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All You Need to Know About the UEFA Europa Conference

When the 2021/22 football season gets underway, there will be a new competition for us all to watch and learn about. The UEFA Europa Conference is a new, third tier competition created for teams to play in, ranking below the Champions League and Europa League. 

European football has been popular for many years, with fans of the clubs involved, neutrals and those who like to bet and watch games. If you like to use free bets for European football, you now have a new competition to use them on. 

What is the UEFA Europa Conference?

This competition will slot in under the Europa League as being the third ranked competition in Europe. It is designed for teams who play in smaller nations, to give them a chance to play more games in Europe and gain experience that will help them if they do ever reach the Champions League or Europa League.

Nations with a lower ranking will have more open spots for teams to join this competition, with the best nations have just one, though depending on other European qualifications, that could be none. 

What is the Format?

A total of 184 teams will begin in the UEFA Europa Conference, with qualifiers to determine who makes the group stage. 32 teams will make the group stage, 22 from the qualifiers and 10 teams who are knocked out of the Europa League play-off qualifiers to give them the chance to stay in Europe.

Teams will play in eight groups of four. The top in each group qualifies for the last 16 knockout phase, while those finishing second play a play-off round against a third-placed team from the Europa League groups, the winner goes through. 

After this, we have quarter finals, semi finals and lastly the final, with the winner being awarded a spot in the Europa League the following season. 

Who Qualifies from the Premier League?

The EFL Cup winner from the Premier League will qualify for this tournament. However, if the EFL Cup winner has qualified for a higher quality European competition then the position will be passed onto the team who finishes either 6th or 7th in the Premier League. 

There is a situation where no English team will play in the UEFA Europa Conference, if we have an English winner of either the Champions League or Europa League and that team finishes in a Champions League spot via the Premier League. This is certainly something to keep an eye on in the latest sports news, we could see eight English clubs in Europe, but none in this competition.

A Distraction or Competition to Win?

Teams such as Tottenham and Liverpool were behind joining the European Super League recently, and they could face a drop down to the UEFA Europa Conference next season. 

That would be a huge blow, with far less money in this competition, and low quality opposition to create games that will fail to excite fans. Should these teams get into this competition, it will likely be seen more as a distraction, rather than a competition they want to focus on and win.

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