2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League explained

Tourney Name:	UEFA Europa Conference League
Year:	2022–23
Size:	275
Dates:	Qualifying: 5 July – 25 August 2022 Competition proper:
Num Teams:	Competition proper: 32+8 Total: 134+43
Associations:	54
Champion Other:	West Ham United
Count:	1
Second Other:	Fiorentina
Matches:	141
Goals:	379
Top Scorer:	Zeki Amdouni (Basel) Arthur Cabral (Fiorentina) 7 goals each
Player:	^[1]
Young Player:	^[2]
Prevseason:	2021–22
Nextseason:	2023–24

The 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League was the second season of the UEFA Europa Conference League, Europe's tertiary club football tournament organised by UEFA.

The final was played at Fortuna Arena in Prague, Czech Republic.^[3] It was won by West Ham United, who defeated Fiorentina 2–1, and qualified for the 2023–24 UEFA Europa League group stage as a result.^[4]

As the title holders, Roma qualified for the 2022–23 UEFA Europa League. They were unable to defend their title after advancing to the Europa League knockout phase.

Association team allocation

A total of 177 teams from 54 of the 55 UEFA member associations (excluding Russia) participated in the 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:^[5]

• Associations 1–5 each had one team qualify.
• Associations 6–17 (except Russia) and 51–55 each had two teams qualify.
• Associations 18–50 (except Liechtenstein) each had three teams qualify.
• Liechtenstein had one team qualify as they organized only a domestic cup and no domestic league.
• Moreover, 18 teams eliminated from the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League and 25 teams eliminated from the 2022–23 UEFA Europa League were transferred to the Europa Conference League.

Association ranking

For the 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2021 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2016–17 to 2020–21.^[6]

Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Europa Conference League, as noted below:

• – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Champions League
• – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Europa League

Association ranking for 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League

Rank Association Coeff. Teams Notes 1 100.569 align=center rowspan=5 1 2 97.855 3 75.438 4 73.570 5 56.081 6 48.549 align=center rowspan=2 2 7 39.200 8 38.382 0 9 36.500 align=center rowspan=9 2 10 35.825 11 33.375 12 33.100 13 30.100 14 27.875 15 27.750 16 26.750 17 26.600 18 26.275 align=center rowspan=2 3 19 26.225

Rank Association Coeff. Teams Notes 20 26.000 align=center rowspan=13 3 21 24.375 22 21.000 23 20.500 24 20.375 25 18.200 26 16.875 27 15.625 28 15.500 29 15.250 30 15.125 31 14.250 32 13.625 33 9.000 1 34 8.750 align=center rowspan=4 3 35 8.250 36 8.000 37 7.875

Rank Association Coeff. Teams Notes 38 7.625 align=center rowspan=13 3 39 7.375 40 7.375 41 7.250 42 6.958 43 6.875 44 6.875 45 6.875 46 6.375 47 6.125 48 5.833 49 5.666 50 5.000 51 5.000 align=center rowspan=5 2 52 4.875 53 4.750 54 3.331 55 1.166

Distribution

The following was the access list for this season.^[7] In the default access list, the title holders of the Europa Conference League qualified for the Europa League group stage.

Due to the suspension of Russia for the 2022–23 European season, the following changes to the access list were made:

• The cup winners of association 16 (Serbia) enter the Europa League third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round.
• The cup winners of associations 18 (Croatia) and 19 (Switzerland) enter the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round.
• The cup winners of associations 30 to 39 (Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Ireland, North Macedonia and Armenia) enter the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round.

Since several changes were made in the Europa League access list following the qualification of the Europa Conference League title holders to the Europa League group stage, the following changes to the access list were made:

• The cup winners of association 17 (Czech Republic) enter the Europa League third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round.
• The cup winners of association 20 (Greece) enter the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round.
• The cup winners of associations 40 (Latvia) and 41 (Albania) enter the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round.

Moreover, in the default access list, originally 16 losers from the Champions League first qualifying round were transferred to the Europa Conference League second qualifying round (Champions Path). However, since the Champions League title holders, Real Madrid, which were guaranteed a berth in the Champions League group stage, already qualified via their domestic league, only 15 losers from the Champions League first qualifying round were transferred to the Europa Conference League second qualifying round (Champions Path) after the Champions League access list was rebalanced. As a result, only 16 teams entered the Champions Path second qualifying round (two of the losers from the Champions League first qualifying round were drawn to receive byes to the third qualifying round).

