winners.
If that is the same side, then the Premier League’s sixth-placed club will go into the Europa League, with seventh place going into the Europa Conference League.
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