UEFA Conference League: Dates, venues, history & more

The UEFA Conference League is the most recently introduced of the major tournaments for football clubs across Europe.

Considered as the third-tier of major European tournaments, the Conference League still offers clubs a viable chance to lift a European trophy.

From the 2024/25 competition, the tournament has been renamed to UEFA Conference League from the UEFA Europa Conference League.

UEFA Conference League dates

The League stage of the UEFA Conference League begins with matchday one on 3rd October and concludes with matchday six on 19th December.

The knockout phase runs from February to May, with the final being staged at Wroclaw Stadium, Poland on 28th May, 2025.

UEFA Conference League teams

UEFA Conference League format

The 2024/25 UEFA Conference League adopts a new format from previous iterations and will use a 36-team league stage, while teams will not be able to transfer from the Europa League to the Conference League knockout stage.

The League phase will see each side faces six different teams (three at home, three away), with the top eight overall advancing to the last-16 stage.

Sides finishing from ninth to 24th will contest the knockout round play-offs, with the winners of each tie going through to the last 16.

From this point on, the competition is a straight knockout, with quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final to come.

UEFA Conference League history

After 22 years with just two UEFA competitions, Europe's governing body decided to introduce the Europa Conference League in 2021.

Following the abolishment of the Cup Winners' Cup in 1999, the Champions League and Europa League had been a team's only means of continental competition.

But, deciding clubs needed another route into Europe, UEFA launched the Europa Conference League, which has proven to be a hit amongst teams that would otherwise struggle to win European silverware.

Previously known as Europa League 2 when plans were unveiled for a third club competition in 2018, the Europa Conference League was given its official name in 2019.

The inaugural Europa Conference League took place in the 2021/22 season as part of a new three-year cycle of UEFA club competitions.

Roma won the inaugural competition, their first European trophy of any kind, and 2023 saw West Ham United lift the silverware after overcoming Fiorentina in the competition's showpiece before the latter were then beaten in the 2024 final by Olympiakos.