All questions and answers about the new UEFA competition

Last September, the UEFA approved to create a new competition for the 2021-22 season. It will be called UEFA Europa Conference League and the European body summarized how it will be on its website.

What is the UEFA Europa Conference League?

The UEFA Europa Conference League will be the third UEFA club competition together with the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. It was approved for the first time by the UEFA Executive Committee in December 2018.

When will it begin?

The competition will begin in 2021 and will be played at least throughout the 2021-2024 season. The full tournament schedule will be announced in due course.

Who will participate?

No team is directly qualified. The 32 teams playing in the group phase will be decided as follows:

·         Seventeen teams from the main route of the UEFA Europa Conference League.

·         Five teams from the route of the UEFA Europa Conference League champions.

·         Ten teams eliminated in the play-offs of UEFA Europa League.

The full access list will be published in due course.

How will it work?

There will be eight groups of four teams disputing a play-off round, a second round, the quarterfinals, the semifinals and the final.

The eight group champions automatically go to the second round. Before this event, an additional preliminary round will be played between the eight group runners-up and the third-best teams classified from the UEFA Europa League groups.

The new competition will have 141 games over 15 weeks, exactly like the new UEFA Europa League.

What do winners receive?

The winner of the new competition will be entitled to participate in the UEFA Europa League group stage next season.

Why was it created?

President of UEFA, Aleksander Čeferin said: “The new UEFA club competition makes UEFA club competitions more inclusive than ever. There will be more matches for more clubs, with more federations represented in the group stage”.

The new structure of UEFA club competitions will ensure that at least 34 UEFA national federations are represented in the group stage of one or more competitions.

There will be at least 14 national champions in the UEFA Champions League group stage, eight to eleven national champions in the UEFA Europa League group stage, and nine to twelve national champions in the UEFA Europa Conference League group stage. All member federations will have access to all three club competitions, and all federation fees will remain unchanged.

What else do we know?

UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League matches will take place on Thursdays. The matches of the two competitions will be equally divided between the two time zones: 18:45 CET (never after 18:55) and 21:00 CET. These two time zones will also apply to UEFA Champions League matches on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.