2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League
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| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | Qualifying: 8 July – 26 August 2021 Competition proper: 16 September 2021 – 25 May 2022 |
| Teams | Competition proper: 32+8 Total: 138+46 (from 55 associations) |
2022–23 → | |
The 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League will be the first season of the UEFA Europa Conference League, Europe's tertiary club football tournament organised by UEFA.
The final will be played at the Arena Kombëtare in Tirana, Albania.[1] The winners of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League will automatically qualify for the 2022–23 UEFA Europa League group stage, unless they manage to qualify for the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League group stage.[2]
This season will be the first since 1998–99 (the last season that the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was played) where three major European club competitions (UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and the newly-created UEFA Europa Conference League) organised by UEFA take place.[3]
Association team allocation
A total of 184 teams from all 55 UEFA member associations participate in the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:
- Associations 1–5 each have one team qualify.
- Associations 6–15 and 51–55 each have two teams qualify.
- Associations 16–50 (except Liechtenstein)[Note LIE] each have three teams qualify.
- Liechtenstein have one team qualify (Liechtenstein organises only a domestic cup and no domestic league).[Note LIE]
- Moreover, 20 teams eliminated from the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League and 26 teams eliminated from the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League are transferred to the Europa Conference League.
Association ranking
For the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2020 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2015–16 to 2019–20.[4]
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Europa Conference League, as noted below:
- (UCL) – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Champions League
- (UEL) – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Europa League
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Distribution
The following is the default access list.[5]
| Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from previous round | Teams transferred from Champions League or Europa League | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First qualifying round (70 teams) |
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| Second qualifying round (110 teams) |
Champions Path (20 teams) |
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| Main Path (90 teams) |
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| Third qualifying round (62 teams) |
Champions Path (10 teams) |
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| Main Path (52 teams) |
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| Play-off round (44 teams) |
Champions Path (10 teams) |
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| Main Path (34 teams) |
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| Group stage (32 teams) |
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| Preliminary knockout round (16 teams) |
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| Knockout phase (16 teams) |
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In the default access list, three teams eliminated from the Europa League third qualifying round (Main Path) are transferred to the Europa Conference League play-off round (Main Path). However, since the Europa League group stage berth reserved for the title holders of the Europa Conference League is not used for this season, only two are transferred for this season. As a result, changes to the access list will be made, to be officially confirmed by UEFA.
Changes will be made to the access list above, if any of the teams that qualify for the Europa League or Europa Conference League via their domestic competitions also qualify for the Champions League as the Champions League or Europa League title holders, or if there are fewer teams transferred from the Champions League and/or Europa League due to access list changes. In any case where a spot in the Europa Conference League is vacated, teams of the highest-ranked associations in earlier rounds will be promoted accordingly.
Teams
NOTE: The following list of qualified teams is provisional, subject to final confirmation by UEFA in June 2021, as each participating team must obtain a UEFA club licence. All qualified teams are included in this list as long as they have not been banned by UEFA or have not failed their final appeal with their football association on obtaining a licence. |
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
- CW: Domestic cup winners
- 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc.: League position of the previous season
- LC: League cup winners
- RW: Regular season winners
- PW: End-of-season Europa Conference League play-offs winners
- UCL: Transferred from the Champions League
- Q1: Losers from the first qualifying round
- PR: Losers from the preliminary round (F: final; SF: semi-finals)
- UEL: Transferred from the Europa League
- GS: Third-placed teams from the group stage
- PO: Losers from the play-off round
- CH/MP Q3: Losers from the third qualifying round (Champions/Main Path)
- Abd-: League positions of abandoned season due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe as determined by the national association; all teams are subject to approval by UEFA as per the guidelines for entry to European competitions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[6]
The second qualifying round, third qualifying round and play-off round are divided into Champions Path (CH) and Main Path (MP).
Note: Teams in italics may still qualify for the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League or 2021–22 UEFA Europa League, either through domestic performance, or by winning the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League or 2020–21 UEFA Europa League.
Notes
- ^ Belgium (BEL): Club Brugge can qualify for the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League by finishing first or second in the Belgian championship play-off; if not they would enter qualifying for the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League due to finishing first in the regular season of the 2020–21 Belgian First Division A.
- ^ Faroe Islands (FRO): Originally, the qualification process for Faroe Islands was the winners of the 2020 Faroe Islands Cup and second place of the 2020 Faroe Islands Premier League. Since the 2020 Faroe Islands Cup winners, HB, also won the 2020 Faroe Islands Premier League, they qualified for the 2021-22 UEFA Champions League instead. Therefore, third place of the league, KÍ, goes to the 2021-22 UEFA Europa Conference League.
- ^ Finland (FIN): Originally, the qualification process for Finland was the winners of the 2020 Finnish Cup and second place of the 2020 Veikkausliiga. Since the 2020 Finnish Cup winners, HJK, also won the 2020 Veikkausliiga, they qualified for the 2021-22 UEFA Champions League instead. Therefore, fourth place of the league, Honka, goes to the 2021-22 UEFA Europa Conference League.
- ^ Georgia (GEO): Gagra is currently the only team in a 2nd tier league (2020 Erovnuli Liga 2) qualifying from the 2020 Georgian Cup, the domestic cup for Georgia.
- ^ Iceland (ISL): The 2020 Úrvalsdeild and the 2020 Icelandic Cup were abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Iceland. The second-placed, third-placed and fourth-placed teams of the league at the time of the abandonment based on the average number of points per matches played for each team, FH, Stjarnan and Breiðablik, were selected to play in the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League by the Football Association of Iceland, entering the first qualifying round.[7]
- ^ Ireland (IRL): Originally, the qualification process for Ireland was second and third of the league, and the domestic cup winners that qualify for the Europa Conference League, but, since Dundalk won the 2020 FAI Cup and placed 3rd in the 2020 League of Ireland Premier Division, fourth-placed, Sligo Rovers qualified too.
