2024–25 UEFA Conference League explained

Tourney Name:UEFA Conference League
Year:2024–25
Num Teams:Competition proper: 36
Associations:54
Prevseason:2023–24
Nextseason:2025–26

The 2024–25 UEFA Conference League is the fourth season of the UEFA Conference League, Europe's tertiary club football tournament organised by UEFA.

This will be the first UEFA Conference League played under a new format involving a 36-team league stage.[1] The new format also does not allow teams to transfer from the Europa League to the Conference League knockout stage, and thus Conference League winners (Olympiacos in the 2023–24 edition) cannot defend their title as would all future Conference League champions as Conference League champions automatically qualify for the Europa League. From this season, the competition is renamed to UEFA Conference League from the UEFA Europa Conference League.[2]

The final will be played in Stadion Wrocław in Wrocław, Poland.[3] The winners of the tournament will automatically qualify for the 2025–26 UEFA Europa League league stage, unless they qualify for the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League through their league performance. (In which case the access list will be rebalanced).

Association team allocation

A total of 164 teams from 54 of the 55 UEFA member associations are expected to participate in the 2024–25 UEFA Conference League. The association ranking based on the UEFA association coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[4]

Association ranking

For the 2024–25 UEFA Conference League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2023 UEFA association coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2018–19 to 2022–23.[5]

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

Association ranking for 2024–25 UEFA Conference League
RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes
1109.570align=center rowspan=121
292.998
382.481
481.926
561.164
659.900
756.216
842.200
936.400
1034.000
1132.375
1232.100
1331.675align=center rowspan=52
1429.500
1529.050
1629.000
1727.825
1826.2150
1925.4002
RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes
2025.225align=center rowspan=142
2125.000
2224.475
2323.750
2420.750
2520.625
2620.500
2720.000
2819.750
2916.625
3012.625
3112.500
3212.250
3311.041
3411.0001
3510.625align=center rowspan=43
3610.375
3710.250
3810.000
RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes
399.875align=center rowspan=123
409.875
419.750
429.000
438.750
448.583
458.250
468.000
477.582
487.250
496.250
506.166
515.791align=center rowspan=52
525.500
535.165
544.750
551.999

Distribution

The following is the access list for this season.

Teams entering in this roundTeams advancing from previous roundTeams transferred from Champions LeagueTeams transferred from Europa League
First qualifying round
(50 teams)
  • 9 domestic cup winners from associations 47–55
  • 21 domestic league runners-up from associations 34–55 (except Liechtenstein)
  • 20 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 30–50 (except Liechtenstein)
Second qualifying round
(98 teams)		Champions path
(12 teams)
  • 12 teams eliminated from Champions League first qualifying round
League path
(86 teams)
  • 13 domestic cup winners from associations 34–46
  • 17 domestic league runners-up from associations 16–33 (except Russia)
  • 15 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 13–29 (except Russia and title holders)
  • 9 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 7–15
  • 1 domestic league fifth-placed team from association 6
  • 25 winners from the first qualifying round
  • 6 teams eliminated from Europa League first qualifying round
Third qualifying round
(60 teams) 		Champions path
(8 teams)
  • 6 winners from the second qualifying round (Champions path)
  • 2 teams eliminated from Champions League first qualifying round
League path
(52 teams)
  • 43 winners from the second qualifying round (League path)
  • 9 teams eliminated from Europa League second qualifying round
Play-off round
(48 teams)		Champions path
(10 teams)
  • 4 winners from the third qualifying round (Champions path)
  • 6 teams eliminated from Europa League third qualifying round (Champions path)
League path
(38 teams)
  • 5 domestic league sixth-placed teams from associations 1–5 (EFL Cup winners for England)
  • 26 winners from the third qualifying round (League path)
  • 7 teams eliminated from Europa League third qualifying round (League path)
League stage
(36 teams)
  • 5 winners from the play-off round (Champions path)
  • 19 winners from the play-off round (League path)
  • 12 teams eliminated from Europa League play-off round

