| Tourney Name: | UEFA Youth League |
| Year: | 2022–23 |
| Size: | 275 |
| Num Teams: | 64 |
| Associations: | 39 |
| Champion Other: | AZ |
| Count: | 1 |
| Second Other: | Hajduk Split |
| Matches: | 167 |
| Goals: | 575 |
| Attendance: | 177367 |
| Top Scorer: | Mexx Meerdink (AZ) 9 goals each |
| Prevseason: | 2021–22 |
| Nextseason: | 2023–24 |
The 2022–23 UEFA Youth League was the ninth season of the UEFA Youth League, a European youth club football competition organised by UEFA.
The title holders were Benfica, who defeated Salzburg 6–0 in the previous season's final. Benfica were eliminated in the group stage, while AZ won their first European title by beating Hajduk Split 5–0 in the final. They became the first Dutch club since Feyenoord in the 2001–02 UEFA Cup to win a European title.
The season saw a sensational campaign by Croatian side Hajduk Split, which managed to knock out sides like Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan to qualify for the final, which took place in Stade de Genève due to the interest by the fans.
A total of 64 teams from 39 of the 55 UEFA member associations entered the tournament. They were split into two sections, each with 32 teams.
Apolonia, Ashdod, Borac Banja Luka, Coleraine, Eintracht Frankfurt, Hibernian, Jelgava, Nantes, Omonia, Pobeda, Pyunik, Racing Union, Rukh Lviv, Shamrock Rovers, Trenčín and Zagłębie Lubin made their tournament debuts. Armenia and Northern Ireland were represented for the first time.
| Rank | Association | Teams | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UEFA Champions League Path | Domestic Champions Path | |||
| 1 | ||||
| 2 | ||||
| 3 | ||||
| 4 | ||||
| 5 | ||||
| 6 | ||||
| 7 | Ajax | |||
| 9 | Club Brugge | |||
| 10 | Red Bull Salzburg [6] | |||
| 11 | ||||
| 12 | Shakhtar Donetsk | |||
| 13 | ||||
| 14 | ||||
| 15 | ||||
| 16 | ||||
| 17 | Viktoria Plzeň | |||
| 18 | Dinamo Zagreb | |||
| 19 | ||||
| 20 | ||||
| 21 | Maccabi Haifa | |||
| 22 | ||||
| 23 | ||||
| 24 | ||||
| 25 | ||||
| 26 | ||||
| 27 | ||||
| 28 | ||||
| 30 | ||||
| 31 | ||||
| 32 | ||||
| 34 | ||||
| 35 | ||||
| 36 | ||||
| 37 | ||||
| 38 | ||||
| 39 | ||||
| 40 | ||||
| 41 | ||||
| 42 | ||||
The schedule of the competition was as follows (all draws were held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).[7]
| UEFA Champions League Path Group stage | Matchday 1 | 25 August 2022 | 6–7 September 2022 | |
| Matchday 2 | 13–14 September 2022 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 4–5 October 2022 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 11–12 October 2022 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 25–26 October 2022 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 1–2 November 2022 | |||
| Domestic Champions Path | First round | 31 August 2022 | 14 September 2022 | 5 October 2022 |
| Second round | 26 October 2022 | 2 November 2022 | ||
| Knockout phase | Play-offs | 8 November 2022 | 7–8 February 2023 | |
| Round of 16 | 13 February 2023 | 28 February 2023 & 1 March | ||
| Quarter-finals | 14–15 March 2023 | |||
| Semi-finals | 21 April 2023 at Stade de Genève, Geneva | |||
| Final | 24 April 2023 at Stade de Genève, Geneva | |||
See main article: 2022–23 UEFA Youth League group stage.
For the UEFA Champions League Path, the 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. There was no separate draw held, with the group compositions identical to the draw for the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League group stage, which was held on 25 August 2022, 18:00 CEST (19:00 TRT), in Istanbul, Turkey.[8]
In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The group winners advanced to the round of 16, while the eight runners-up advanced to the play-offs, where they would be joined by the eight second round winners from the Domestic Champions Path.
See main article: 2022–23 UEFA Youth League Domestic Champions Path.
For the Domestic Champions Path, the 32 teams were drawn into two rounds of two-legged home-and-away ties. The draw for both the first round and second round was held on 31 August 2022.
The eight second round winners advance to the play-offs, where they will join by the eight group runners-up from the UEFA Champions League Path (group stage).
See main article: 2022–23 UEFA Youth League knockout phase.
