2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League

2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League| File:Tirana.jpeg

The **2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League** is the inaugural 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. 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.

This season is 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 UEFA Europa Conference League) organised by UEFA take place.

On 24 June 2021, UEFA approved the proposal to abolish the away goals rule in all UEFA club competitions, which had been used since 1965. Therefore, if in a two-legged tie, two teams score the same amount of aggregate goals, the winner of tie will not be decided by the number of away goals scored by each team, but always by 30 minutes of extra time, and if the two teams score the same amount of goals in extra time, the winner will be decided by a penalty shootout.

## Association team allocation

A total of 181 teams from at least 54 of the 55 UEFA member associations participate in the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League (the possible exception being Spain, although one of their teams may still participate after finishing third in the Europa League group stage). 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.
	+ Association 1 (Spain) do not have any team qualify for this season, as the team which would have participated, Villarreal, won the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League and earned a place in the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League.
* Associations 6–15 and 51–55 each have two teams qualify.
* Associations 16–50 (except Liechtenstein) each have three teams qualify.
	+ As the UEFA Europa Conference League title holders' berth in the UEFA Europa League is vacant this season, association 16 (Cyprus) have their domestic cup winner promoted from the Europa Conference League to the Europa League, so they only have two teams qualify.
* Liechtenstein have one team qualify (Liechtenstein organises only a domestic cup and no domestic league).
* 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.
	+ For this season, only 19 teams eliminated from the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League are transferred, as there is one fewer team competing in the Champions Path qualifying of 2021–22 UEFA Champions 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.

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 to/from the UEFA Champions League
* (UEL) – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Europa League

### Distribution

The following is the access list for this season. In the default access list, the title holders of the Europa Conference League qualify for the Europa League group stage. However, since this berth is vacant this season, the following changes to the access list were made:

* The cup winners of association 16 (Cyprus) enter the Europa League instead of the second qualifying round of the Europa Conference League.
* The cup winners of associations 30 (Slovakia) and 31 (Liechtenstein) enter the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round.

As Villarreal, which otherwise would have qualified for the Europa Conference League play-off round via their domestic league, won the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League, thereby earning an automatic spot in the Champions League group stage as the Europa League title holders, thus vacating a berth in the play-off round. The following changes have been confirmed by UEFA:

* The domestic cup winners of associations 17 (Switzerland) and 18 (Greece) enter the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round.
* The domestic cup winners of associations 32 (Slovenia), 33 (Hungary), 34 (Luxembourg) and 35 (Lithuania) enter the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round.

Moreover, in the default access list, originally 17 losers from the Champions League first qualifying round are transferred to the Europa Conference League second qualifying round (Champions Path). However, since the Champions League title holders, Chelsea, which were guaranteed a berth in the Champions League group stage, already qualified via their domestic league, only 16 losers from the Champions League first qualifying round are transferred to the Europa Conference League second qualifying round (Champions Path) after the Champions League access list was rebalanced. As a result, only 19 teams enter the Champions Path second qualifying round (one of the losers from the Champions League first qualifying round is drawn to receive a bye to the third qualifying 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
* 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.

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

*CC: 2021 UEFA club coefficients.*

Three teams not playing a national top division take part in the competition: Gagra (2nd tier), Sileks (2nd tier) and Vaduz (2nd tier).

## Schedule

The schedule of the competition is as follows. 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 (especially featuring teams from countries where there are very few sufficient stadiums, such as Gibraltar and Wales). 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.

All draws start at 13:00 or 14:00 CEST/CET and are held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. On 16 July 2021, UEFA announced that the group stage draw will be held in Istanbul, Turkey.

## Qualifying rounds

Main article: 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League qualifying phase and play-off round

### First qualifying round

The draw for the first qualifying round was held on 15 June 2021, 13:30 CEST. The first legs were played on 6 and 8 July, and the second legs were played on 13 and 15 July.

The winners of the ties advanced to the Main Path second qualifying round. The losers were eliminated and will not compete in another European tie for the rest of the season.

### Second qualifying round

The draw for the second qualifying round was held on 16 June 2021, 13:30 CEST. The first legs were played on 20, 21 and 22 July, and the second legs on 27 and 29 July.

The winners of the ties will advance to the third qualifying round. The losers will be eliminated.

### Third qualifying round

The first legs were played on 3 and 5 August, and the second legs were played on 10 and 12 August.

The winners of the ties will advance to the play-off round of their respective path. The losers will be eliminated from European competitions for the season.

### Play-off round

The draw for the play-off round will be held on 2 August 2021, 14:00 CEST. The first legs will be played on 19 August, and the second legs on 26 August.

The winners of the ties will advance to the group stage. The losers will be eliminated from European competitions for the season.

## Group stage

Main article: 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League group stage
The draw for the group stage was held on 27 August 2021, 13:30 CEST (14:30 TRT), in Istanbul, Turkey. 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 2021 UEFA club coefficients. Teams from the same association, and due to political reasons, teams from Azerbaijan and Armenia, could not be drawn into the same group. Prior to the draw, UEFA formed pairings of teams from the same association, including those playing in the Europa League group stage (one pairing for associations with two or three teams, two pairings for associations with four or five teams), based on television audiences, where one team was drawn into Groups A–D and another team was drawn into Groups E–H, so that the two teams would have different kick-off times.