- ^ Kazakhstan (KAZ): The 2020 Kazakhstan Cup was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Kazakhstan. As a result, the fourth-placed team of the 2020 Kazakhstan Premier League was selected to play in the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League by the Football Federation of Kazakhstan, entering the second qualifying round.[8]
- ^ Liechtenstein (LIE): Since Liechtenstein have fewer than eight active teams (they have seven), they have no league of their own and all of the teams play in the Swiss football league system. They do, however, have their own domestic cup, the Liechtenstein Football Cup, which consists of seven active teams and ten reserve teams. The cup winners, which qualify for the UEFA Europa Conference League, are the only team which qualify for European competitions.
- ^ Luxembourg (LUX): The 2020–21 Luxembourg Cup was abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Luxembourg. As a result, the fourth-placed team of the 2020–21 Luxembourg National Division was selected to play in the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League by the Luxembourg Football Federation, entering the first qualifying round.[9]
- ^ Norway (NOR): The 2020 Norwegian Football Cup was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Norway. As a result, the fourth-placed team of the 2020 Eliteserien was selected to play in the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League by the Norwegian Football Federation, entering the second qualifying round.[10]
- ^ Wales (WAL): The 2020–21 Welsh Cup was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Wales. As a result, the winners of the UEFA Europa Conference League play-offs of the 2020–21 Cymru Premier was selected to play in the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League by the Football Association of Wales, entering the first qualifying round.[11]
- ^ Malta (MLT): The 2020–21 Maltese Premier League and the 2020–21 Maltese FA Trophy were abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Malta. The second-placed, third-placed and fourth-placed teams of the league at the time of the abandonment, Hibernians, Gżira United and Birkirkara, were selected to play in the 2020–21 UEFA Europa Conference League by the Malta Football Association, entering the first qualifying round.[12]
Schedule
The schedule of the competition is as follows.[13] Matches are scheduled for Thursdays apart from the final, which takes place on a Wednesday, though exceptionally can take place on Tuesdays or Wednesdays due to scheduling conflicts. Scheduled kick-off times starting from the group stage are 18:45 (instead of 18:55 previously) and 21:00 CEST/CET, though exceptionally can take place at 16:30 due to geographical reasons.[14]
All draws are held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, except the group stage draw, at a venue to be confirmed.
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying | First qualifying round | 15 June 2021 | 8 July 2021 | 15 July 2021 |
| Second qualifying round | 16 June 2021 | 22 July 2021 | 29 July 2021 | |
| Third qualifying round | 19 July 2021 | 5 August 2021 | 12 August 2021 | |
| Play-offs | 2 August 2021 | 19 August 2021 | 26 August 2021 | |
| Group stage | Matchday 1 | 27 August 2021 | 16 September 2021 | |
| Matchday 2 | 30 September 2021 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 21 October 2021 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 4 November 2021 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 25 November 2021 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 9 December 2021 | |||
| Knockout phase | Knockout round play-offs | 13 December 2021 | 17 February 2022 | 24 February 2022 |
| Round of 16 | 25 February 2022 | 10 March 2022 | 17 March 2022 | |
| Quarter-finals | 18 March 2022 | 7 April 2022 | 14 April 2022 | |
| Semi-finals | 28 April 2022 | 5 May 2022 | ||
| Final | 25 May 2022 at Arena Kombëtare, Tirana | |||
See also
- 2021–22 UEFA Champions League
- 2021–22 UEFA Europa League
- 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League
- 2021–22 UEFA Youth League
References
- ^ "Tirana to host first UEFA Europa Conference League Final". UEFA. 3 December 2020. Archived from the original on 18 January 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
- ^ "UEFA Europa Conference League: what is it? When does it start? Who's involved?". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 31 October 2019. Archived from the original on 22 August 2020. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
- ^ "UEFA Executive Committee approves new club competition". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 2 December 2018. Archived from the original on 13 May 2019. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
- ^ "Country coefficients 2019/20". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 2020. Archived from the original on 4 December 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
- ^ "Access list 2021–24" (PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 December 2018. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
- ^ "Guidelines on eligibility principles for 2020/21 UEFA Club Competitions – COVID 19" (PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 23 April 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 November 2020. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
- ^ "Keppni hætt". Knattspyrnusamband Íslands. 30 October 2020. Archived from the original on 7 November 2020. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
- ^ "Итоги OLIMPBET-Чемпионата Казахстана сезона-2020". Профессиональная футбольная лига Казахстана. 30 November 2020. Archived from the original on 16 March 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
- ^ "Compétitions nationales de la saison 2020/2021 – nouvelles mesures sanitaires du Gouvernement jusqu'au 15 janvier 2021". Fédération Luxembourgeoise de Football. 13 December 2020. Archived from the original on 24 December 2020. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
- ^ "NM kvinner gjennomføres - NM menn avlyses". Norges Fotballforbund. 10 September 2020. Archived from the original on 1 November 2020. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
- ^ "The JD Welsh Cup has been cancelled for 2020/21 season". Football Association of Wales. 31 March 2021.
- ^ "Malta Football Association Council – Statement". Malta Football Association. 9 April 2021.
- ^ "UEFA Europa Conference League: all you need to know". UEFA. 2 December 2020. Archived from the original on 3 December 2020. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
- ^ "Format change for 2020/21 UEFA Nations League". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 24 September 2019. Archived from the original on 26 September 2019. Retrieved 17 February 2020.