Access list for 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League

		Teams entering in this round	Teams advancing from previous round	Teams transferred from Champions League or Europa League
First qualifying round (60 teams)		14 domestic cup winners from associations 42–55 25 domestic league runners-up from associations 30–55 (except Liechtenstein) 21 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 29–50 (except Liechtenstein)
Second qualifying round (106 teams)	Champions Path (16 teams)			3 teams eliminated from Champions League preliminary round 13 teams eliminated from Champions League first qualifying round
	Main Path (90 teams)	21 domestic cup winners from associations 21–41 14 domestic league runners-up from associations 16–29 16 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 13–28 8 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 7–15 (except Russia) 1 domestic league fifth-placed team from association 6	30 winners from the first qualifying round
Third qualifying round (64 teams)	Champions Path (10 teams)		8 winners from the second qualifying round (Champions Path)	2 teams eliminated from Champions League first qualifying round
	Main Path (54 teams)	3 domestic cup winners from associations 18–20 5 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 7–12 (except Russia) 1 domestic league fourth-placed team from association 6	45 winners from the second qualifying round (Main Path)
Play-off round (44 teams)	Champions Path (10 teams)		5 winners from the third qualifying round (Champions Path)	5 teams eliminated from Europa League third qualifying round (Champions Path)
	Main Path (34 teams)	1 domestic league fifth-placed team from association 5 4 domestic league sixth-placed teams from associations 1–4 (EFL Cup winners for England)	27 winners from the third qualifying round (Main Path)	2 teams eliminated from Europa League third qualifying round (Main Path)
Group stage (32 teams)			5 winners from the play-off round (Champions Path) 17 winners from the play-off round (Main Path)	10 teams eliminated from Europa League play-off round
Preliminary knockout round (16 teams)			8 group runners-up from the group stage	8 group third-placed teams from Europa League group stage
Knockout phase (16 teams)			8 group winners from the group stage 8 winners from the preliminary knockout round

Teams

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
• Abd-: League positions of abandoned season as determined by the national association; all teams were subject to approval by UEFA
• 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)

The second qualifying round, third qualifying round and play-off round were divided into Champions Path (CH) and Main Path (MP).

CC: 2022 UEFA club coefficients.^[8]

One team not playing in a national top division will take part in the competition: Vaduz (2nd tier).

Notes

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows. Matches were scheduled for Thursdays apart from the final, which took place on a Wednesday, though exceptionally could take place on Tuesdays or Wednesdays due to scheduling conflicts (especially featuring teams from associations where there were few approved stadiums, such as Gibraltar and Wales). Scheduled kick-off times starting from the group stage were 18:45 and 21:00 CEST/CET, though exceptionally could take place at 16:30 due to geographical reasons.^[9]

As the 2022 FIFA World Cup took place in Qatar between 20 November and 18 December 2022, the group stage commenced in the first week of September 2022 and concluded in the first week of November 2022 to make way for the World Cup.

The draws for the qualifying round were held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[10] The group stage draw took place in Istanbul, Turkey.^[11]

Schedule for 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League^[12]

Phase	Round	Draw date	First leg	Second leg
Qualifying	First qualifying round	14 June 2022	7 July 2022	14 July 2022
	Second qualifying round	15 June 2022	21 July 2022	28 July 2022
	Third qualifying round	18 July 2022	4 August 2022	11 August 2022
Play-offs	Play-off round	2 August 2022	18 August 2022	25 August 2022
Group stage	Matchday 1	26 August 2022	8 September 2022
	Matchday 2		15 September 2022
	Matchday 3		6 October 2022
	Matchday 4		13 October 2022
	Matchday 5		27 October 2022
	Matchday 6		3 November 2022
Knockout phase	Knockout round play-offs	7 November 2022	16 February 2023	23 February 2023
	Round of 16	24 February 2023	9 March 2023	16 March 2023
	Quarter-finals	17 March 2023	13 April 2023	20 April 2023
	Semi-finals		11 May 2023	18 May 2023
	Final		7 June 2023 at Fortuna Arena, Prague

Qualifying rounds

Third qualifying round

Group stage

See main article: 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League group stage.

The draw for the group stage was held on 26 August 2022. The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots, each of eight teams, based on their 2022 UEFA club coefficients (CC).^[13] Teams from the same association and, for political reasons, teams from Serbia and Kosovo could not be drawn into the same group.