The information here reflects the ongoing suspension of Russia in European football, and so the following changes to the default access list have been made:

As the Champions League title holders (Real Madrid) qualified for the Champions League via their domestic league's standard berth allocation, the following changes to the default access list have been made:

As the Europa Conference League title holders (Olympiacos) entered the Europa League, the berth they qualified for via league position (Conference League second qualifying round) was vacated, and the following changes to the default access list have been made:

Teams

The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:

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

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

Notes

Schedule

The schedule of the competition is as follows.[6] Matches are scheduled for Thursdays, with an exclusive day of December 19, apart from the final, which takes place on a Wednesday, though exceptionally can take place on Tuesdays or Wednesdays due to scheduling conflicts.[7] [8] [9]

Schedule for 2024–25 UEFA Conference League
PhaseRoundDraw dateFirst legSecond leg
QualifyingFirst qualifying round18 June 202411 July 202418 July 2024
Second qualifying round19 June 202425 July 20241 August 2024
Third qualifying round22 July 20248 August 202415 August 2024
Play-offsPlay-off round5 August 202422 August 202429 August 2024
League phaseMatchday 130 August 20243 October 2024
Matchday 224 October 2024
Matchday 37 November 2024
Matchday 428 November 2024
Matchday 512 December 2024
Matchday 619 December 2024
Knockout phaseKnockout round play-offs20 December 202413 February 202520 February 2025
Round of 1621 February 20256 March 202513 March 2025
Quarter-finals10 April 202517 April 2025
Semi-finals1 May 20258 May 2025
Final28 May 2025 at Stadion Wrocław, Wrocław

Qualifying rounds

Third qualifying round

League phase

The draw, which will determine the pairings for the league phase, will be held on 30 August 2024. The 36 teams will be divided into six pots of six clubs. The pots will be composed according to the club coefficient rankings established at the beginning of the season.[10]

Each team will play six games, three at home and three away, against six different teams (one from each pot). In principle, teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other and each team may play against a maximum of two opponents from any other one association.

width=40%Pot 6width=60%Pot TBD
valign=topvalign=top
  • 5 winners from the play-off round (Champions Path)
  • 18 winners from the play-off round (Main Path)
  • 12 teams eliminated from the Europa League play-off round

Teams ranked 1st–8th qualify directly for the round of 16 in the knockout stage, while the teams ranked 9th–24th compete in a playoff round, with the eight winners advancing to the round of 16. In this playoff round, the teams ranked 9th–16th are seeded. Teams ranked 25th–36th are eliminated from all competitions.

Final

See main article: 2025 UEFA Conference League final.

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2024/25 UEFA Conference League: Matches, final, key dates . UEFA . 30 April 2024 . 5 May 2024.
  2. Web site: 28 June 2023. UEFA Europa Conference League to be renamed UEFA Conference League next season. Union of European Football Associations . 29 June 2023 . UEFA.com . en.
  3. Web site: Athens and Wrocław to stage 2024 and 2025 finals . Union of European Football Associations . 28 June 2023 . 30 June 2023.
  4. Web site: Regulations of the UEFA Conference League, 2024/25 Season. UEFA. Nyon. 2024 . 4 April 2024.
  5. Web site: Association coefficients 2022/23 . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 1 June 2023.
  6. Web site: Europejskie puchary od sezonu 2024/25 – część szczegółów potwierdzona . 10 July 2023 . 11 July 2023 . pl.
  7. Web site: UEFA.com . 2023-10-25 . New format for Champions League post-2024: Everything you need to know UEFA Champions League . 2023-12-11 . UEFA.com . en.
  8. News: Sheldon . Dan . How the new Champions League format works . 2023-12-11 . The Athletic . en.
  9. Web site: 2023-07-10 . More national derby games possible when revamped Champions League starts next year . 2023-12-11 . AP News . en.
  10. News: UEFA Documents – Article 16 Draw system – league phase . UEFA.com . Union of European Football Associations . 1 August 2024 .

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