The matches will be played on 14 and 16 September, 30 September, 21 October, 4 November, 25 November, and 9 December 2021. The winners of each group will advance to the round of 16, while the runners-up will advance to the knockout round play-offs. The third-placed and fourth-placed teams will be eliminated from European competitions for the season.

Alashkert, Bodø/Glimt, Flora, Kairat, Lincoln Red Imps, Mura, Randers and Union Berlin made their debut appearances in a UEFA competition group stage. Alashkert, Flora and Lincoln Red Imps are the first teams from Armenia, Estonia and Gibraltar, respectively, to play in a UEFA competition group stage.

## Knockout phase

Main article: 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League knockout phase

In the knockout phase, teams play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final.The mechanism of the draws for each round is as follows:

* In the draw for the knockout round play-offs, the eight group runners-up were seeded, and the eight Europa League group third-placed teams were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other. Since the identity of the Group G runners-up was not known at the time of the draw (due to the match between Tottenham Hotspur and Rennes not played as scheduled), and could be either Tottenham Hotspur or Vitesse, they could not be drawn against Leicester City or PSV Eindhoven.
* In the draw for the round of 16, the eight group winners are seeded, and the eight winners of the knockout round play-offs are unseeded. The seeded teams are drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other.
* In the draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals, there are no seedings, and teams from the same association can be drawn against each other. As the draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals are held together before the quarter-finals are played, the identity of the quarter-final winners is not known at the time of the semi-final draw. A draw is also held to determine which semi-final winner is designated as the "home" team for the final (for administrative purposes as it is played at a neutral venue).

### Knockout round play-offs

The draw for the knockout round play-offs was held on 13 December 2021, 14:00 CET. The first legs will be played on 17 February, and the second legs will be played on 24 February 2022.

### Round of 16

The draw for the round of 16 was held on 25 February 2022, 13:00 CET.

### Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 18 March 2022, 13:30 CET.

### Semi-finals

The draw for the semi-finals was held on 18 March 2022, 15:00 CET, after the quarter-final draw.

### Final

Main article: 2022 UEFA Europa Conference League Final

The final was played on 25 May 2022 at the Arena Kombëtare in Tirana. A draw was held on 18 March 2022, after the quarter-final and semi-final draws, to determine the "home" team for administrative purposes.

## See also

* 2021–22 UEFA Champions League
* 2021–22 UEFA Europa League
* 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League

## External links

* Official website

Andorra ·
Armenia ·
Austria ·
Azerbaijan ·
Belarus '21 '22 ·
Belgium ·
Bosnia and Herzegovina ·
Bulgaria ·
Croatia ·
Cyprus ·
Czech Republic ·
Denmark ·
England ·
Estonia '21 '22 ·
Faroe Islands '21 '22 ·
Finland '21 '22 ·
France ·
Georgia '21 '22 ·
Germany ·
Gibraltar ·
Greece ·
Hungary ·
Iceland '21 '22 ·
Israel ·
Italy ·
Kazakhstan '21 '22 ·
Kosovo ·
Latvia '21 '22 ·
Lithuania '21 '22 ·
Luxembourg ·
Malta ·
Moldova ·
Montenegro ·
Netherlands ·
North Macedonia ·
Northern Ireland ·
Norway '21 '22 ·
Poland ·
Portugal ·
Republic of Ireland '21 '22 ·
Romania ·
Russia ·
San Marino ·
Scotland ·
Serbia ·
Slovakia ·
Slovenia ·
Spain ·
Sweden '21 '22 ·
Switzerland ·
Turkey ·
Ukraine ·
Andorra ·
Armenia ·
Austria ·
Azerbaijan ·
Belarus ·
Belgium ·
Bosnia and Herzegovina ·
Bulgaria ·
Croatia ·
Cyprus ·
Czech Republic ·
Denmark ·
England ·
Estonia ·
Faroe Islands '21 '22 ·
Finland '21 '22 ·
France ·
Georgia '21 '22 ·
Germany ·
Gibraltar ·
Greece ·
Hungary ·
Iceland '21 '22 ·
Israel ·
Italy ·
Kazakhstan '21 '22 ·
Kosovo ·
Latvia '21 '22 ·
Liechtenstein ·
Lithuania '21 '22 ·
Luxembourg ·
Malta ·
Moldova ·
Montenegro ·
Netherlands ·
North Macedonia ·
Northern Ireland ·
Norway ·
Poland ·
Portugal ·
Republic of Ireland '21 '22 ·
Romania ·
Russia ·
San Marino ·
Scotland ·
Serbia ·
Slovakia ·
Slovenia ·
Spain ·
Sweden ·
Switzerland ·
Turkey ·
Ukraine ·
Iceland ·
Israel ·
Northern Ireland ·
Portugal ·
Republic of Ireland '22 ·
Scotland ·
Andorra ·
Armenia ·
Azerbaijan ·
Belarus ·
Belgium ·
Bulgaria ·
Croatia ·
Cyprus ·
England ·
Estonia ·
Faroe Islands ·
France ·
Georgia ·
Germany ·
Iceland ·
Israel ·
Italy ·
Kazakhstan ·
Kosovo ·
Lithuania ·
Malta ·
Netherlands ·
Northern Ireland ·
Poland ·
Portugal ·
Republic of Ireland '21 '22 ·
Romania ·
Russia ·
San Marino ·
Spain ·
Turkey ·