All teams besides AZ, Basel, CFR Cluj, Gent, Partizan, Slavia Prague and Slovan Bratislava, who competed in last season's group stage, made their debut appearances in the group stage. Ballkani, Djurgårdens IF, Dnipro-1, Pyunik, RFS, Silkeborg, Slovácko, Vaduz and Žalgiris made their debut appearances in a UEFA competition group stage. Ballkani, Vaduz and Žalgiris were the first teams from Kosovo, Liechtenstein and Lithuania, respectively, to play in a UEFA competition group stage.

A total of 28 national associations were represented in the group stage.

Group H

Knockout phase

See main article: 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League knockout phase.

In the knockout phase, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final.

Final

Statistics

Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.

Top goalscorers

Rank^[14]	Player	Team	Goals	Minutes played
1	Arthur Cabral	Fiorentina	7	704
	Zeki Amdouni	Basel	876
3	Michail Antonio	West Ham United	6	610
	Luka Jović	Fiorentina		649
	Hugo Cuypers	Gent		878
6	Kristoffer Velde	Lech Poznań	5	396
	Gift Orban	Gent		441
	Antonín Barák	Fiorentina		486
	Vangelis Pavlidis	AZ		532
	Artem Dovbyk	Dnipro-1		628
	Jarrod Bowen	West Ham United		744
	Andi Zeqiri	Basel		779
	Nicolás González	Fiorentina		830
	Mikael Ishak	Lech Poznań		943
	Michał Skóraś	Lech Poznań		1040

Team of the Season

The UEFA technical study group selected the following players as the team of the tournament.^[15]

	Player	Team
	Alphonse Areola	West Ham United
	Dan Ndoye	Basel
	Nikola Milenković	Fiorentina
	Nayef Aguerd	West Ham United
	Cristiano Biraghi	Fiorentina
	Andy Diouf	Basel
	Lucas Paquetá	West Ham United
	Declan Rice	West Ham United
	Nicolás González	Fiorentina
	Michail Antonio	West Ham United
	Jarrod Bowen	West Ham United

Player of the Season

• Declan Rice (West Ham United)^[1]

Young Player of the Season

• Andy Diouf (Basel)^[16]

See also

• 2022–23 UEFA Champions League
• 2022–23 UEFA Europa League
• 2022–23 UEFA Women's Champions League
• 2022–23 UEFA Youth League

Notes and References

1. News: 8 June 2023. Declan Rice named UEFA Europa Conference League Player of the Season. 8 June 2023. UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations.
2. News: 8 June 2022. Andy Diouf named UEFA Europa Conference League Young Player of the Season. 8 June 2023. UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations.
3. News: UEFA EURO 2024 match schedule approved . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 10 May 2022 . 10 May 2022.
4. News: UEFA Europa Conference League: what is it? When does it start? Who's involved? . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 31 October 2019 . 21 February 2020 . 22 August 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200822195539/https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/news/0256-0e9a05634e35-236276d37822-1000--uefa-europa-conference-league-what-is-it-when-does-it-start-who/?referrer=%2Fnews%2Fnewsid%3D2629443%2F . live .
5. Web site: Regulations of the UEFA Europa Conference League, 2022/23 Season . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 1 May 2022 . 10 May 2022.
6. Web site: Country coefficients 2020/21 . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 2021 . 16 February 2020 . 4 December 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191204125228/https://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/country/#/yr/2021 . live .
7. Web site: Access list 2021–24 . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 16 February 2020 . 4 December 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181204074949/https://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/uefaorg/General/02/58/61/42/2586142_DOWNLOAD.pdf . live .
8. Web site: Club coefficients 2021/22 . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations .
9. News: Format change for 2020/21 UEFA Nations League . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 24 September 2019 . 17 February 2020 . 26 September 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190926223650/https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/about-uefa/news/newsid=2625412.html . live .
10. News: 2022 European football calendar: Match and draw dates for all UEFA competitions . UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations . 1 January 2022 . 6 January 2022.
11. News: Venues appointed for club competition finals . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 16 July 2021 . 16 July 2021.
12. International match calendar and access list for 2022/23 . UEFA Circular Letter . Union of European Football Associations . 51/2021 . 19 July 2021 . 5 November 2021.
13. Web site: UEFA 5-year Club Ranking 2022. kassiesa.net. Union of European Football Associations. 5 August 2022.
14. Web site: UEFA Europa Conference League – Top Scorers. UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 7 June 2023.
15. News: 2022/23 Europa Conference League Team of the Season. UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 8 June 2023 . 8 June 2023.
16. News: 8 June 2022. Andy Diouf named UEFA Europa Conference League Young Player of the Season. 8 June 2023. UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations.